Stefani LiDestri

Co-CEO, LiDestri Food & Drink

LiDestri has been co-CEO of the Fairport-based food and drink manufacturer for two years with her brother, John, following in the footsteps of their father, Giovanni. She had been co-president of the company since 2016.

Stefani LiDestri has helped lead the company through the pandemic, as LiDestri Food & Drink was a finalist in the COVID innovation category of RBJ’s Technology & Manufacturing Awards in 2020 after shifting manufacturing lines to produce hand sanitizer early in the pandemic.

LiDestri Food & Drink — which donated $1 million in hand sanitizer to school districts, medical facilities, first responders and cultural groups — grew during the pandemic while establishing internal task forces and made immediate changes in the facility to ensure a safe workplace.

Stefani LiDestri, who received the RBJ’s Women of Excellence award in 2019, pushed the company’s focus to include sales and marketing along with manufacturing.

“Yes, we still manufacture many different things every day,” LiDestri told the RBJ, “but it was important to me to expand our marketing and sales departments in a deep way so they could meld into the operations side of the business, and eventually we could be recognized as a world-class organization.”

This profile is part of Rochester Business Journal's Power 100 list for 2022. Information used in this profile was sourced from the honoree. View the full list at rbj.net.