Mason Dixie Founder Ayeshah Abuelhiga has never been afraid of a challenge -- be it building the perfect biscuit, pivoting her business during a global pandemic or tirelessly working to better the CPG community.
Abuelhiga, who grew up in Baltimore as the daughter of immigrants, originally started Mason Dixie as a restaurant in 2014 and soon expanded the biscuit brand into CPG. Moving into retail aligned with Abuelhiga’s own mission of democratizing food and making sure everyone -- from the Target consumer to the Whole Foods shopper -- has access to high quality products.
When the restaurant shuttered during the pandemic in 2020, Abuelhiga went all in on CPG, focusing not just on Mason Dixie but also giving back to the community as a whole, co-founding Project Potluck, an organization helping “People of Color thrive in the CPG industry.”
While her past efforts have been impressive enough, 2022 saw Abuelhiga and Mason Dixie -- step on the gas. The CEO spent much of the year focused on building her team -- adding both women and BIPOC individuals and maintaining a “commitment to bringing a voice to diverse people, whether by gender, race or sexual orientation.” As a result of these efforts, Mason Dixie’s executive team is now 75% women, with 58% of the entire company made up of women.
But it's not just who she’s brought on board but how. With her trademark dash of humor, Abuelhiga, who was one of 20 women founders selected for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women North America Class of 2022, has announced these executive hires on LinkedIn, emphasizing with a sense of humbleness how much they will bring to the brand and discussing how she “shot her shot” in wooing some of the top industry talent over to Mason Dixie.
As she wrote on LinkedIn, “I always thought lifting up our team of diverse individuals was my most important role in upholding diversity, but [I’ve realized] it's just as important for others to see me succeeding in my role too.”
