As a consultant since 1998, Bob Burke provides assistance in bringing natural, organic and specialty products to market across most classes of trade. This includes work in strategic planning, growth strategies, writing sales, marketing and business plans, budgeting, pricing, building distribution, broker selection and management, organizational development, strategic options, branding and trade spending management. He is also the co-author and co-publisher of the Natural Products Field Manual, Fourth Edition and The Sales Manager's Handbook. Prior to consulting, Bob was with Stonyfield Farm Yogurt for 11 years as Vice President, Sales & Corporate Development and Vice President, Marketing & Sales. He has held marketing positions with Colombo, Inc. and Sperry Top-Sider. He received an MBA from Babson College.

Jeremy Halpern is a partner and the Director of Business Development for the Emerging Companies Group. Jeremy's practice focuses on emerging companies, private equity, venture capital and angel financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, executive and team compensation matters, and general start-up support. Serving as the firm's entrepreneur-in-residence, Jeremy works with companies, investors, and executives in technology, life sciences and the food and beverage industry. Concurrently, Jeremy is an active angel investor, and serves on the Boards of The Capital Network, a Boston based non-profit serving entrepreneurs, and Pintley, a MassChallenge 2011 finalist company providing marketing solutions to the craft brewers and bars.

Dena Zigun is a veteran marketer, with 12 years of leadership roles in consumer marketing and business strategy, particularly in the natural foods and retail sectors. Dena is currently the Director of Marketing for Roche Bros., a family owned chain of premium supermarkets in Eastern Massachusetts. At Roche Bros. she recently launched a new flagship store in the former Filene’s Basement location in Boston’s Downtown Crossing and a new smaller-format perishable banner called Brothers Marketplace, promoting a fast-growing Home Delivery service, and bringing the brand communication portfolio into the 21st century, while keeping the presses rolling on retail staples like weekly newspaper circulars, radio, and television. Prior employers include Elevation Brands, Ian’s Natural Foods, Glutino Food Group, Stonyfield Farm, and Eastern Mountain Sports. Before earning her MBA, Dena worked as a management consultant for Diamond Technology Partners (now a division of PWC), where her clients included McDonalds, Sears Roebuck, and Allstate Insurance.

Michael Burgmaier is a Managing Director with Silverwood Partners focused on the food & beverage, Healthy Living and consumer sectors. Mr. Burgmaier has been active in venture capital and M&A for consumer companies since the early 2000s. He has raised capital for numerous companies and clients, written business plans, prepared fundraising materials, facilitated exits and served on boards of venture-backed companies.Mr. Burgmaier has an MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth as well as Master of Public Policy from Duke University and a BA in Economics from Boston College.

John has been in the grocery business for over 25 years, he founded Maggiore's Sales & Marketing in 2003, as a consultant and broker to the Natural/Specialty trade, with a primary focus on grocery, dairy and frozen in the Supermarket Channel. Prior to setting out on his own John was the Category Manager of Natural Food for Stop & Shop Supermarkets based in Boston, MA. John pioneered the store with-in-a-store Natural Food departments at Stop & Shop, creating over 150 departments in less than five years. Natural Food sales grew at Stop & Shop from $6 million when John took over responsibility for the department to $67 million when he left. Before John became Category Manager of Natural he had buying responsibilities in numerous categories including Specialty Cheese, Specialty Crackers, Gourmet Coffee, and Specialty Pasta as well as Frozen and Dairy Foods. Currently John is working with some leading manufacturers in the Natural Food channel including Pirate Brands, Justin's, Green Mountain Gringo, Seapoint Farms, R.W. Garcia and Angie's Popcorn, and has worked with other leading companies in the past including Bear Naked Granola, Larabar, Vita Coco and Ian's Natural Foods.

Justin is an attorney and shareholder in the Denver office of the international law firm Greenberg Traurig. His practice focuses on representing companies in the beverage, food, and dietary supplement and providing assistance on regulatory and legal issues. He reviews labels and packaging, websites and other promotional and advertising materials to ensure that the labels are technically compliant and appropriate claims are being made. He assists many companies with responses to FDA actions like warning letters, inspections and recalls, as well as FTC investigations. He also prepares and reviews industry contracts such as supplier and manufacturing agreements. And lately, he has been defending companies in class action lawsuits over labeling claims like "all natural" filed in California and other states.

Formerly a corporate law partner in the Santa Monica office of the international law firm of Bryan Cave LLP, Brette advises emerging growth companies on capital raising, strategic alliances, and exit transactions. Brette has worked with numerous companies in the food and beverage space, and is currently on the advisory board of MetaBrand and a mentor to early-stage food and beverage companies as part of the AccelFoods accelerator. Her representative transactions include the sale of: ASR Food Distributors, Inc. in its sale to Gold Star Foods, Inc., a portfolio company of Prospect Partners; a natural and organic baking manufacturer in its sale to ARYZTA; Southbridge Group LP in its sale of the stock of Huxtable's Kitchen and the assets of Pasta Kitchen, two of its portfolio companies, to Arlon Group; Catterton Partners in connection with its growth equity investment in NJOY; and Okami Foods, Inc. in its acquisition by Fuji Food Products, Inc. Brette has spoken at numerous industry conferences as well as to several chapters of the Entrepreneurs Organization and Vistage. She has also written articles on a variety of corporate legal topics, and has been extensively quoted in business and industry publications such as the Wall Street Journal, The Deal and the Nutrition Business Journal . Ms. Simon ranked first in her graduating class and graduated Order of the Coif from UCLA School of Law, where she was editor of the UCLA Law Review. She received her undergraduate degree in quantitative economics from the University of California at San Diego, where she graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa. She has garnered numerous accolades throughout her career, including recognition as one of the top 13 dealmakers in the U.S. for the middle market by The Deal, a leading corporate finance publication, and being selected as a winner of the inaugural "40 Under 40" award by The M&A Advisor.

Nancy has two decades of leadership experience in values driven, consumer-facing companies. She has held C level and or governance positions at Bright Horizons, Tom's of Maine, ZipCar, Mama Chia, Root Capital and Trillium Asset Management. Nancy has an impressive track record of creating business value by identifying consumer trends ahead of the curve. In her leadership roles Nancy has been successful at raising capital, managing mergers, spin-outs and corporate sales to strategic buyers.

Drew Harrington is the Co-Founder of Yasso Frozen Greek Yogurt. Yasso was the first-ever line of frozen Greek yogurt bars to hit the market. Now sold in over 14,000 grocery stores nationwide, Yasso is one of the fastest-growing brands in the frozen category. Delivering on consumer desires for great tasting and healthier everyday treats, Yasso has quickly become a fan favorite and is poised for continued growth. Drew attended American University on a track scholarship before transferring to Northeastern University. A leader and entrepreneur at heart, Drew has now successfully launched two startup businesses on a national scale. Drew lives in Boston, MA.

im Sperry is a founder and principal at The Tim Sperry Group, a consulting firm that provides advice in connection with new product development and market Introductions. The firm also provides consulting advice for market reviews and opportunity development for Private Equity firms, and category reviews and sales strategies for a number of leading food product companies. Mr. Sperry launched The Tim Sperry Group in 2006 following a twenty year career at Whole Foods Market. During his tenure with Whole Foods Market, Mr. Sperry led the Grocery Team in one of the largest regions of the company and he participated in the expansion of Whole Foods into Washington, D.C., New York City and London. Mr. Sperry was also a key participant in the development of National Purchasing at Whole Foods.

Lindsay is passionate about businesses that make healthy food accessible and affordable to everyone. She is currently the VP of Sales for the US for The Chia Company, a health food company that grows and sells chia seed and chia consumer food products. Prior to this, Lindsay was the category merchant for prepared foods at NYC's online grocer FreshDirect. Lindsay has 6 years of experience at Goldman Sachs in urban redevelopment private equity and investment banking, and has a BA in Economics from Harvard and an MBA from Yale School of Management. She spends time outside of work as a mentor through Breakthrough New York, and as a board member of SlowMoney NYC.