Jeri finard biography

By Mary Shustack

Photographs by Bob Rozycki and courtesy Godiva Chocolatier Inc.

There’s a sweet sense of fate in Jeri Finard becoming president of Godiva North America.

The Larchmont woman smiles as she shares a bit of personal history on a recent afternoon in her Manhattan office.

And it’s a history that underscores the charming element of kismet underlying years of hard work that brought her, this past August, to a top executive post in the premium chocolate company known around the world.

“Honestly, I feel like it was destiny for me,” she says.

“Growing up, my father actually worked for a chocolate factory.”

Finard, born on the South Side of Chicago and raised in Philadelphia, says she even had her first job at the now-defunct Pennsylvania chocolate company.

“When I say I was practically weaned on chocolate, I was weaned on chocolate,” she says.

It makes the post with Godiva Chocolatier Inc.

especially rewarding for Finard, who candidly shares “I never go a day without c