Mr. Antonelli joined the American Flatbread Co. in April 2019 and currently serves in an Executive Leadership role focusing on top line sales growth. From 2009 to 2019 Mr. Antonelli served as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of Galaxy Nutritional Foods. A successful sale of Galaxy Nutritional Foods was executed in January 2018 to Greenspace Brands. Previously, he was Executive Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and President of Distribution for United Natural Foods from December 2005 to August 2008. Mr. Antonelli served as a member of the Board of Directors at United Natural Foods from December 2003 to August 2008. The majority of his professional career was dedicated to United Natural Foods (Nasdaq: UNFI), the nation’s largest natural products distributor at over $20 billion in annual sales, serving as President of both Eastern and Western Regions, Director of Sales since its inception from 1996 through 2001 and Director of Sales for Cornucopia Natural Foods, the Company’s predecessor, from 1985 through 1996. From 1982 through 1985, Mr. Antonelli was Director of Operations for Harvest Provision, a division of Bread and Circus that was acquired by Cornucopia Natural Foods in 1985. From 2001 to 2002, Mr. Antonelli was President of Fairfield Farms Kitchens, a Massachusetts-based custom-food manufacturer where Mr. Antonelli’s responsibilities included oversight of a 250,000 square foot manufacturing facility, the acquisition and integration of an integrated food company and the development and launch of three new organic product lines. Mr. Antonelli has served on the Board of Directors of Zevia Beverage Company, the Natural Cooperative Grocers Association, Mary’s Gone Crackers, New England Natural Bakers, Healthy Living Markets, Homefree Brands, and UNFI.

As a consultant since 1998, Bob Burke provides assistance in bringing natural, organic and specialty products to market across most classes of trade. This includes work in growth strategies, writing sales and business plans, budgeting, pricing, building distribution, broker selection and management, organizational development, strategic options, financing, branding, trade spending management and assistance around M&A, due diligence and venture strategy groups. He is also the co-author and co-publisher of the Natural Products Field Manual, Ninth Edition. Prior to consulting, Bob was with Stonyfield Farm Yogurt for 11 years as Vice President, Sales & Corporate Development and Vice President, Marketing & Sales. He has held marketing positions with Colombo, Inc. and Sperry Top-Sider. He received an MBA from Babson College.

Sample Clients: Have had the privilege of working with and learning from exciting companies such as: Annie’s Homegrown, Oregon Chai, Snyder’s of Hanover, UNFI, Kraft Foods, Bayer Consumer Care Division, ConAgra, Kellogg’s, General Mills, Stacy’s Pita Chips, Kettle Cuisine, Small Planet Foods, New Hope Natural Media, Bushes Beans, Equal Exchange, Stirrings, Immaculate Baking, Dr. Bronner’s Magic Soaps, Dancing Deer Bakery, Rice Select, PMO Wildwood, S.C. Johnson, Blake’s All Natural Foods, Megafood, Mighty Leaf Tea, Theo Chocolate, The Jane Goodall Institute, Kashi, Project 7, Vermont Creamery, Bord Bia, Tea Forte, Orgain, Tofurky, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Bausch + Lomb, Boehringer Ingleheim, Harbar LLC, Rhino Foods, The ProBar, Hail Merry, Mamma Chia, Heel USA, Nature’s Path, Pfizer, Dave’s Gourmet, Sopexa USA, New Zealand Trade & Enterprise, Bob’s Red Mill, New England Natural Bakers, Quantum Health, Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, Califia Farms, Taza Chocolate, Integria, NutPods, Glanbia Ingredients, Valio, Fazer Chocolate, Cali’Flour, Curaleaf CBD, Fora Foods,  Mason Dixie Biscuit, Vive Organics, and others.

He currently serves as an outside director for EcoFish, Saffron Road, All Terrain, Uncle Matt’s Organic, Cali’flour Foods and King Arthur Baking, where he also serves as board chair. He serves on the advisory boards of Noops, Wildgood, and Maine Crisp Co. He is a former director of Stonyfield Organic, Orgain, Equal Exchange, Stirrings LLC, Pulmuone-Wildwood, Nutrabella, Farmwise, MegaFood, and the Specialty Food Association.

He also serves on the Editorial Advisory Board of Nutrition Business Journal and he is the co-founder of the GENA Group, a share group of leading natural and organic manufacturers. He serves as a Beachhead Advisor with New Zealand Trade & Enterprise and works in a similar capacity with Bord Bia, Business Finland, Business Sweden, the Quebec Delegation and various Canadian Consulates in the US. He serves on Industry Working Group, Education and Preparedness of the Specialty Food Association. He is a member of The Angel Group. He is on the board of the non-profit Hirshberg Entrepreneurship Institute. He is also on the board of advisors of the Boy’s and Girl’s Club of Lawrence, Massachusetts.

Also serves as a volunteer mentor with Project Place in Boston, Santander Bank’s Cultivate Small Business Program, The Shift Fellowship, Emerge Network and Naturally Boulder.

Bob was named one of the “Top 25 Business Builders of the Natural Products Industry for the last 25 years” by Natural Foods Merchandiser Magazine. He was also named an inaugural Senior Fellow at Food Sol, within the Lewis Institute at Babson College.

He has been qualified as an expert witness in federal court on the subject of the sales and marketing of natural, organic and specialty products.

Bob has delivered presentations, seminars and moderated panels at leading trade shows and conferences such as Natural Products Expo East & West, The Specialty Food Association’s Winter and Summer Fancy Food Shows, Naturally Good Business Summit in Sydney, Natural Good Expo trade show in Sydney, Australia, Nutrition Capital Network, International Keynote speaker at Innovest in Auckland, New Zealand, Natural Products Europe in London, Bord Bia in Dublin, Canadian Consulates in Boston and Chicago, Quebec Delegation in Boston, Agrifood Trade Services in Nova Scotia, Saskatoon and Quebec, the CHFA Expo East in Toronto, BevNet Live, Project NOSH and their Boot Camps in New York and Santa Monica, the Global Access Advisors conference in Melbourne, Australia, the National Health Store Conference in London, and New Zealand Trade & Enterprise educational programs throughout New Zealand. He is also a presenter and panelist at the Hirshberg Entrepreneurial Institute Boot Camp in Auckland and Boulder. He authored the Specialty Food Association’s White Paper on Trade Promotion. Also interviewed on the Product Launch Rebel Podcast and the BevNet’s Taste Radio Podcast both found on iTunes.

He also runs full day seminars and networking events on “Becoming a more Effective Sales Manager in the Natural and Specialty Channel” and “Financing your Natural and Specialty Products Company”. For complete info, please visit www.naturalconsulting.com.

Bob lives in Andover, MA with his wife, Kathy and four children: Conor, Caitlin, Devin and Rory spoiled dog.

Managing Partner, GrowthWays Partners, LLC

Michael Bush founded GrowthWays Partners to provide strategic advisory services to investors, management teams and related stakeholders to optimize the enterprise value of companies in the natural products industry.

Michael has more than 25 years of experience leading venture-backed businesses in the natural products, healthcare and bioinformatics industries. As president and CEO of probiotic innovator Ganeden, Michael grew the market of the company’s patented ingredient to over 65 countries and more than 1,000 SKUS, culminating with the 2017 merger with Kerry, Inc.  Additionally, he founded a national business growth consultancy firm, co-founded a national biomedical services firm and led acquisitions and merger activities for a global medical services company.

Bush has received numerous awards for his business leadership, including Crain’s Cleveland Business 40 Most Influential People Under 40, four-time Weatherhead 100 winner as well as multiple innovation awards.

Michael is a board member for several for and not-for-profit organizations, including Executive Board President of the International Probiotics Association (IPA). Michael is passionate about the natural products industry and speaks frequently at industry events including BevNet, Natural Products Expo and Supply Side. He holds degrees in Biomedical Technology and Business Administration.

Robert U. Craven, CEO Findaway Ventures

As a purpose-driven CEO, Robert Craven is well-known for building award-winning, high integrity products, brands and businesses and for being deeply focused on making a difference in the lives of other people.

He served as the CEO of MegaFood from 2011 through 2018. During a period in which the company tripled its sales, Robert also earned a reputation as a master builder of exceptional corporate culture, leading MegaFood to B Corp status and to the ‘Top 20 Best Companies to Work For in New Hampshire.’

He was voted one of the ‘Top Conscious Business Leaders’ of 2018 by Conscious Company Media. In 2014, the Nutrition Business Journal awarded him its Business Achievement Award for Management after he successfully led MegaFood’s sale to Pharmavite.

Prior to becoming CEO of MegaFood, Robert partnered with natural products industry pioneer Jethren Phillips, founder of Spectrum Organic Products, to successfully build a high-growth organic ingredients business. Earlier in his career, Robert was the CEO of whole food supplement company Garden of Life. During his tenure, Garden of Life was recognized with the Nutrition Business Journal’s Gold Award for growth in mid-size companies for ‘03 and ’04, and was #14 on the 2005 Inc. 500 list of Fastest Growing Private Companies. He has also worked for The Hackett Group, Boston Scientific and Procter & Gamble.

Robert is the CEO of Findaway Adventures; the company exists to improve the world by providing more opportunity for young, change-the-world companies and their founders. They bring money, strategy, and retail expertise to help accelerate young, impactful, consumer packaged goods companies. The company takes equity stakes in partner companies, helping them bridge the gap between friends & family money and next level capital.

You can follow Robert’s journey as he blogs regularly on medium.com/@RobertUCraven and shares extensively on Twitter, @RobertUCraven.

President – Client Growth Solutions, SPINS

Anu Goel is Executive Vice President at SPINS, the single source for cross-channel retail analytics, consulting services, digital solutions, and health & wellness expertise for the Natural, Organic, and Specialty Products Industries. In this role, Anu leads SPINS’ consulting practice, consumer insights team, and financial partners group.

Prior to joining SPINS, Anu held leadership positions at Brand Equity Ventures, McKinsey & Company, and Beam, Inc. He has over 20 years’ experience building winning strategies that help brands and retailers succeed. He holds Bachelor’s degrees in economics and engineering from The University of Pennsylvania and a Master’s of Business Administration from Harvard Business School

Better-for-You Founder | Operator | Investor

Greg Fleishman starts, nurtures, & funds Better-for-You Consumer Packaged Goods, Tech, & Marketplace Brands that help make the world healthier as a founder, operator, and investor with multiple 9-figure exits

Co-Founder @foodstirs with actress Sarah Michelle Gellar | Co-Founder @uptogoodenergy | Co-Founder @eatunion | Co-Founder of Modern Alkeme with Larry Praeger, Jules Wainstein & musician Chloe Flower

Co-Founder @purelyrighteous, a top venture studio focused on assisting BFY consumer brands incubate, accelerator and scale seamlessly

Board Director for Lily’s Sweets (exited to Hershey’s June 2021), Once Upon a Farm with Jennifer Garner & lead architect, 4th & Heart Ghee, Nuun Hydration (exited to Nestle June 2021), Fairseed, Mr. Beast, & Demeter Biodynamic Farming USA, Naturally LA of Naturally Network

Co-Founder & General Partner, Good Alpha Industries VC | Venture Partner, Springdale Ventures | Operating Partner, Cambridge SPG VC | Stiching Crew Member, Whipstitch Capital Investment Bank and Angel/LP Investor in impact/ESG brands and funds.

Prior career highlights include serving as CMO/GM for Sambazon; CMO/GM for Coca-Cola’s FUZE & Energy portfolio; Senior executive at Kashi under private-ownership & exit to Kelloggs + led aquisiton of Bear Naked & Stretch Island Fruit Co.

Named Forbes Top Consumer Catalyst | Co-Founded Fata & Fleishman CPG Mentorship, a free support platform for early-stage entrepreneurs & investors.

Principal, Campo Verde Solutions

Kim is the founder of Campo Verde Solutions, a consulting firm to the organic and natural food industry with a primary focus on private label programs. In this role Kim provides expertise in product development, growing innovative private label programs, sales management, marketing, and packaging.

Kim has over 20 years of product development and private label expertise honing her craft in companies such as Trader Joe’s (nearly 17 years) and Whole Foods (4 years). As the Coordinator of Buying at Trader Joe’s, she opened Trader Joe’s East resourcing all perishable items from local East Coast Vendors. At Whole Foods, she introduced hundreds of items to help Whole Foods expand their natural and organic private label set into unique, value-added items. Her expertise for developing innovative and unique private label programs and staying on top of product development trends have gained her respect in the retail food industry.

Among her skills are product sourcing, pricing negotiations, logistics, regulatory issues, marketing, packaging, and many other aspects surrounding development of products and programs. She is fluent in French and Spanish. Kim holds an AB degree from Occidental College, an MBA in marketing from CSULA, and has experience in both the North American and international food industry arenas. Kim is a dedicated “foodie” who makes food her work and her hobby!

She resides with her family in the Boston area.

Fred Hart is Partner & Creative Director at Interact Brands – an entrepreneurial branding and packaging design firm ushering in the changing of the guards in CPG. Fred and his team work with magnetic founders and strategic brand managers alike, and have built two agency-owned brands, truly practicing what they preach. Clients include challenger brands like KOIA, Vive Organic & Hodo, industry leaders like Niman Ranch, Dogfish Head & Country Archer along with brand stewardship work for a number of Fortune 500 food companies, including the recent rebrand of HotPockets. When Fred’s not walking through grocery stores like they’re art museums, he’s actively exploring cities on foot, collecting sneakers and constantly on the hunt for the world’s best donut. And it’s Bluestar. Bluestar is the world’s best donut.

Allison LaGuardia is Founder and President of ALL Media LLC a Woman Owned Advertising Media Strategy, Planning and Buying firm specializing in small to mid-size consumer brands. Prior to starting her own agency in 2014, Allison spent 10 years as Vice President of Women’s Marketing (a traditional advertising agency) where she spearheaded the company’s entry into the private equity consumer products sector. Some brands she worked with include Urban Decay, Donald Pliner and Ippolita (Castanea Partners), Paige Denim, Rebecca Minkoff and ELF Cosmetics (TSG Consumer Partners), Supergoop (Encore Consumer; now Blackstone), Babo Botanicals (Cult Capital) and Clio Brands (Yellow Wood Partners) to name a few.

Allison brings a value proposition to her clients by being completely media agnostic and developing smart, affordable and scalable media strategies to outsmart, outpace and overdeliver results ahead of their competition who can outspend them.

When Allison takes time to recharge and relax from her never-ending quest to discover new brands, she spends time with her husband, three children, two dogs and five chickens (“won” in her daughter’s science class) in Connecticut.

Tara Levine is a global business leader and board member with a 25-year track record of successfully leading businesses through inflection points. She is a results-oriented executive who has overseen global and North American brands from $2B to $200M at Gillette/P&G, Ocean Spray and Converse/Nike, achieving top-line growth and bottom-line improvement. Her expertise is guiding businesses through accelerations and turnarounds, creating and implementing plans that fulfill market and business needs.

She is currently the President of Mayfield Advisory, working with CPG businesses to create the strategies and go-to-market plans to scale their brands. She previously was the Chief Growth Officer for Inari, where she led the commercial expansion and brand development efforts of the agriculture technology business. Tara also served as GM, North America & Vice President at Converse/Nike where she helped to deliver significant revenue improvement.

She held multiple leadership roles at Ocean Spray, including as Managing Director, Europe, Middle East, Africa based in London, where she led this $200M business, diversifying categories, channels and markets to deliver long term growth. She also served as VP, Corporate Strategy and M&A at Ocean Spray. While at Gillette and P&G, she led numerous brands, developing new Gillette branding and created the company’s highest-scoring ad campaign. She was the founding Director of Research and Advisory Services at Catalyst, a think tank advancing women in business, creating their consulting business, and writing the book, “Creating Women’s Networks.”

She serves as a board member for Repsly, Grapery and the Massachusetts Women’s Forum, and holds an MBA from Harvard University and a BA from Brown University. She lives in Boston with her husband and two sons.

CEO, The Tecnica Group

Chris Licata is the CEO of The Tecnica Group, the West Lebanon, NH-based US subsidiary distributing the winter sports and outdoor brands Nordica, Tecnica, Blizzard, and Rollerblade. Prior to joining The Tecnica Group, Chris was the President & CEO of Blake’s All Natural Foods, a Concord, NH-based Organic and Natural food manufacturer. Chris became CEO of Blake’s in 2006 and grew the business from a small, regional New England brand to a national brand selling to more than 10,000 retailers in 50 states. Under Chris’s leadership, Blake’s earned consistent recognition as the fastest-growing brand in the Natural Foods category. The growth and success of Blake’s ultimately led to the acquisition of Blake’s by ConAgra Foods, one of the largest food companies in the world. In 2014, Chris was named the NH Small Business Person of the Year by The United States Small Business Administration.

Prior to joining Blake’s, Chris spent his previous 20 years in the ski, outdoor, and action sports industry, holding several leadership positions such as President of Tecnica/Blizzard, President of Dynastar/Lange/Look, and Vice President of Salomon North America. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of the Snowsports Industries of America, the ski and snowboard industry’s governing body.

Chris holds a bachelor’s degree in Management from Western New England University, where he was a four-year member of the varsity lacrosse team.  In his free time Chris is an avid and mildly obsessive skier, snowboarder, and year-round surfer.  He is a Leadership Coach with Velocity Performance and Victory Academy, organizations focused on working with college athletes and athletic directors to build the next generation of leaders. He is also an active board member to several other companies and enjoys working with other entrepreneurs as they scale their businesses. Chris is also involved in the lacrosse community, serving as a founding member, director and coach of the Hopkinton Lacrosse Club. He is also a coach with the New Hampshire Tomahawks, an elite showcase and development lacrosse program.

Chris lives in Hopkinton, NH with his wife Amy and his daughters Blake and Lucy.

Jill McIntosh currently serves as CEO of JVM Ventures, LLC , Director on the Board of Whisps Acquisition Corp., and as Senior Consultant at Simpactful.

Jill served as an executive for The Kroger Co. from 2003 to 2019. While at Kroger she held numerous and diverse leadership positions for the company. Her most recent assignment as Vice President, Digital was launching Kroger’s first international endeavor, offering Kroger’s brands on Alibaba’s Tmall Global platform. Before that she was Vice President of Natural Foods Merchandising where she was responsible for sales of Simple Truth and National Brands of natural and organic products throughout the Kroger family of stores. Before that position, she held the position of Vice President , Human Resources for Fred Meyer Stores, the largest division of Kroger located in Portland, Oregon. Before that she held the position of Senior Director of Human Resources & Labor Relations for Kroger Corporate Brands & Manufacturing at General Office in Cincinnati.  Before that she was Head of Money Services for Kroger Personal Finance, a financial services joint venture that she helped launch when she was Corporate Counsel.  Jill joined Kroger in 2003 when she accepted her role in the law department.  As Corporate Counsel she had legal responsibilities for several business units  and retail divisions which led to opportunities outside the law department.  Prior to joining Kroger she was a corporate attorney at Keating, Muething and Klekamp (Cincinnati) and Fuller and Henry (Toledo).

Jill currently serves as Executive Co-Chair of the Cincinnati Chapter of Network of Executive Women, and on the Board of Directors for Xavier University, Williams College of Business, Food Advisory Board for MidOcean Partners and ProKids of Hamilton County (court appointed special advocates). Jill has also served as a board member of the YWCA of Greater Portland, BRIDGES for a Just Community (Cincinnati), Southwest Ohio Chapter of the Association of Corporate Counsel (Cincinnati), and Vice Chair of the Corporate Counsel Committee of the Cincinnati Bar.

Jill was recognized as a Top Woman in Grocery, Senior Level Executive by Progressive Grocer and as a Women of Influence in the Food Industry by Shelby Publishing Co. and its Griffin Report of the Northeast publication. Jill also received an Emerging Business Award from Lead Magazine for leading the tremendous growth of Kroger’s Natural Foods. Jill has spoken at numerous industry events including Network of Executive Women, Expo West -New Hope Media, BevNET and guest speaker on the Dr. Oz Show. She was the visionary of Kroger Town Hall at Expo West, First Pitch for Emerging Brands, Kroger Natural Foods Innovation Summits and introduced the concept of Kroger Wellness Your Way Festival.

Matthew is a consultant and advisor to start ups and venture capital firms, both traditional and corporate.  He specializes in an ability to merge the strategic thinking linked to consumer insights with  the structuring and deal negotiating of capital required to deliver growth.  His work provides thinking on portfolio strategy, fund raising, exit strategies, and alliance/partnership management. A key element weaving this work together is narrative and effective communications of purpose and strategic direction.

His experience is based on a long term international career with the Coca-Cola Company.  While there, he worked in over 20 countries via diverse roles in M&A, Corporate Strategy, R&D and Finance. Most recently as SVP of Emerging Growth, he created, founded and lead a team of associates in Japan responsible for delivering new disruptive growth via partnerships, M&A and new brand development.  During this 2+ year assignment, his internal entrepreneurial and business development teams created and commercialized a powerful pipeline of emerging platforms including non-alcoholic beer, home brewed coffee, drinkable soups, and chilled non-dairy products; achieving a number of “firsts” for the highly competitive innovation market in Japan.

His connection to the U.S. entrepreneurial community was forged as a founding team member of the Coca-Cola VEB organization. This break through team was responsible for delivering the next $1 billion business to Coca-Cola North America (CCNA) by investing in start up beverage companies, partnering with them to foster further growth, and acquiring them based on successfully achieving specific financial and strategic milestones.  Matthew was the VP of Strategy and Venturing, identifying and leading over 41 investments over a 10 year period, including Honest Tea, Zico Coconut Water, Suja juice, Fairlife Dairy, and many others. His team also led alliance management for the investments, industry and competitive analysis, and annual business planning. Over time, this consumer focused portfolio created an incremental value to CCNA of +$1.7 billion.

Matthew is also an avid runner and traveler.  Having run multiple marathons, he now only dreams of breaking the elusive sub 3 hour finish.

Bill Moses is the former Co-Founder, Chairman/CEO for KeVita Probiotic Drinks, which was acquired by PepsiCo. Bill is a founder, angel investor, and strategic advisor for several on trend functional food, beverage, and skin care innovation ventures. He owns Casa Barranca Winery in Ojai, Ca., the central coasts first certified organic winery. Bill Moses is a passionate advocate for charity and sits on several nonprofit boards. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Gold Medal of Honor for humanitarian and business leadership. This all followed his Wall Street career where he consummated many M&A transactions.

Nancy Pak, Consumer Products & Naturals Industry Expert

Nancy Pak is a strategic and entrepreneurial CEO with U.S. and international general management and marketing experience for leading global brands. She has over 20 years of experience across multiple countries and business settings in highly-competitive retail environments.  Nancy’s experience in strategic planning, market and channel expansion, brand positioning, innovation and integrated marketing communications in the naturals industry and mass market consumer products informs all her work. Nancy is a passionate, agile leader with a growth mindset who thrives on building highly effective teams and developing and mentoring the next generation of leaders.

Most recently, Nancy was the Vice President & General Manager (CEO equivalent) of Tom’s of Maine Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Colgate Palmolive, based in Kennebunk Maine. Nancy led this full end-to-end naturals personal care company across commercial functions and manufacturing with P&L ownership.  She has a strong record of executing change management initiatives, organizational restructuring, and new product launches that delivered significant sales, market share, and profitability growth.

During her tenure at Tom’s, Nancy positioned the business for robust, sustainable growth by driving distribution expansion across brick and mortar and e-commerce channels in the U.S. and Canada; attaining greater operational effectiveness and efficiency, and by nurturing and strengthening the successful and productive culture that was the founders’ legacy. Nancy championed several important initiatives at Tom’s including donating 10% of profits to sustainability and educational initiatives, and supporting employees’ benefit of 5% paid time off to volunteer.

In March 2019, Nancy enabled Tom’s of Maine to become a Certified B Corporation, one of a select number of natural oral and personal care brands to achieve this certification.

Nancy started her professional career at Colgate Palmolive and held progressive roles within the Company in Marketing, across the U.S., Greater Asia and Europe. She lived in Bangkok, Thailand and Warsaw, Poland with her family while working for Colgate. Nancy was the winner of the Colgate Chairman’s Global Annual You Can Make A Difference Award in 2013 and was part of a team at Colgate that received a patent for a children’s manual toothbrush.

In addition to her work in consumer products, Nancy has devoted much of her free time to activities that strengthen communities. She was elected Vice Chair of the Board of Trustees for the American School of Warsaw (2014 – 2015); is a founder of the not-for-profit education and mentoring organization Minds Matter; and collaborated closely with the CEO of the United Way of York County, Maine to move forward philanthropic community initiatives.

Nancy earned an MBA in Marketing from Columbia Business School in New York, a BA in Political Science from Columbia University, and completed an Executive Certificate in Global Leadership in 2011 from the Tuck School of Business, Dartmouth College.

Nancy, her husband Jim, and their kids Cece and Ryan, live in the Portland, Maine area.  They enjoy beach walks with their Boston Terrier Manny, being on Sebago Lake and traveling the world to experience new cultures and people.

FOUNDER, IGNITE SALES MANAGEMENT

Kent’s experience spans from category management to channels strategy to trade optimization to customer management to retail execution and more. A “category captain” in the natural/organic space, his final role at General Mills was directing the sales operations, trade marketing, and category management for the Small Planet Foods organic division.

In 2007, Kent created IGNITE to take advantage of what he saw as the most significant white space in the emerging food & beverage industry: strategic sales management. During his tenure with Small Planet Foods, he witnessed many brands who needed more than what was at that time offered. What was missing was a more holistic view of growth and the strategy that drives it – focused on sales, but including all aspects of brand and product development. IGNITE’s partnership model of shared goals amplifies the power of this broad strategic vision.

After building IGNITE for nine years that ended with 40+ sales professionals, Kent sold the business (using Whipstitch) to the largest food broker in the U.S., Acosta Sales and Marketing.

Ryan Pintado-Vertner is the Founder & Principal at Smoketown, a boutique consultancy that helps mission-driven brands and organizations maximize their growth while also maximizing their ability to change the world. Smoketown’s empathy-driven work includes: fractional marketing management; brand, impact and innovation strategy; and custom consumer research. Their clients include Once Upon A Farm, Revive Kombucha, No Evil Foods and Purely Elizabeth.

Ryan is a lifelong activist and fifth generation innovator whose great-great-grandfather, son of a freed slave, earned a patent in 1902. His career includes a decade in nonprofit leadership and over 13 years in the CPG industry, including senior responsibility for billion dollar brands like Clorox and Hillshire Farm. In addition, Ryan earned an MBA from the University of California’s Haas School of Business.

Beyond all that, he is a writer and podcaster (Brand New Blueprint by Smoketown), in addition to being a board member at Flock (a new regenerative food and agriculture VC fund and accelerator) and Naturally Chicago (a network of natural product companies in Chicagoland).

Managing Director – Financial and Strategic Partners

Edricco Reina is Managing Director of Financial and Strategic Partners Group at SPINS.  SPINS is the only source for cross channel retailer analytics; health & wellness expertise; industry leading consulting services; consumer insights; and digital applications for brands, consumers and retailers. In this role, Edricco leads engagements with Private Equity, Investment Banks, CPG M&A, Consultants and Third-party strategic partners.

SPINS Financial and Strategic Partners Group is the premier solutions and insights group for the Natural Products Industry.  We work with leading investors and partners to bring the best of SPINS in support of their investment thesis, merger & acquisition strategies, capital raises, portfolio support and to develop strategic partnerships.

Prior to joining SPINS, Edricco held leadership positions at Nielsen, Anderson Merchandisers and New Market Capital Group.  He brings 20 years of experience building winning business divisions and is passionate about supporting brands and retailers to attain their strategic business goals. He holds a MBA from Elmhurst College and B.A. in Corporate Finance and Commercial Law from Western Michigan University.  Edricco lives in the greater Chicago area with his wife, 3 kids and mini goldendoodle.

About SPINS

SPINS is a passionate advocate of brands and retailers that promote healthy living. As the leading provider of retail consumer insights, analytics reporting, and consulting services for the Natural, Organic, and Specialty Products Industries, its business off­erings are helping retailers in this high growth area to connect people with the brands that they need and love. Learn more at www.spins.com.

Founder, The Tim Sperry Group

Tim Sperry started The Tim Sperry Group in 2006, following a twenty-year career in Purchasing Leadership at Whole Foods Market, offering his services to companies who sell products in the Natural, Organic and Specialty Marketplace.

His consultancy includes the following services:

• Taking new products to market and strategies for staying in the market.
• Natural/Specialty channel navigation strategies with a focus on Whole Foods Market
• Additional services include navigation strategies for foreign companies seeking entrance into the US market
• Product review and branding strategies
• Category reviews and sales strategies.
• Market overviews and opportunities for Private Equity firms

Tim began his career in the natural foods industry in 1982. During his tenure with Whole Foods Market, Tim led the Grocery Team in one of the largest regions of the company. He participated in the expansion of WFM into Washington, D.C. and New York City, as well as London. Tim was also a key participant in the development of National Purchasing at Whole Foods.

Clients of The Tim Sperry Group have included the following companies or brands: All-Terrain, Annie’s, Against the Grain, Angie’s, Applegate Farms, Bausch & Lomb, Blake’s All Natural Foods, Bigelow Tea, Bord Bia (Irish Food Promotion Board), Café Blue Coffee (Jamaica), CEI (portfolio companies Putney Pasta and Rustic Crust), Consul-General of Canada/AAFC, Deep River Snacks, Divina/Food Match, Earth Friendly Products, Feel Good Foods, Foods from Britain, Home Market Foods, Global Organics, Go Picnic, Golazo, Hampstead Tea (UK), If You Care, Integria (Australia), Kettle Cuisine, Laurel Hill Foods, Lightlife Foods, Lucini Italia, Megafood, Native Alimentos (Brazil), Nelsons, New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Q-bel Foods, Quebec Delegation, Peter Rabbit Organics (UK), Phin&Phebes, Pure Juice, Purity Organics, Richelieu Foods, Roots Hummus, Royal Pacific/Ginger People, San-J, Seventh Generation, SC Johnson, Schlotterbeck&Foss, Snyder’s of Hanover, Sol Cuisine, Source Atlantique, Stirrings, Susie’s Supper Club, Thai Taste, ThinkThin LLC, True Yogurt, UNFI, unReal Candy, Vitasoy and White Cloud Nutrition (New Zealand).

He is currently an outside director for Phin & Phebe’s Ice Cream, Old Lyme Gourmet dba/Deep River Snacks and Feel Good Foods. He currently serves as an advisory board member to Back to Nature (PE backed), New England Natural Bakers (ESOP) and Galaxy Nutritional Foods (PE backed).

Founder & CEO, Emerging Brand Strategies, LLC

Jeanne Varley is Founder & CEO of Emerging Brand Strategies, LLC. The company provides consulting services in business and financial planning as well as launch and growth strategies to start up and emerging brands in the beverage and consumer goods segments. She started the company after a long career in beverages including senior level roles with Diageo, Constellation Brands, Beverage Marketing Corporation, and FIJI Water.  When not advising startup companies, she can be found trying to keep up with her young daughter or enjoying time at the beach with her husband where they live in South Florida. She holds an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania and a BA in Economics from LeMoyne College.