Expansive plant-based knowledge & experience with high growth companies

our team

Chelsie Hodge, BBA

Founder & CEO

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Chelsie brings a unique skill set to the table with over a decade of working experience in the high-growth plant-based consumer packaged goods sector along with over fifteen years in capital market. Chelsie has held Sales and Business Development positions with industry disruptors such as VEGA along with Investor Relations roles for a variety of public company sectors. Most recently she acted as a consultant assisting with IPO transactions, M&A and capital raises. The concept of “easy smoothie” was born in Chelsie’s kitchen, as a solution for an easy better for you alternative; eliminating the high costs of organic produce & vitamins while tackling the food waste issues involved in the normal smoothie preparation method. What started as an idea grew to a nationally distribution frozen good brand sold in many of Canada’s largest grocery chains. Chelsie helped pioneer the easy smoothie category, fundamentally changing the way consumers look & prepare smoothies. Aside from the impressive rapid distribution gains, Chelsie grew the company as a solo entrepreneur, recruiting her family & tapping into her strong industry connections for support on growing this brand to where it is today. She is passionate about start-ups and is also an investor herself; focusing on early-stage food companies working to make a difference in our food systems. Chelsie has a wealth of knowledge in all aspects of entrepreneurship from product development and manufacturing to sales and business development; making her a strong leader to take Blender Bites into International Markets.

Carol Yung Munro, MBA, BSc

Director of Quality Assurance & Food Safety

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Carol has over 20 years of QA/RA experience in the food industry spanning across branded companies, manufacturing, grocery and social enterprises. Over the past decade, Carol has specialized in helping SMEs grow through a pragmatic approach despite the constantly changing regulatory landscape. As the Director of Quality/R&D for Vega, she had the privilege to build a high-functioning team and a quality system from the ground-up and played a major role in the due diligence process during the sale of Vega to WhiteWave Foods. Carol works with manufacturers in Canada, US, Asia and South America, and also recently spent 3 years in South East Asia developing food safety and organic systems for smallholder farms.

Kal Bring, SCMP

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18 years of progressive supply chain experience analyzing opportunities in: procurement (sourcing), inventory management, forecasting, demand/capacity/production planning, logistics, multi-channel distribution and budgeting to increase an organization’s profitability and competitiveness. 15 years utilizing ERP/MRP, statistical software, data mining & business intelligence. 7 years leading S&OP leveraging available resources to achieve revenue and profitability goals supporting cross functionally marketing, sales and finance.

our advisory board

Mark Wilson

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Mark brings over 25 year’s experience in supply chain operations management. Mark is the former Vice President – Operations of VEGA, a leading North American plant-based, nutritional supplement company. Mark led all aspects of the company’s Supply Chain, Quality, and Research and Development Operations from the early days as a smaller Canadian player with $10M in sales to an international company selling over
$200M USD annually. The growth of the company saw Mark architect a completely new manufacturing and distribution structure with four times the manufacturing partners, twice the number of distribution centers, and supporting rapid growth in new product development. Mark was also an integral player in supporting the company through a highly successful strategic sale to Whitewave Foods for $550M USD in 2015. Following his success at Vega, Mark founded his own Supply Chain Operations consulting firm called Wilson Management Group Ltd, where he and his team advise companies in developing and deploying their procurement, purchasing, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, research & development, regulatory, and quality control.

Dionne Laslo-Baker

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Dionne is the founder and CEO of Deebee’s Organics, an organic, clean label fruitpop and freezie brand with International partnerships with Disney and the hit movie “Frozen”.

Dionne is a Canadian expert on the impacts of environmental toxins – especially in the food chain – on child health. A PhD medical researcher in the field of maternal fetal toxicology, her doctorate focused on the effects of exposure to chemicals during pregnancy on fetal development.

A strong proponent for the health science behind organic food, Dionne founded DeeBee’s Organics on a mission to make ‘conscious’ snacking really fun

Richard Pollock

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A perennial entrepreneur with multiple exits, Richard co-founded Pauling Labs—and the brand Ener-C — in 2014. Ener-C experienced significant global growth in its first three years of business and is currently one of the fastest growing supplement brands in North America. Ener-C is currently distributed in 15,000+ retail locations in Canada, US, England, Greece, Cypress, Ukraine, UAE, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean.

In 1999, Richard founded Vitascorb Supplements and acquired the license for the brand Emergen-C™ in Canada. Vitascorb was acquired by Pfizer Inc. in 2012. Since 2012 Richard has actively invested and sat on the board of several CPG companies that have either transacted or continue to operate today.

Lorna R. Vanderhaeghe

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Lorna R. Vanderhaeghe has over 35 years in the nutrition industry and has been voted one ofCanada’s Top 100 Female Entrepreneurs for several years in a row.Lorna was the founder,CEO, and creator of a top-selling line of women’snutritional supplements under her own brand“Lorna Vanderhaeghe Health Solutions”, which in four short years made Canada’s FastestGrowing Companies list and was acquired by Jamieson Wellness, the largest nutritionalsupplement company, for 8 figures.Lorna holds a Master of Science degree from Simon FraserUniversity.

Cole Orobetz

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Orobetz, a native of Calgary, Alberta, is the co-founder and current CEO and CFO of Alpha FoodsInc., a California plant-based meal solution company founded in 2015 to make a positive impacton animal welfare, planet health and human health, the company’s sustainability pillars. In onlysix years, Alpha Foods has grown to become a leading plant-based meal solution platformoffering a wide array of options familiar to all eaters, and is currently found in over 9,000 storesacross North America including a Costco, Kroger, Whole Foods, Sprouts, Albertsons Safewayand Walmart.

Cole holds a Bachelor of Commerce in Accounting from the Universityof Calgary, and is a Chartered Professional Accountant, with a specialization in Corporate Finance. Prior to foundingAlpha Foods, Orobetz started his career at Ernst & Young LLP andspent a number of years infood and agriculture venture capital as Investment Director with Aviro Capital.Cole is afounding member of The Angel Group, a growing community of industry professionals whoinvest in companies with promising consumer packaged goods, and exceptional clean labelproducts in high-growth categories.Cole has a proven history of building businesses along sideentrepreneurs from the onset of their journey, extensive experience in originating, negotiating,and closing equity-structured investments, and providing strategic and financial advice toentrepreneurs and seasoned senior executives.

Why Invest?

Our planet is the only home we’ll have. We are proud to be free of any unnecessary inner plastic packaging that is damaging to our environment and we source locally whenever possible.