The HumanCo Team
Jason H. Karp is Founder and CEO of HumanCo. Jason is driven by a passionate belief that improving health is the most effective strategy to increase global prosperity. Jason is also Chairman and Co-Founder of Hu (as in Human), one of the fastest growing snacking companies in the U.S. Previously, Jason was the Founder and CEO of Tourbillon Capital Partners, an investment fund that managed over $4 billion, and has over 21 years of investment experience. Jason has a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
Ross Berman is President and Co-Founder of HumanCo. He has over twenty years of investment experience, including in public and private equity markets and consumer packaged goods. He founded and was the CIO of Green Owl Capital Management and was a Co-Founder and Co-Portfolio Manager of BAM Capital Management. Ross is a board member of Hu Kitchen and Hu Products. Ross has a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin.
Amy Zipper is the Chief Operating Officer of HumanCo. Amy previously managed operations, human resources, legal, technology, marketing and investor relations for New York-based investment management firms. Amy has been passionate for over a decade about raising her young children with a healthy and allergy-friendly diet and creating a healthier world. She graduated with Honors and Phi Beta Kappa with a B.A. in International Studies from Johns Hopkins University. She then received her Juris Doctor from N.Y.U. School of Law as a Dean McKay Scholar. She is a member of the Connecticut, Florida and New York State Bars.
Will Lisman is the Chief Commercial Officer at HumanCo. Will has 17+ years of consumer industry experience ranging from startups to Fortune 500 companies across a broad range of disciplines including marketing, sales, strategy and M&A. Previously, Will was an executive with Amplify Snack Brands, an independent operating subsidiary of The Hershey Company and a leading better-for-you snack platform. Prior to Amplify, Will held a variety of commercial leadership positions within The Hershey Company and also spent five years as a management consultant in the Consumer Practice at The Parthenon Group, a boutique strategy consulting firm that is now part of EY. Will has a B.S. in Management from Boston College and an M.B.A. from The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Brian Locklear is the Director of Finance & Business Development at HumanCo. Brian has over eight years of experience in the consumer space in both investment and strategy roles. Prior to joining HumanCo, he was a Principal at Beechwood Capital, a growth-stage investment firm focused on health and wellness consumer brands. Previously, Brian worked in the Strategy group at the Hershey Company. Brian has a B.S. in Management from Boston College and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Moshe Shalchon is Chief Financial Officer of Cosmic Bliss. He has over twelve years of experience with mergers and acquisitions, due diligence, financial modeling, valuation and integration consulting experience, and over five years of investment experience in the CPG sector. Moshe has an MBA from Boston University’s Graduate School of Management.
Brian Evangelista is General Manager and COO of Snow Days. Brian has 10+ years of CPG experience across startups and Fortune 500 companies as a brand builder and business leader. He held numerous marketing, innovation, and general management positions with Conagra Brands and has since set his focus on early-stage health & wellness brands. Brian has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering from Michigan State University and an M.B.A from Loyola University Chicago
Jory Benerofe is the Chief Creative Officer of HumanCo. He spent 20+ years building the lifestyle apparel brand vineyard vines from a startup into one of the most recognized American brands. Jory has held multiple roles focusing on a broad spectrum of responsibilities impacting brand positioning, creative direction, marketing and branding, customer experience, and creative strategy. Jory received his Bachelor of Environmental Design from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Advisory Board
Our Advisory Board provides rigorous, evidence-supported criteria or guardrails for the products and companies in which HumanCo invests, as well as guidance on product pipelines, nutrition and health science, data analytics, and strategic investments & partnerships.
A cardiologist and public health expert, Dr. Mozaffarian is Dean and Jean Mayer Professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy and Professor of Medicine at Tufts Medical Center/School of Medicine. He has authored more than 400 scientific publications on dietary priorities for obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases. He has served in numerous advisory roles including for the US and Canadian governments, American Heart Association, World Health Organization and the UN. In 2016, Thomson Reuters named him one of the World’s Most Influential Scientific Minds.
Indra Nooyi is the former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo (2006-2019); a Fortune 50 company with operations in over 180 countries. Among the most successful and celebrated consumer CEOs in history, ‘Fortune’ magazine named Indra No. 1 on its annual ranking of Most Powerful Women in Business for five consecutive years from 2006 to 2010. In this role, Mrs. Nooyi was the chief architect of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo’s pledge to do what’s right for the business by being responsive to the needs of the world around us. As part of Performance with Purpose, PepsiCo was focused on delivering sustained growth by making more nutritious products, limiting its environmental footprint and protecting the planet, and empowering its associates and people in the communities it serves. Currently, Mrs. Nooyi is a member of the board of Amazon and sits on the Audit Committee.
Dr. Griffin is Associate Professor and Division Chair – Agriculture, Food and the Environment at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science. In 2018, Dr. Griffin was named as the inaugural recipient of a professorship in Nutrition, Agriculture, and Sustainable Food Systems. He has given more than 800 scientific and public presentations on agriculture and the food system and published 90 peer-reviewed scientific articles across many scientific disciplines. Prior to coming to the Friedman School, he served as Lead Scientist/Agronomist at the USDA Agricultural Research Service.
A dietitian and nutrition innovation expert, Marissa Epstein is the Director of The University of Texas Nutrition Institute. Her work and teaching focuses on catalyzing innovation with evidence-based nutrition science to bring consumers healthy eating solutions in everyday life. Previously, Marissa was Associate Director of Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move! initiative leading nutrition initiatives for The White House. She was also the Administrative Director of Health Education Engagement and Promotion at Stanford’s Health Care and taught courses in nutrition innovation at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
Brian’s depth of expertise across nearly every operating function of a consumer company has allowed him to build powerful brands at all growth stages across multiple consumer sectors. Brian was President & CEO and a Director at Keurig Green Mountain from 2012-2018. He drove innovation to expand the company’s products to more than 27 million households. He transformed the company by organically adding more than 50 brands to the Keurig system, growing the company’s value from $3.6 billion to $14 billion and then selling the company to JAB. Before selling Keurig Green Mountain, Brian joined the Coca-Cola Company in 2007 where he ultimately became President of North American operations with more than 70,000 employees.
With 7 Grand Slam titles, 5 Wimbledon championships and 4 Olympic gold medals, tennis champion Venus Williams is arguably one of the most accomplished and inspiring women in the history of sports. Not only a force on the court, but true to her bold spirit Williams parlayed her fine-tuned business acumen with her healthy competitive spirit into three successful business ventures: lifestyle and fashion-forward activewear brand EleVen by Venus Williams, full-service commercial and residential interior design firm V Starr and plant-based protein company Happy Viking. Throughout her career, Williams has been a steadfast advocate for equality. In 2007 it was her unwavering fight which led Wimbledon to award women players the same pay as their male counterparts and most recently, she launched an awareness initiative called the #PrivilegeTax in conjunction with EleVen to bring attention to the wage inequality and unveiled a platform of resources for young women to get inspired and address the issue on a grassroots level. Williams holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Indiana University East and an Associate of Science in Fashion Design from The Art Institute of Fort Lauderdale. More information can be found at www.venuswilliams.com
Brian joined the HumanCo Advisory Board to support its strategic investment in the better-for-you hospitality space (True Food Kitchen) and a portfolio of disruptive, clean-label CPG brands. Brian’s expertise in the consumer services and hospitality verticals led to significant shareholder value creation during his two-decades plus career. At Trian Partners, Brian helped lead multiple core investments including Intercontinental Hotel Group PLC, Tiffany & Co. and Wendy’s/Inspire Brands to name a few and has been an instrumental partner providing hands-on support for strategic, operational, financial and ESG matters to C-suite managers. Brian has served the boards of Inspire Brands, Wendy’s, Wendy’s/Arby’s Group and Meridian Audio, and started his relationship with HumanCo’s founders in 2014 as a co-investor of Hu Chocolate.