Kelly Criswell is a visionary and creative leader, shepherding The GRO Agency as the Chief Creative Officer based in the Los Angeles office. With a fierce love of beverage branding and a 16+ year career in CPG brand development and packaging design, Kelly will relentlessly push brands to the next level for success on shelf. Over her career she has worked with such notable brands as Dunkin’ Donuts, Nestlé, Premier Nutrition, Diageo, and Red Bull. Her latest modus operandi is harnessing her extensive experience in CPG to help entrepreneurs and start-ups launch their brands. Her current passion project is Kabaki Kenyan Purple Tea- she has teamed up with the founder Martin and helped him position, brand, package, and develop go-to-market strategy for a 2018 launch. When she’s not obsessively taking photos in grocery stores (say hi if you see her!) she’s painting or hiking with her two kids.

CEO of Cali’flour Foods. Joined in May, 2019. From 2018-2019 Mike was head of business development at Factory LLC in Bethlehem, PA. and still functions as an advisor for Factory. Mike was a food broker from 1989-2018. From 2002-2018 Mike was a member of the management team that founded and established Natural Specialty Sales, the natural and specialty division of Acosta Sales and Marketing. Mike was president of NS Sales from 2003 until his retirement in 2018. NS Sales assisted many major natural product brands such as Kashi, Silk, Horizon, Annie’s, Stonyfield, Pacific Foods, the Hain Celestial family of products, Cascadian Farms, Applegate, Bragg, Talenti gelato and hundreds of other brands. Member of Sprouts vendor advisory council, FMI emerge, Naturally Boulder, and serves as advisor to several natural product companies. Attended Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas.

Michelle Fox is a data-fluent professional who works closely with SPINS’ clients to help them translate and unlock the value of data. Drawing on over seven years of relevant experience, Michelle oversees the delivery of strategic analyses, insights, and recommendations for leading companies and investors within the Natural, Organic, and Specialty products industry. She enables clients to achieve sustained, profitable growth by using data to pinpoint opportunities and developing growth strategies to effectively capture them.

Nick McCoy is a Co-Founder and Managing Director with Whipstitch Capital. Nick has over 20 years of investment banking experience. Nick co-founded the investment Bank, Silverwood Partners, where he headed up the consumer division with Mike Burgmaier. In 2015 Nick joined forces with Mike Burgmaier to form Whipstitch Capital with the goal of creating the industry’s largest independent investment bank exclusively focused on leading companies in the healthy and innovative consumer market. Previously Nick was in the Investment Banking Group at First Albany (now Jeffries), Director of M&A at Allmerica Financial Corp, and a Senior Associate, Corporate Development at Wheelabrator Technologies. Nick often speaks and is quoted on various investiture and acquisition-related topics. Nick is an avid road cyclist and thinks it’s ok to cross country ski in below-zero temperatures. He’s a health-focused foodie, cooks frequently and has an extensive knowledge of wine and whiskey (just ask him). Nick is a Chartered Financial Analyst and has an MBA from Wake Forest University and an undergraduate degree from the University of New Hampshire.

Betsy is the co-author of The Amazon Roadmap: How Innovative Brands are Reinventing the Path to Market, the quintessential start-to-finish guide for brands who want to launch, recalibrate, or optimize their business on Amazon and ensure continued growth on this powerful platform. As Seventh Generation’s first eCommerce channel director, Betsy pioneered the company’s innovative eComm strategy and created a thriving multimillion-dollar partnership with Amazon and other key online retailers. Since founding McGinn eComm in 2014, Betsy has worked with hundreds of natural and specialty brands to establish and strengthen their presence on Amazon. From product development and profitability analysis to guiding organizational change, McGinn eComm leads clients through every step of this complex channel, helping to ensure a successful and profitable online businesses. With more than a decade of eCommerce experience, Betsy is a thought-leader and regular speaker at workshops and conferences globally. Visit Betsy at mcginnecomm.com

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 strategic planning, growth strategies, writing sales, marketing and business plans, budgeting, pricing, building distribution, broker selection and management, organizational development, strategic options, branding and trade spending management. He is also the co-author and co-publisher of the Natural Products Field Manual, Fourth Edition and The Sales Manager's Handbook. 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.

Jeremy Halpern is a partner and co-chairs and serves as the Director of Business Development for Nutter’s Emerging Companies Group. Jeremy’s practice focuses on emerging companies, private equity, venture capital and angel financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, executive and team compensation matters, and general start-up support. Serving as the firm’s entrepreneur-in-residence, Jeremy often works on strategy and corporate development matters with companies, investors, and executives in technology, life sciences and the food and beverage industry. Jeremy is an active angel investor and is a member of the board of The Capital Network, a Boston based non-profit serving entrepreneurs seeking high growth capital. Jeremy serves on the Advisory Board and the Executive Education Committee of the MBI Health Program and on the Advisory Board of Pintley, a MassChallenge 2011 finalist company providing marketing solutions to the craft brewers and bars. He continues to serve as a mentor at MassChallenge and LearnLaunch, an expert advisor at the Innovation Hub at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and as a speaker, reviewer, judge or mentor for MIT HackingMedicine, HackingPediatrics, the Mass Tech Transfer Center, the Mass Life Science Center, M2D2, BranchFood and Startup Institute. Previously Jeremy served on the Board and Investment Committee of MassVentures, an early stage venture capital fund funding technology companies in Massachusetts. Jeremy taught entrepreneurial leadership at Tufts University for nine years and cofounded a company in the mobile technology synchronization space. Jeremy received his B.A., summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of California, Berkeley, and his J.D. from the University of California at Los Angeles.