Food Innovation & Investment Summit 2023

Greg McParland

Abigail Storms

Claire Schlemme

Claire Schlemme is an ardent environmentalist who saw a need to fix a broken food system in order to protect the planet. Claire’s lifelong interest in food and nature began to intertwine when she was diagnosed with cancer in her early 20s. This experience made her passionate about understanding the links between food and health, both of our environment and our own bodies. She co-founded Boston’s first organic juice company with the aim to connect local farmers and city-dwellers through nutritious and delicious foods. This experience exposed her to two primary challenges: food waste and the lack of affordable nutrition. Committed to finding solutions at the intersection of food, sustainability, and accessible nutrition, Claire launched Renewal Mill. Prior to diving into entrepreneurship, Claire was an environmental consultant at Industrial Economics, Inc. in Cambridge, MA. She holds a BA from Wellesley College and a Master of Environmental Management from Yale University.

Veronica Fil

Veronica Fil is a former behavioral economist; an author; and the co-founder of Grounded Foods Co.-- a company that creates high-nutrition dairy alternatives from one of the world's most sustainable superfoods, hemp. 

Scott Tassani

Currently, as President of Meati Foods, a Boulder, Colorado start-up and innovator in alternative protein solutions, Scott is spearheading a growth strategy to achieve $1B in net sales by 2025. His fundraising impact led Meati to convert a $150M Series C and more than double the company's market valuation.

Tassani previously served for nearly 30 years at The Pillsbury Company and General Mills, where in his last five years, he was the President and Chief Customer Officer for the brand’s $11 billion North America business. During his tenure with General Mills, he delivered winning strategies and premier commercial execution for leading consumer brands, including Cheerios, Annie’s, Yoplait and Nature Valley.

Sarah Williams

Sarah Williams is a Partner at Rich Products Corporate Venture Fund. Sarah has spent the past 25 years working with food companies as an operator, consultant and investor. In 2003, she was the first hire at f’real foods, a frozen blended beverage company, and held several key leadership roles while building the business from start-up through growth to a successful acquisition by Rich Products in 2012. After a transition period, Sarah worked with the founding team of Food System 6 accelerator to stand-up and run its first entrepreneur cohort focused on health, equity and sustainability in the food system. In 2017, she returned to Rich Products to join the newly established Rich products Corporate Venture Fund. Sarah has an MBA from Duke University and a BA from Princeton University.

Alyon Steinhart

Aylon Steinhart is the co-founder and CEO at Eclipse Foods, a startup on a mission to create a more sustainable, healthy, and humane food system. Eclipse is building the future of dairy using micelles (the microscopic "magic" of milk) to create plant-based products that are indistinguishable from conventional dairy in taste, texture, and functionality. Eclipse has raised over $60M from investors including Y Combinator, the chairman of Beyond Meat, and the founder of Reddit, and has launched the first-ever plant-based milkshake offered at a national restaurant chain (Smashburger). 

Prior to founding Eclipse, Aylon worked at the Good Food Institute, the leading non-profit in alternative proteins. There, he incubated dozens of startups and advised investors and strategic partners including Kraft Heinz, Kellogg's, and more on the alternative protein space.

Celeste Holz-Schietinger

Irina Gerry

Irina is a purpose-driven entrepreneur and marketing leader, on a mission to transform the food system and drive widespread adoption of sustainable ways to feed the world. She is a Chief Marketing Officer at Change Foods, a precision fermentation food tech company, creating animal-free dairy products.

Prior to joining Change Foods, Irina spent 5 years working on two of the largest plant-based food and beverage brands, Silk and So Delicious. Irina has over a decade of experience in consumer marketing space with global giants, Procter & Gamble and Danone, as well as business strategy and operations with Deloitte. Irina holds an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Christina Khoo

Christina is the Director of Emerging Science, Nutrition and Regulatory Affairs, Ocean Spray Cranberries. She leads a team responsible for providing scientific substantiation for the development of functional health products and regulatory guidance for messaging and claims. During her tenure, Christina successfully obtained the first FDA qualified health claim for a food (cranberry) to help reduce an acute urinary tract infection, as well as novel foods and GRAS approvals. Christina also leads the emerging science team, spearheading several projects with start-up companies, evaluating technologies from farm to fork to help accelerate innovation and sustainability initiatives.

As an influencer, she has taken on roles in cross sector initiatives. She is Chair of the IAFNS Bioactives committee and the Cognitive Health working group. She serves as Treasurer of the National Berry Crops Alliance board and Vice Chair of the Juice Products Assn Board. Christina participates actively in the National Academy of Science, Engineering  and Medicine Food Forum as well as the Tufts Friedman School Food and Nutrition Innovation Institute as the co-chair of the Food is Medicine working group, where she collaborates with cross sector partners to work on important food and nutrition issues.

Christina received her doctorate at the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, University of Florida and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Harvard School of Public Health.

Nate Crosser

Audrey Gyr

Audrey is a Startup Innovation Specialist at the Good Food Institute (GFI), an international nonprofit focused on creating a healthy, just, and sustainable food system through plant-based, fermentation-derived, and cultivated protein innovation. She consults with alternative protein startups on all areas of building a business including fundraising, commercialization, and go-to-market strategy. Audrey manages GFI’s Business of Alt Protein Seminar series and was the author of the 2021 State of the Industry Report on Fermentation. Audrey holds a B.S. in Animal Sciences and Development Sociology from Cornell University. She joined GFI after several years of working at transformative organizations in the fields of financial technology, sustainable agriculture, and higher education.

Scott Romano