Daily Harvest Chief Supply Chain Officer To Become CEO

Daily Harvest founder and CEO Rachel Drori is stepping away from overseeing day-to-day operations at the frozen food company, turning the reins over to chief supply chain officer Ricky Silver.

Silver has been promoted immediately to the newly created role of president and will subsequently move into the role of CEO next February. Prior to joining Daily Harvest in 2018, Silver spent close to three years in innovation-centered roles at Vita Coco, and over five years in R&D at PepsiCo.

“Ricky has been by my side for over five years” Drori wrote in a LinkedIn post about the leadership transition. “In addition to being an indispensable partner to me, he is deeply committed to our mission and values.”

In her post Drori said that she will work with Silver throughout the transition, after which she will remain on as Daily Harvest’s chair of the board and continue to be involved with business and brand strategy.

Drori also revealed that she “went through a profound health scare” in recent weeks and the leadership change will offer her the space needed to “focus on her own health.” She also plans to continue working to effect change in the food system and serving as a strong advocate for the Daily Harvest brand.

Drori has long been vocal about the need to embrace more sustainable agriculture efforts, and in recent years has leveraged the company’s supply chain as a means of pushing for change. In 2022 Daily Harvest’s “Bite Me” campaign sought to raise awareness for underserved farmers via ads in major newspapers and via a light projection on USDA headquarters, and in tandem, the company announced multi-year partnerships with both the American Farmland Trust (AFT) and California Certified Organic Farmers (CCOF).

“This is an exciting time for the business to grow and reach new consumers and I can be most effective when representing the company and mission to the outside world,” Drori said. “As a result, I’ve decided it is time to change the role I play. Instead of running the daily operations of the business, I need to spend my time advocating for our beliefs and disrupting the system to create the food we all deserve.”

Silver’s appointment, however, comes at a challenging time for the frozen smoothie and meal company. On the sales front, the company made the leap from D2C into retail, launching into about 1,000 Kroger-owned stores this past summer. It also launched new product formats such as multi-serve grain packs.

In June 2022 the company was forced to issue a recall after the tara flour in its newly launched protein crumbles sickened hundreds, causing gastrointestinal illness and liver dysfunction.

Just as the negative headlines began to die down, Bloomberg released an expose on Daily Harvest, alleging that Drori and the company mishandled the recall. Daily Harvest has denied the allegations by Bloomberg. Behind the scenes, Daily Harvest has also undergone several rounds of layoffs, looking to trim overhead and reduce spending as consumer spending on meal kits began to normalize after a COVID-19 pandemic-induced spike.

The headwinds and setbacks came soon after the company announced its own series D round of funding, which Daily Harvest said valued the company at over one billion dollars.

In addition to Silver’s promotion, this week communications exec Andrew Noyes announced that he had joined Daily Harvest as the company’s new head of communications and corporate affairs.

Most recently Noyes headed up comms for Eat Just, a company he joined after holding various roles at tech companies including Uber and Facebook. Noyes joined Eat Just after the company faced an investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission and Department of Justice (which was later dropped) and oversaw the company’s communication strategy through both the growth of its cultivated meat arm and launch of several new alt-egg products, as well as more recent reports of layoffs and non-payment of vendors.