Where did you get your start?  As a Peace Corps Volunteer in Central America. For me there was no better preparation to be one and work with impact entrepreneurs than moving to a small town in a foreign country, learning a new language, culture and people and just figuring out how to be helpful. 

What shaped your perspective on business?  My parents’ views on social and environmental justice. Any business I start or invest in I cannot help but think how they might celebrate and get excited with me and then ask, how this will affect people and the planet. 

What’s a habit that you wish you had picked up sooner?   Sleep. I thought it was a sign of weakness and a waste of time. What a fool I was. 

What’s something you just started learning?  Dream interpretation. I’m having some good ones that I think I could spend a lifetime trying to understand.  

What about your life would your 13-year old self be most impressed by?  That I do not have 6 cars, an indoor basketball court and an ice cream dispenser. 

What’s something that really needs to be modernized?  Our cellular system. I had better connectivity in El Salvador in 1999 than I do in LA in 2020.  

Where did you get your start?  As a competitive tennis player growing up, my entrepreneurial spirit was cultivated in High School when I started my own tennis racquet stringing business, Cross Strings. I levered that experience into television production jobs working for HBO Sports and USA Networks at Wimbledon and the French Open throughout high school and college. While I pivoted to Finance after college, these experiences were a great start to my professional journey.   

Where is your happy place?  The finish line of an Ironman, trail running on a mountain, or sitting in an ice bath.  

What’s something you can’t live without?  My children, I have son and daughter. They bring more happiness to my life than I ever thought was humanely possible and motivate me to be a better human every day.   

What’s something or someone you’re unflinchingly loyal to?  Myself. My parents always taught me to be true to myself. What this means to me is being completely confident and honest with who I am, what I feel, and unwavering in my values.   

What’s a fact that amazes you every time you think of it?  The fact that women grow and birth babies. Childbirth is an astounding combination of science and the human spirit.  

What is one-character trait that defines you?  Grit, which I define as the power of passion and perseverance. I fully subscribe to the concept of getting comfortable with the uncomfortable and pushing myself beyond what I thought was possible to build obstacle immunity. Angela Duckworth’s Grit Equation strongly resonates with me:  

Talent + Effort = Skill 

Skill + Effort = Achievement  

Where did you get your start?  I started my career in January 1980 when I joined investment bank, Drexel Burnham Lambert. I spent the majority of my time working for Mike Milken in the high yield and convertible securities group.  

What motivates you?  A desire to improve our world by helping to re-architect our food system to deliver better nutrition in more sustainable and ethical ways.  

What’s just around the corner for plant-based products?  I believe we will see price parity between animal and plant based proteins. 

What’s a fact that amazes you every time you think of it?  That 70% of Americans are either overweight or obese. 

 What’s something you can’t live without?  Access to Veggie Grill 

What is key to a successful brand?  A clear understanding of the rational and emotional needs you fulfill in your consumers lives.

What shaped your perspective on business?  Built to Last by Jim Collins.

What’s the first thing you read every day?  Wall Street Journal.

If you had to dedicate your life to solving one problem what would it be?  How to get more people to eat more plants (which is what I’ve dedicated my career to do).

Where is your happy place?  Taking a beach run.

What’s something or someone you’re unflinchingly loyal to?  The New England Patriots

What’s something or someone you’re unflinchingly loyal to?  My three sisters. As the oldest of 4 girls, there is nothing I wouldn’t do for them. 

What is key to a successful brand?  Amazing products that consumers habitually love and have a positive impact on human health, animal welfare and environmental sustainability.  

What motivates you?  Transforming people’s health. I’m grateful I get to be a part of this every day supporting our brands scale at Powerplant. As more consumers adopt our brand’s plant-based products, they are (consciously or unconsciously) improving their health and likely preventing or reversing chronic disease. 

Where is your happy place?  Martha’s Vineyard. I moved around a lot growing up and this was the family home we’ve owned the longest and always went back to. I also got engaged and married on the island. 

If you had to dedicate your life to solving one problem what would it be?  Removing Glyphosate from our food, soil and water. 

What’s a fact that amazes you every time you think of it?  70% of Americans are obese! 

Where is your happy place?  Anywhere warm by water. Preferably a lake, but I won’t be picky.  

What’s something you just started learning?  During Covid, I have been spending more time outside and have been riding a road bike for the first time. Hopefully, I’ll continue to pick up more outdoor activities. 

Where were you when you ate the best food of your life?  Frita Batidos in Ann Arbor, Michigan. They have the most incredible black bean burger. My retirement plans include convincing the Frita Batidos owners to let me open a franchise somewhere on a beach.

Which album is the soundtrack to your life?  Good Kid, M.A.A.D City by Kendrick Lamar 

What’s a bit of trivia that you know that’s super interesting?  Roughly 50% of the nutrients that the Amazon rainforest uses to grow and survive comes from the Sahara Desert. The world is much more interconnected than it might seem. 

What about your life would your 13-year-old self be most impressed by?   That each year gets better and better!  

What is key to a successful brand?  The team behind it.  

Which album is the soundtrack to your life?  I’m going to go one step further and give a song – Eye of the Tiger by Survivor, a.k.a. the Rocky theme song. Every time I hear the song I think of grit, determination and one of my favorite life quotes, “It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done”  

What’s a fact that amazes you every time you think of it?  There are ~7,700,000,000 people in the world and each person has the power every day to make a positive impact on it! 

Where is your happy place?  Around the dinner table with family and close friends! 

Where is your happy place? 

The beach, walking in nature or laughing with my family and closest friends.

What motivates you?  

Positively impacting the lives of others. Having even a small role in helping people live healthier and happier lives is an incredible opportunity.

What’s something or someone you’re unflinchingly loyal to? 

My family. They continuously motivate and inspire me to align my actions with purpose and grow to my fullest potential.

What’s a habit that you wish you had picked up sooner?
Meditating. In order to show up for others and add the most value to those around me, I need to show up for myself first. 

What is key to a successful brand?

Building a product or service that people integrate so deeply into their everyday lives that they can’t imagine a day without it.

Where is your happy place?

Anywhere warm, tropical and close to the ocean!

What motivates you?

The ability to pay it forward – using what I’ve learned to better understand how I can help others.

What’s something or someone you’re unflinchingly loyal to?

My morning gym routine.

What’s a habit you wished you had picked up sooner?

Setting healthy boundaries and adapting sustainable practices.

What is key to a successful brand?

The ability to bring together a devoted community that can’t stop talking about it.

What’s a habit that you wish you had picked up sooner?   Sleep, sleep, sleep. It’s one of the best things I could do for myself. I used to brag about not needing a lot of sleep but that just ran me into a burn out state with imbalanced adrenals.  

What’s something you just started learning? To ask for what I need.  My mom raised me to be very independent and strong but I thought that meant doing it all by myself. I’ve learned that asking for help or speaking my truth is true strength. 

Where is your happy place? The beach or mountains with my dogs and my partner.  

What’s something you can’t live without? Aside from my family and dogs, my drinking water system. 

What does your perfect restaurant look like?  A beautiful dinner setting outdoors with twinkle lights above and tables full of my friends and family safely dining without masks drinking the most beautiful vegan wines and eating the most soil nutrient grown farm-to- table plant-based menu. 

What’s a habit that you wish you had picked up sooner? I wish I understood autosuggestion sooner and had better habits around being aware of this. What I read, look at, talk about, think about, focus on all shape my subconscious and my subconscious is what drives  my behavior (as opposed to my conscious). It’s as simple as extracting myself from situations, people, conversations, etc. that I don’t want seeping in my subconscious. Sometimes I can do it gracefully and other times I can’t. Being aware of autosuggestion and integrating it in my life is a habit I wish I had picked up sooner.

What’s something you like about your role that others might think is boring? I am responsible for shaping the next iteration of our impact strategy to make sure we stay a top-tier impact firm within the private markets. Impact investing in private markets is moving very fast and there is a ton learn daily. I love studying what the market is doing and figuring out how to create strategies our LPs will love.

What is your happy place? Bed.

What’s something you can’t live without? Coffee.

What’s a fact that amazes you every time you think of it? Web3. I am still trying to understand because I’m too young to not try to understand.

What’s a habit that you wish you had picked up sooner? Practicing mindfulness and staying in the moment. A great scholar from my childhood once said, “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.”

What’s something you just started learning? That it is OK to ask for help. Growing up as the youngest child in a family with two older brothers I learned self sufficiency from an early age.  As such, I have always been fiercely independent.  Fatherhood taught me that it really does take a village and that I can’t do everything myself.

What is your happy place? My happy place isn’t a physical location.  They say home is where the heart is, and for me, home is anywhere I can spend quality time with my wife and children.  Whether that is cuddling up on the couch for a family movie night, playing tag at the playground or going on a family hike in Marin.

What’s something you can’t live without? Music. As someone who is highly empathic music allows me insight into the life of others, and a chance to see the world from perspectives other than my own.

What’s a fact that amazes you every time you think of it? The interconnectivity of the human experience. So often people feel alone, but we are far more connected than we realize.

Mr. Macray served as SVP/Chief Impact Officer at REBBL, responsible for impact strategy and initiatives across the company, publishing REBBL’s first Impact Report, and implementing critical regenerative business practices in operations.   From 2014-18, Mr. Macray was Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Theo Chocolate, responsible for company operations including bean-to-bar chocolate production, and creating sustainable business practices along the value chain, including Theo’s innovative cocoa sourcing from the Democratic Republic of Congo.    From 2010-2014, Dennis Macray led his own strategic management consultancy whose clients included The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, The Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), The World Cocoa Foundation, The Hershey Company, and the Eastern Congo Initiative.   Mr. Macray served as Director of Global Responsibility at Starbucks Coffee Company from 2002-2010 where he led the development of ethical sourcing standards for coffee (C.A.F.E. Practices), food and manufactured goods.  Mr. Macray was responsible for the Starbucks Annual CSR Impact Report data collection across global operations during a period of growth from 5,000 stores to 16,500 producing the first widely recognized ESG Reports.   Previously, Mr. Macray worked with several global nonprofits, start-ups, and private companies in Latin America and Africa, and served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Guatemala.  He is a graduate of Harvard and has an MBA from the University of California at Berkeley.

Adam Lowry is a former climate scientist and the founder of several mission-driven businesses, including Method Products, Ripple Foods, and Sugarbreak, all public benefit corporations.  Adam designs businesses with sustainability principles at their core, so that their growth produces positive social and environmental impacts.  His businesses have eliminated more than a million tons of GHG emissions and thousand tons of plastic waste, saved more than 100 billion gallons of water, and created hundreds of green manufacturing jobs on four continents; all while creating more than a billion dollars in shareholder value.

Adam’s companies have been named #7 on the Inc 500 list of fastest growing private companies in the US; #16 on Fast Company’s Fast 50 World’s Most Innovative Companies; and twice named to the Global CleanTech 100.  Adam has contributed countless innovations to the sustainable business space that span from packaging to green chemistry to urban revitalization. 

Adam has been honored as recipient of The Circular Economy Award from the World Economic Forum and the Global Citizen Award from the Clinton Global Initiative for his leadership in the private sector.  Adam is a Catto Environmental Fellow at the Aspen Institute and holds a B.S. Chemical Engineering from Stanford University. 

Tom O’Rourke joined the PowerPlant team as an Operating Advisor in 2021. Tom works closely with our team and our portfolio companies to help achieve strategic objectives. He brings 30+ years of experience building and leading high-growth food companies.

Tom is the former CEO of Snack Factory, the parent company of Pretzel Crisps®, and grew the brand from ~$40M to ~$130M within 3 years, resulting in a successful sale to Snyder’s-Lance, Inc. (Nasdaq: LNCE) for $340 million.

He is also the former lead Operating Partner for VMG Partners, and a former Operating Partner for TSG, and has served as a board member, lead strategist, and advisor across other leading consumer brands, such as Vega, Babyganics, Health Warrior, Quest Nutrition, KIND Healthy Snacks, Pirate Brands, and several more. The combined enterprise value of brands he has worked on exceeded $3 billion at exit.

Mr. Muth is a senior leader with strong background in building winning organizational cultures with both large and small companies.

Most recently he served as the Chief Growth Officer at Beyond Meat from May 2017 until June 2021. Muth led the company’s growth initiatives and was instrumental in engineering a high performing sales and marketing organization. Under Muth’s leadership, the company rapidly grew Net Revenues from $16M in 2016 to over $400 in 2020 by expanding distribution into over 120,000 retail, restaurant and foodservice outlets in more than 80 countries worldwide.

Prior to joining Beyond Meat, Mr. Muth had a long career in the beverage industry. From 2014 to 2016, he led the creation of a new entrepreneurial sales/commercial organization, Venturing & Emerging Brands (VEB), within the Coca-Cola Company as Senior Vice-President with revenue increases of over 200%. From 2010 to 2014, Muth was Vice President of Sales at the Honest Beverage Company after its acquisition by Coke growing revenues from $35 million to over $230 million. From 2004 to 2010 Muth was Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing at The Philadelphia Coca-Cola Bottling Company. Prior to 2004 Muth served as the Vice President/General Manager of Joseph E. Seagram’s global non-alcoholic beverages business unit.

Muth began his career as a Truck Driver/Route Salesman for The Coca-Cola Bottling Company of New York where he progressively advanced his career with promotions to District Sales Manager, Division Sales Manager, Director of Brand Management and Branch General Manager.

Muth serves as a board director at Vive Organics, Partake Foods, ZICO Rising and Infinite Foods. Muth is a graduate of Montclair State University with a BS degree in Marketing and Management and where he currently serves on their business advisory board. Muth also has an MBA in Finance from Fairleigh Dickenson University.

Rebecca Messina currently serves on the board of two PowerPlant Partners portfolio companies: Vive Organic and Zico.  She has deep experience in building global brands and most recently served as Uber Technologies first-ever CMO with the charge to build a centralized, global marketing organization for the San Francisco-based company.

Rebecca previously spent more than two decades at Coca-Cola, most recently as Senior VP of Marketing and Innovation, Venturing and Emerging Brands. She was there for the introduction of the polar bears, the “Coca-Cola. Enjoy” campaign at the turn of the millennium, and the unveiling of the “one-brand” marketing strategy under Marcos de Quinto, CMO at the time, with the tagline “Taste the Feeling.”

In early 2016, she took on the role of senior VP and Global CMO at Beam Suntory, a Deerfield, Ill.-based company that had at the time undergone its own dramatic changes: It was created in 2014 when Suntory Holdings Limited of Japan acquired Beam Inc. for about $16 billion.

She left Beam Suntory in the second half 2018 when she joined Uber.