Newly Appointed Good Culture Executives to Accelerate Brand’s Growth and Expansion into New Categories

Good Culture, the B-corp-certified, clean-label cultured foods brand credited with revolutionizing cottage cheese for the modern age, announced additions to its team, naming Arielle Knutson as senior vice president of marketing and member of the executive team, and Wayne Olson as vice president of manufacturing & supply chain.

Knutson will be responsible for brand marketing, awareness and growth for the company, leading innovation strategy and commercialization with a focus on the brand’s sustainability practices and consumer experience.

“In the coming months, expect Good Culture to really start connecting with consumers on an emotional level, over the changes that we are spearheading for a better food supply chain,” says Knutson. “We’ll also be expanding into other cultured dairy categories, with ‘true to Good Culture’ gut-healthy options in 2023.”

Previous to Good Culture, Knutson led brand marketing, digital and e-commerce at functional water enhancer, Nuun Hydration for 10 years. She led the brand from its start-up and scaled successful growth into several channels, while creating a consumer-beloved brand changing lives for the better through movement and health. Previous to Nuun, Knutson has a background in creative advertising agencies, leading account services, brand strategy and integrated campaign management.

Olson will lead strategic network manufacturing, capacity planning, logistics network optimization, supply chain planning, continuous improvement and gross margin improvement for Good Culture.

Olson has substantial multi-functional expertise in food manufacturing, plant operations, logistics and supply chain planning. He brings a balanced blend of field and corporate leadership experience coupled with strong operations and financial analytical skills which, along with a “hands on” data driven continuous improvement (CI) approach, allows him to quickly and effectively add value and drive supply chain improvement.

“Continued growth and consumer demand for Good Culture products will accelerate our need to deliver additional capacity with quality-focused food manufacturers,” explains Olson. “We anticipate the growing trend for clean label products to increase Good Culture’s market share and it is our job to support that growth now and in the future.”

Olson rejoined Good Culture in October as vice president of manufacturing and supply chain; he also served as vice president of operations at Good Culture earlier in his career. Prior, he led baking operations for Franz Bakery and served as senior vice president of operations for Popchips. Before entering into chips and baking, Wayne spent most of his career in the dairy industry in operations leadership positions with Dean Foods, Baskin Robbins and The Kraft Dairy Group.

“These additions to our leadership team will help solidify Good Culture’s position as a leader in the cultured dairy industry,” says Jesse Merrill, chief executive officer and co-founder of Good Culture. “Arielle has vast experience scaling a brand and a team, while deepening brand equity and values and Wayne brings a highly analytical, data driven approach to strategic and tactical planning. Both of their skill sets will help drive our initiatives. We put a lot of emphasis on building a strong team here at Good Culture which contributes to our innovation and leadership role in the food industry.”

About Good Culture

In 2015, founders Jesse Merrill and Anders Eisner saw that cottage cheese, an overlooked superfood, had potential to be at the forefront of the real food trend, so they shook up and reinvigorated the dairy aisle with certified organic, pasture-raised, stabilizer and additive-free cottage cheese. This disruptive company is dedicated to using only real foods and simple ingredients across their growing portfolio of cultured foods. The success of their flagship product led to expansion into other cultured food offerings including probiotic-rich sour cream and cream cheese. Good Culture, a certified B Corporation, is a proud partner of1% for the Planet, supporting soil health and regenerative agriculture.

For More Information:
https://www.goodculture.com/