Believer Meats’ (“Believer”) path to American consumers continues to ramp up with the addition of three new senior leaders who will oversee everything from consumer marketing and order taking to our logistical processes and cultivated meat supply chain—all critical behind-the-scenes work required to get our cultivated meat onto menus and tables in the U.S.
In the last few months, we welcomed Operations Planning & Performance VP Kash Muthuraman, who brings more than 20 years of U.S. food supply chain experience to his new role; Procurement VP Conor Ruff, an expert manager with 15+ years of global procurement experience; and Marketing VP Peter Lee, a consumer packaged goods-industry veteran with more than a decade of experience at General Mills and Starbucks. Together, they’re laying important groundwork for our U.S. launch and future expansion.
Kash’s role will help ensure we can seamlessly fulfill orders and keep our products flowing to anyone hungry for a taste of Believer. It involves setting up and overseeing key activities, like budgeting and resource planning, as well as designing and implementing the logistical and cultivated meat supply chain processes we’ll use to track and manage orders. The technology his teams use and on-the-ground activities they carry out will keep ingredients moving to factories, and final products to eateries and, ultimately, to diners looking to enjoy real meat without any of the ethical concerns tied to conventional meat production, from animal welfare to environmental impact.
Before joining us, Kash was VP of Sales & Operations Planning for Kraft Heinz in the U.S., where he led end-to-end sales and operations planning processes for their entire $18 billion U.S. productions. His experience overseeing production plans for around 6,000 unique products across dozens of manufacturing facilities will serve us well as we set our sights on scaling up in the U.S
Making Believer Meats a Top Alternative Meat Industry Choice
Conor, meanwhile, will secure the ingredients and raw materials we need to operate and scale in the U.S. He’s charged with overseeing all the details that go into sourcing everything from the cell media used to grow animal cells, to the packaging materials we will use to deliver our products to customers. These details include the processes we’ll use to partner with and evaluate suppliers. Additionally, Conor will be leading Believer’s sustainability initiatives. He brings to the role years of global experience in procurement and sustainability at Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI)–the world’s largest brewery, where he was most recently VP of Procurement & Sustainability, Africa.
Peter, finally, will oversee the marketing work that will make Future Meat a household name and top choice in the alternative meat industry. In anticipation of the U.S. rollout, he’s been working with the leadership team to introduce our alternative meat to the wider public: the brand, vision, and story that diners in the U.S. will think of when they think of cultivated meat. His marketing resume is packed with experience at heavy-hitting brands familiar to any American, like Starbucks, Nature Valley, Pillsbury, General Mills and Greenleaf Foods, where he doubled the business for plant-based brands Field Roast and Chao Cheese.
These latest additions come as Believer continues to make headway in its search for its first U.S. manufacturing site, and just months after we built out our executive leadership team with a trio of industry veterans.
Our bolstered team, with decades of global expertise, is shepherding us to the next, most important phase of our journey: commercialization. The expert teams they’re building and directing are already priming our transition from a successful technology startup to a revolutionary consumer-facing brand and top choice among alternative meat companies. The groundwork they’re laying today will enable U.S. diners to enjoy their first tastes of Believer, and to fulfill their orders when they come back for more.
