Clint Briske
Site Director | Nature’s Bakery
In July 2025, Mars Incorporated opened its Nature’s Bakery facility in Salt Lake City, a $240 million investment. Clint Briske became the site director for the new facility, which is expected to produce 1 billion granola bars in its first year.
When asked what the biggest lesson was that prepared him for the largest project of his career, Clint Briske answered that “great manufacturing is really about people. You can have the best equipment in the world, but it is the team behind it that determines your success.”
As site director at the newly opened 339,000-square-foot Nature’s Bakery granola bar production facility, Briske left fingerprints all over every step of the process: from laying out the initial plans for the bakery, to producing the first of more than 1 billion granola bars it will make in its first year.
“My role was to help guide the process in partnership with local leaders,” Briske says. One of his main responsibilities was “ensuring we had the resources and collaboration needed to get the facility ready for start-up.”
Briske’s seasoned career in manufacturing spanning 21 years — including 13 years with Mars, the parent company of Nature’s Bakery — was essential preparation for opening such a large facility. Briske says. “Those experiences, whether leading teams, ramping up operations or building strong relationships with local communities, prepared me well for a project of this scale.”
Briske recalls how rewarding it was to see the bakery come to life step by step. “The most exciting part of this project has been watching the vision turn into reality, seeing the building go from plans on paper to a state-of-the-art baking facility that will help Nature’s Bakery grow for years to come,” he says.
The new facility will not only bring growth to Nature’s Bakery — helping the company more than double in size from what it was five years ago — but also to the nearby community. The bakery is expected to create 230 jobs in the Salt Lake City area, which Briske says Nature’s Bakery selected because of Utah’s “strong workforce, excellent logistics and shared values between the community and our company.”
To Briske, the success of the bakery relies on the strength of the entire team running it. As he describes it, one of his most important responsibilities as site director is “recruiting a stellar leadership team, because bringing the right people together early on is essential to shaping the culture, momentum and operational excellence we envisioned for this site.”
While he cultivates a positive culture through the people he recruits, Briske also endeavours to contribute directly to this environment himself. Just before Thanksgiving, he handed out vouchers for turkeys to bakery employees while dressed in an inflatable turkey costume. He admits in a LinkedIn post that “a few dance moves may have happened, and I may have earned the nickname ‘Twerky Turkey.’”
Whether in a turkey costume or not, Briske takes the greatest pride in seeing what his team has accomplished so far. “A strong team is built on trust and transparency, creating a safe space where different perspectives spark new ideas and improve collaboration. When team members support one another, everyone stays aligned and moving toward a shared goal,” he says. “Opening a facility of this scale is absolutely a milestone in my career, but what I am most proud of is the team behind it.”