With over 20 years of ground floor leadership experience, Sergio has led start-ups, family-owned businesses and those managed by F&B venture and private equity groups ranging from pre-rev to $100MM+ in sales. His product experiences include everything from fresh to frozen, retail to food service, raw to ready to eat, dry mixes, beverages, prepared meals, various snack programs, dairy products and plant based. Past roles include General Manager, Plant Manager, Vice President of Operations and Chief Operating Officer for various USDA, FDA facilities across the US. An immigrant from Argentina, Sergio is fluent in both English and Spanish.

Nathan is an accomplished leader with over 20 years of experience leading Operations and Supply Chains in Start-Up, PE-Backed, and Fortune 500 companies ranging in size from $10MM to over $350MM in revenue.   Nathan has a proven track record of building teams, creating processes, and managing global supply chains to meet organizational needs in rapidly changing environments.   Nathan’s experience extends across multiple categories and product offerings, while holding positions including COO, General Manager, Vice President of Operations and Supply Chain, Vice President of Marketing, and Director of Program Management.

Paul comes with over 20 years of experience in the CPG industry. His range of experience comes from The Quaker Oats Company/Pepsico, HJ Heinz, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition and most recently Custom Manufacturing at Trufoods. Paul has a hands on approach and a proven ability to improve plant floor operations and supply chain efficiency. Product launches and start ups are also a key strength from Ideation to brand extensions working with KIND, M&M Mars, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, Hershey, Mondelez International, Justins, Medifast and Costco.

Robert brings 10+ years of hands on operational experience spanning various business and industries. A true entrepreneur himself, Robert fully understands the challenges in front of new and growing brands while sharing best practices to help avoid those early stage mistakes.    Previous roles include Director of Operations at Hungry Root, CEO of Pupums, a D2C healthy dog food company, and COO of TYME Food, a D2C and wholesale fresh food CPG company.   Robert's operational experience includes Manufacturing, Distribution, Supply Chain, Product Commercialization, R&D, Co-Packing and 3PL.

Krisanne specializes in addressing all subjects related to food safety, regulatory, quality, certifications and compliance for all product categories in the life sciences and food industries. Krisanne has been the Director of QA for multiple USDA, FDA SQF level II and III facilities across the US.   Krisanne has helped brands quickly apply and receive their non-gmo, organic, kosher, vegan and sports nutrition certifications.  Krisanne holds a Master’s degree in Food Science and Nutrition at NYIT. She further earned several certifications including HACCP and Seafood HACCP, PCQI, SQF Practitioner, and Certified internal Auditor.

Allison has spent over 10 years in the R&D innovation space gaining a profound appreciation for the technical efforts required to create a new product and the importance of doing so with a team that is well constituted, focused, and grounded in data and insight. Allison has spent time at Fortune 500 CPG companies developing products from concept to commercialization across multiple categories supporting retail and food service channels, raw, ready to eat, fresh prepared, dairy, deli, bakery and dry goods.  Allison holds a Master’s in Food Science and a Master’s in Supply Chain Management, these combined with her industry experience leading pipeline innovation teams provides a unique skill set of managing deep technical development from product ideation through long-term optimization.

Barry has 30 years of experience beginning his career in sales with the Coca-Cola Company, then as the Director of Sales Planning for Dr. Pepper Snapple Group.  Later in his career transitioned to start-ups and emerging brands in snack and beverage businesses.  These businesses have generated between $5mm to $80mm in revenue.  During the past several years he has been involved with some of the most exciting brand start-ups such as; OWYN, Saffron Road Foods, Mediterranean Snack Foods, Deep River Snacks, Honest Tea, Chobani, Fage, Sabra, and Kind Bars.  Barry has led companies in the role of President, Vice President of Sales, Director of Retail Accounts, and founded a specialty food distribution company.

Shannon brings 20+ years of experience in the natural and organic food and CPG industry. She specializes in product development, USDA organic and Non-GMO Project certifications, and label artwork review for products which includes extensive knowledge of FDA regulations and necessary steps for varying certifications.  Shannon’s previous role as a Marketing Manager for a CPG multi-brand division gave her ample experience in leading and managing a creative team and label development as well as retail promotions, digital and retail campaigns, and more.   Shannon’s history within the natural/organic industry extends across multiple categories which includes an extensive list of varying products while holding positions including Marketing Manager, Creative Services Manager, and Director of New Product & Label Development.

Jon Alpert has been the CFO of entrepreneurial companies in consumer, food and beverage industries, both privately owned and private equity owned, for over 25 years. He has helped companies grow, and, sometimes work out major financial problems.

Jon has been the CFO of brands such as Apple & Eve(juices), Sensible Portions (veggie snacks), Happy Baby (organic baby foods), and Kevita (sparkling probiotics and kombucha). He currently serves on the board of advisors of Pop Art Snacks (popcorn). Previously, he was on the board of directors of KeVita. Clients have included Saffron Road, Carriage House Imports (wine), Roar Beverages, Lark Ellen Farms (grain-less granola), Pop Art Snacks, AquaVitea Kombucha, Hella Cocktails, and Bimble Beverages.