KIND Bolsters Executive Team to Further Propel Health and Wellness Leadership

Daniel Lubetzky Elevates to Executive Chairman with Mike Barkley Taking the Helm as CEO

 

September 10, 2019 – Today KIND Healthy Snacks (KIND) announced a number of leadership appointments. After 15 years of momentous growth, KIND’s Founder, Daniel Lubetzky, will elevate to become the company’s Executive Chairman. Daniel will continue to be a driving force for growth of the company, focusing on a variety of strategic initiatives.

 

Daniel, the longtime Founder & CEO of KIND named Mike Barkley, who joined KIND last fall as President and COO, to Chief Executive Officer. Mike brought to KIND an impressive track record at a variety of food and beverage consumer packaged goods companies, including Pinnacle Foods, Campbell Soup and PepsiCo. In his first year at KIND, Mike has been focused on growing KIND's portfolio, purpose and potential, and has had an immediate and positive impact on KIND’s performance.

 

KIND is also announcing the appointment of three industry leaders, with decades of experience building brands and developing companies, to its leadership team:

 

• Dan Poland, Chief Operating Officer – Dan brings a wealth of experience leading a broad range of operating functions at fast growing and mature businesses. Dan most recently served as EVP & Chief Supply Chain Officer at Pinnacle Foods.  Prior to that, he served as Chief Supply Chain Officer at Danone WhiteWave North America.
• Doug Behrens, President & Chief Customer Officer – Doug has extensive Sales leadership and General Management expertise within the health & wellness space. Doug served most recently as President of Amplify Snack Brands. Prior to that, he served as President of Sales and Chief Customer Officer at Danone WhiteWave.
• Rebecca Bagin, Chief Human Resources Officer – Rebecca has deep experience building scalable HR practices both within food and founder-led spaces. Rebecca served most recently as Chief Human Resources Officer at Tory Burch.  Prior to that, she served as VP of Human Resources for Campbell North America.

“We are proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish in the last 15 years as we invest to continue to advance our mission,” said Daniel Lubetzky, Founder and Executive Chairman of KIND.  “We are extremely excited about the growth potential these leadership appointments will help unlock for KIND.”

 

“These appointments come at an incredibly exciting time for KIND as we seek to bolster our leadership in our current categories, while also entering new categories and rapidly expanding our global footprint. We believe these additions to our leadership team will help us achieve our vision of becoming a foremost global health & wellness leader,” said Mike Barkley, CEO of KIND.

 

 

About KIND Healthy Snacks
Since 2004, KIND has been on a mission to make the world a little kinder one snack and act at a time. KIND was born out of its founder's desire to create a snack that was healthy and tasty, wholesome and convenient. What began as a line of premium Fruit & Nut bars sparked the creation of a new healthy snacking category. Today, KIND has a family of more than 80 snacks that offer solutions for a variety of occasions.

 

 

All of KIND's snacks honor the KIND Promise, which pledges that the first ingredient in anything KIND makes will be a nutrient-dense food recommended for daily consumption. KIND doesn't use high fructose corn syrup and you'll never find artificial sweeteners or added sugar alcohols in its snacks, since they go against the company's philosophy of using premium, better-for-you and real ingredients.

 

 

Kindness has always been at the core of its business. KIND was founded with a social mission, the KIND Movement, which celebrates and inspires kindness. Today, the Movement is brought to life through the brand, The KIND Foundation, and its flagship initiative, Empatico.

 

 

KIND is majority founder- and team-owned, and every full-time team member has a stake in the company. To learn more about KIND, KIND bars and to join our Movement, visit kindsnacks.com.

 

Contact: Dale Gebhardt
(212) 616-3006, ext. 443
dgebhardt@kindsnacks.com