Hain Celestial has chosen Beena Goldenberg to head up its newly launched venture capital unit, Cultivate Ventures. In addition to her current role as chief executive of Hain Celestial Canada, Ms. Goldenberg will lead Cultivate Ventures as its multiple teams work to scale up small acquisitions that represent lifestyle brands, concepts, products or technologies that focus on health and wellness.
“Beena is now responsible for all aspects of Cultivate, including defining strategic direction, top-line revenue and profitability,” said Irwin D. Simon, founder, president and CEO of Hain Celestial. “Teams that include marketing, sales and supply chain functions will work with Beena to develop Cultivate and catalyze growth of the brands, along with identifying smaller acquisition and investment targets.”
Once Cultivate’s acquisitions reach adequate scale, they will then be included in one of the Company’s core platforms – Fresh Living, Better-For-You-Baby, Better-For-You-Snacking, Better-For-You-Pantry, or Pure Personal Care.
“Since Hain Celestial’s inception, we have invested in health and wellness brands and concepts, giving them the infrastructure to grow. We formed Cultivate Ventures to bring that legacy to our high potential brands, investing in teams with support and focus to help them thrive,” said Simon.
Cultivate will be managed under Hain’s Rest of World segment along with Hain Celestial Canada and Hain Celestial Europe. In fiscal year 2016, the unit’s brands – BluePrint, DeBoles, GG Unique Fiber, SunSpire, Tilda, and Yves Veggie Cuisine generated $70 million in net sales. Going into fiscal year 2017, Hain expects that these brands will remain earning-neutral as they will still be in need of investment and support.
“Cultivate Ventures will renew our Company’s entrepreneurial spirit and reaffirm Hain Celestial’s position as the leader to create and inspire consumers with ‘A Healthier Way of Life,'” said Ms. Goldenberg.
Rabobank Makes Several Senior Leadership Shifts
Rabobank has made a series of changes to its senior-level team of its Corporate Clients franchise in North America (CCNA), which serves hundreds of leading food and agribusiness-focused companies throughout the food value chain in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.
All staffing changes have occurred within three units – Mergers & Acquisitions, Food & Agribusiness Research, and Client Coverage – a new unit created to concentrate on innovating food and agribusiness startups.
These appointments include Gregg Fatzinger being named managing director, Mergers & Acquisitions. Mr. Fatzinger has 20 years of experience within the food and agribusiness space and was responsible for co-founding Credit Suisse’s consumer coverage group in 1997.
Stefan Behrens and Ross Colbert were both internally promoted to Global Sector Head – Consumer Foods and Global Sector Head-Beverages, respectively. Mr. Behrens was previously Head of Loan Product Group for Rabobank Asia, and Mr. Colbert was previously Head of FAR-North America and Global Strategist-Beverages during which time he also managed the Food & Agribusiness Research North America team.
As. Mr. Colbert assumes his new role, Pablo Sherwell has been promoted to the position of Head of Food & Agribusiness research. Mr. Sherwell was previously with Rabobank Mexico after spending five years with the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture. With a PhD in agricultural economics from Texas A&M, Mr. Sherwell has strong experience with food and ag research with particular insight regarding the animal protein and sugar sectors.
Stephen Rannekleiv has been named Global Sector Strategic, Beverages by the bank. Mr. Rannekleiv has been with the bank since 2006 and was previously Rabobank’s senior analyst and Executive Director for alcoholic beverages.
Manuel Gonzalez has been appointed to the newly created position of Head of Startup Innovation. Formerly the Head of Rabobank North America’s San Francisco office, Mr. Gonzalez, who has been key to the creation of Rabobank’s food and agribusiness accelerator, Terra and Food Bytes event, will work to identify innovative startups in the food and agribusiness space.
Mark Abrams has been appointed Head of Rabobank North America’s office in San Francisco. For the past four years, Mr. Abrams served as the Head of M&A, South America for the bank.
The Yield Lab Names New Chairman of Ireland Operations
After expanding into Europe with the opening of an office in Ireland, St. Louis-based agtech accelerator the Yield Lab has named Paul Finnerty as the new Chairman of its Irish operations.
Mr. Finnerty joins the accelerator from food processing company ABF Food Group where he served as CEO. Upon his retirement from the company, ABF posted 2.9 billion in revenue at the close of September 2015. In his new role as Chairman, Mr. Finnerty will provide strategic direction and mentorship for the Yield Lab’s portfolio companies.
Since its launch in 2014, The Yield Lab has invested $1.1 million in 11 global agtech startups. These 11 businesses have since gone on to raise an additional $20 million in funding.
Irish Agtech Company BHSL Names New Chairman
Ireland-based agtech company BHSL has appointed Denis Brosnan, former chief executive with the Kerry Group, as its new chairman.
The appointment coincides with BHSL’s plans to raise a minimum of €7 million to fund its global expansion plans.
The company, which has developed a technology that can transform poultry manure into a fuel source is aiming to boost its research and development initiatives to possibly extend its technology to mushroom production waste and other waste sources, while also strengthening its global sales presence.
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Lynda Kiernan