People Moves: Christina Pearson Leaves Whole Foods; Against The Grain Names New President

Christina Pearson Leaves Whole Foods For Veyl Ventures

Whole Foods Market Global Category Merchant Christina Pearson ended her fifteen year stint at the natural grocer last month, moving on to a new role as Director of Sales Operations at expert-driven health and wellness brand platform Veyl Ventures.

Pearson brings almost two decades of retail, merchandising and corporate leadership experience to her new role. She has served as Category Manager for Global Flavors, Soups, Shelf Stable Condiments and Entrees and Mixes for the past six years. She said the shift in her career was driven by a curiosity about brand building that was sparked by her close brand involvement during her role with Whole Foods.

“I spent most of my time [in my previous role], working closely with brands and getting to know certain aspects of their business, but I was always interested in learning what goes into building a brand, that I was not exposed to,” Pearson explained. “I had a very solid retail perspective but wanted to gain brand perspective.”

Pearson held numerous positions at the retailer, ranging from Grocery Team Leader to Grocery Associate Coordinator, and worked on a variety of categories on a global level including both Frozen and Center Store. As a buyer, she said she often acted as an informal consultant, helping accelerate the growth of “large, small, regional and local brands,” experience that will be integral in her new position, where she will represent a wide range of products.

“Though I wanted to learn the brand side, not all companies have multi-brand or multi-category portfolios,” said Pearson. “I knew Veyl Ventures was a company that had multiple brands within its portfolio and was working to build, acquire and incubate others.”

As Director of Sales Operations, Pearson will oversee each brand in Veyl’s portfolio including Dr. Jeff’s pet products, wellness platform brand Dr. Kellyann and herbal supplements maker NatureM.D.. Pearson will report to the company’s new VP of Sales, Andrew Baldwin, and will also have a close involvement with the supply chain operations team.

“Veyl Ventures operates within health/wellness, beauty, pet and grocery categories and I knew the experience and knowledge I would gain within these spaces would be unlimited,” Pearson said. “After 14 years with one company my next move needed to be with a team of folks I felt aligned with. After meeting and getting to know the team, and spending time with [them], I really felt that this was a leadership team that was driving the work culture that I would be thrilled to be in.”

Against The Grain Gourmet Foods Names Mike Watts President

Mike Watts, the former Chief Revenue Officer for Grillo’s Pickles, has joined Against the Grain Gourmet Foods as the gluten-free baking company’s new president.

Watts has over two decades of CPG experience, beginning his career at Redbull and holding a variety of marketing positions at companies including Angie’s Kettle Corn, Yasso and Halfpops. He is also a co-founder of pre-packaged overnight oats brand Overnite Organics.

“Excited and humbled to join the great teams at AGAINST THE GRAIN GOURMET and HumanCo,” Watts said in a LinkedIn post. “I look forward to sharing this amazing product and brand with consumers across the US.”

HumanCo, which acquired Against the Grain in September, launched with frozen pizza snack brand Snow Days and serves as a holding company to accelerate emerging better-for-you brands through its celebrity-driven group of investors. For Watts, this move comes almost a year after Grillo’s Pickles sold to bakery company King’s Hawaiian.

KIND Snacks Hires New Global CMO

Better-for-you snack company KIND announced last week that it has hired Kelly Solomon to lead the company’s marketing research and strategic planning as its Global CMO. Solomon brings over two decades of marketing experience to the new position and most recently served as SVP of consumer marketing at MAC Cosmetics.

“With decades of experience in marketing at major household, purpose-led brands, we’re delighted to have Kelly bring her expertise to KIND,” said Russell Stokes, CEO of KIND North America, in a press release. “Kelly is joining us at an exciting time for the company as over the past year KIND has focused on innovation to meet the growing consumer demand for better-for-you options across categories and dayparts. As we continue to grow and enter new markets, Kelly will play a critical role in supporting these efforts and bringing our brand to life.”

Solomon has held a range of marketing positions at global companies such as Samsung and L’Oréal and brings extensive experience in digital marketing and omnichannel retail to her new position. The announcement comes only four months after Stokes assumed the role of CEO following the departure of the company’s former CEO, Mike Barkley.

Snacking It Foward’s PeaTos Brand Brings on Andrew Ford As VP of Sales and Marketing

Extruded snack maker PeaTos named Andrew Ford as the company’s new VP of Sales and Marketing last month. Ford joins the pea snack maker after four years with the same title at better-for-you snack manufacturing company Wyandot Snacks. He also brings over a decade of retail and CPG sales experience to his new role.

“Exciting news to share here from the extruded snack category,” Ford said in a LinkedIn post. “As of [late January] I will be joining Snack It Forward / PeaTos and Nick Desai to help further their mission of bringing great taste to the better for you salty snack category. Nick and his team have built out a great foundation that is ready to take that next leap and I’m pumped to be able to join them.”

The brand, which sells a range of plant-based, better-for-you versions of snacks such as Cheetons, FunYuns, and Doritos, also recently unveiled its new packaging which, according to Ford, will officially debut at Natural Products Expo West in March. In 2020 the company secured $7 million in funding to increase its marketing spend, grow distribution and invest in its ecommerce platform.

Other notable hires:

• Former sales director of Blue Bottle Coffee and GT’s Kombucha, Stephen Juarez joined plant-based, superfood dessert maker Sunscoop as the brand’s new VP of Sales
• Co-founder of New Barn Organics, Chris Robb announced he has joined Marketing and Advertising firm Social Nature as the company’s Head of Business Development
• Bill Partyka, former executive team member at Gerber, joined CBD company Coolhouse Botanics’ Board of Directors
• Food technology company Motif FoodWorks hired former Director of R&D Innovation at Barry Callebaut as the company’s new VP of Food Design