People Moves: Ethical Brands Adds New CEO; General Mills Adds Disruptive Growth To C-Suite Responsibilities

Ethical Brands Appoints Melissa Feldman To Lead Company

Ethical Brands, the parent company of plant-based food brand Explore Cuisine, named Melissa Feldman as its new CEO last week. The wellness-oriented pasta maker said Feldman will lead its North American and international businesses, execute on its innovation objectives and work to make the company a leader in the plant-based food market in her new role.

“We are delighted to welcome Melissa to the Ethical Brands family,” said Henrik Svennas, Chairman of Ethical Brands, Inc., in a press release. “She brings a wealth of experience in general management and brand building, which will be key in increasing the pace of our innovation, focusing on our key North America markets.”

Feldman joins Ethical Brands with over two decades of CPG operations and product innovation experience, most recently serving as the General Manager of plant-based nutrition company PlantFusion. She has also held various senior marketing positions at major CPG companies including PepsiCo, Mars and Kraft Foods.

“I love that Ethical Brands is a pioneer in plant-based food,” said Feldman. “That is part of my lifestyle and I love that Explore Cuisine is making plant based eating easy and accessible to consumers. It’s important to me to infuse our values into everything that we do from new product innovation, to working with customers. It is very important that we live our values,” she added.

Speaking to NOSH today, Feldman said the company plans to prioritize incorporating additional consumer insight into its innovation process.

“Innovation is a key pillar for us and we look forward to delivering great products that consumers love and those that make plant-based lifestyle more accessible,” Feldman said. “I can’t reveal details just yet, [but] we have really exciting plans on the innovation front that consumers will start to see in 2022.”

Explore Cuisine currently produces a variety of plant-based, nutrient-dense, shelf-stable pastas made with ingredients including edamame, black bean, lentils and spirulina, as well as a line of asain-oriented noodles utilizing brown and red rice.

General Mills Names Doug Martin as Chief Brand and Disruptive Growth Officer

Following his promotion to Chief Brand Officer in July, Doug Martin has taken on additional responsibilities at General Mills with his promotion to Chief Brand and Disruptive Growth Officer, according to an announcement earlier this week. Martin will now also oversee consumer brand experience and activations while focusing on building modern brands under the General Mills banner.

“With his extensive experience in building iconic brands, his expertise in creating value through understanding and solving consumer problems through bold innovation, and his proven ability to foster a culture of inclusion, Doug is an incredible asset to our organization,” said Dana McNabb, Chief Strategy and Growth Officer at General Mills, in a press release. “I’m thrilled to see him leverage his deep business experience to further operationalize our brand experiences and take our marketing and disruptive innovation efforts to the next level.”

The announcement marks another step in the company’s Accelerate growth strategy which aims to build and modernize brands through innovative approaches to marketing. In May, General Mills CMO Ivan Pollard stepped out of his role and the company said it would not fill the position. Just two months later, General Mills promoted Martin to Chief Brand Officer to focus on product-performance and consumer-driven brand building initiatives.

During his 15 year tenure with the company, Martin has worked on multiple growth projects including the launch of the Oui yogurt line by Yopliat. He most recently held the position of President of the company’s North America Dairy Operations.

“The past two years have been a time of unprecedented disruption, and I’ve been incredibly proud of how our teams at General Mills have risen to meet that challenge,” said Martin in a press release. “The pandemic showed us just how critical we are to our consumers. As we head into the future, we have the opportunity to become even more important in their lives, as we solve problems and deliver joy through our brands. We’ll continue to learn, experiment and iterate with new brands and business models—and this is what excites me about the next era of growth for General Mills.”

Jan Albert Joins Clio Snacks as Chief Operations Officer

Frozen greek yogurt bar brand Clio Snacks announced that Jan Albert joined the company as COO last month. Albert comes to Clio with over two decades of CPG experience, having most recently served as the COO of better-for-you indulgent snack company Unreal.

The announcement comes on the heels of additional shifts within Clio’s leadership team including the hiring of John McGuckin as CEO and promotion of Rachel Moore, a member of Clio’s marketing team for over three years, to CMO in late October. Amid this reorganization, Clio’s founder and former CEO Sergey Konchakovskiy transitioned into the role of executive chairman where he will focus on long-term growth and product innovation.

Both Albert and McGuckin previously held executive leadership roles at Tribe Mediterranean Foods and Sabra Dipping Company.

At the time of McGuckin’s hiring, he said that Clio had the opportunity for powerful and dynamic growth and aimed to scale the brand further by expanding distribution and household penetration. In order to execute that growth, McGuckin said the company would soon look to hire additional talent, filling gaps in its leadership team and noted the role of COO was a high priority.

Cappello’s Makes Two New Hires On Leadership Team

Frozen food brand Cappello’s announced Rashesh Babu as the company’s new president earlier this month. In this role Babu will focus on fueling the company’s expansion into new segments, expanding distribution and driving overall brand growth. Babu joins Cappello’s with significant experience scaling businesses prior to their acquisitions including natural food company WhiteWave Foods (sold to Danone) and, most recently, Birch Benders (bought by Sovos).

Cappello’s has also brought on Ken Jenner as the company’s VP of R&D and Commercialization. Jenner comes to Cappello’s with over two decades of CPG experience, most recently serving as VP of Innovation at Boulder Brands. He joins the company after it most recently launched its newest product line: ravioli.

The new hires come after Cappello’s closed a round of funding last year to propel the company into its next stage of growth.

“We couldn’t be more excited to bring these talented, creative, intelligent, natural food brand alums onto our Crew,” said Ben Frohlichstein, CEO of Cappello’s, in a press release. “With our sights set on new distribution and innovation, these two roles are an essential move we’ve taken to continue to pursue our mission to set a new standard in the frozen aisle.”

Caulipower Brings On Darren Smith as Chief Operations Officer

Frozen food company CAULIPOWER announced it has brought on CPG veteran Darren Smith as its new COO last week. The company’s former COO Katie Lefkowitz will stay on with CAULIPOWER in a Senior Advisor role as she “works on her next venture,” according to a post on LinkedIn.

Most recently Smith served as COO of Kodiak Cakes, which was recently acquired by private equity firm L Catterton, and has also held leadership roles at nut butter company Justin’s and granola maker Bear Naked. Smith’s hiring comes at a time of significant expansion for the company, which launched both breakfast and pasta offerings earlier this year.

Revolution Foods Appoints Dominic Engels as Chief Executive Officer

Revolution Foods, the meal service company that is working to combat food insecurity in urban communities, announced earlier this month that former Stone Brewing CEO Dominic Engels will assume the role of CEO. Kristin Groos Richmond, the company’s founder and prior CEO, will continue in her role as Chairman of the Board. Engels comes to the public benefit corporation with over 25 years of business growth experience. Prior to his time at Stone, he served as the President of POM Wonderful.

“We have an exceptionally talented team at Revolution Foods,” Engles said. “I am passionate about driving our ongoing commitment to operational excellence while continuing to innovate our meals for districts and schools nationwide and deepen our impact on the lives of food insecure adults and seniors, ensuring everyone has access to healthy food.”

Additional notable hires and promotions:

• Former director of corporate development at Mondelez International, Mel Gaecta, has joined Touchdown Ventures as a venture partner.
• Ocean Spray Cranberries hired Christina Finkle, former CMO of Ka-Pop! Snacks and Awakened Foods, as the company’s head of innovation ecosystem
• Do Good Foods announced its newly-established executive team last month including talent from KIND Snacks, Nestlé and Tyson Foods. Notable hires include Sam Kass as chief strategist; Barry Starkman as chief manufacturing officer; Zahir Ibrahim as CFOand Sheridan Budin as CMO.
• Food tech company Motif FoodWorks announced the hiring of Saloni Sanghvi Varma as the company’s new CFO last month. Varma joins the company with over two decades of CPG experience and most recently served as CFO of baby nutrition company ByHeart.
• Los Angeles-based, CPG-focused private equity firm Butterfly Equity promoted Peter Tang from principal to managing director this month.
• Better-for-you snack maker LesserEvil promoted Caitlin Mack to director of brand marketing. Mack joined the company as a brand manager four years ago and most recently held a senior-level marketing role in the company.