About

Paloma Lopez

Paloma Lopez is an Impact Food Entrepreneur, Sustainability Consultant, and a former Global Director of Sustainability and Brand Strategy for the Kellogg Company, with twenty years of global experience creating vision for healthy and sustainable food systems and driving business transformation to grow purpose-led brands and global sustainable agriculture programs.

Paloma is the CEO and Co-Founder at Future Fit Foods (FFF), a food startup based in Longmont, Colorado, integrating regenerative and circularity principles into a business that offers convenient, nutrient-packed, plant-based soups in pouches made with bio-based films and delivered in Repack reusable and returnable bags. Paloma is also a Vice President at At Stake Advisors, a Circularity and Sustainability consultancy covering projects from Sustainability Brand Strategy to Behavioral Change.

In her former Global Director roles with Kellogg, Paloma spearheaded the launch of the first European Sustainable Agriculture program for the Kellogg Company, Kellogg’s Origins, designing a program that supported farmers to successfully implement sustainable agricultural practices and championing the program’s expansion to benefit over 400.000 farmers worldwide. Paloma also played a key role positioning the MorningStar Farms and Kashi brands in North America as plant-based leaders through foundational lifecycle assessment (LCA) work, packaging initiatives and other projects and certifications aimed to scale up climate adaptation.

Recognized as a Global Sustainability Women Leader in Forbes, Paloma is also a First Movers ‘Social Intrapreneur’ Fellow at the Aspen’s Institute Business and Society Program where she is now on the External Advisory Board. Paloma is also a Mentor at the Unreasonable Group for impact entrepreneurs and a Board member of the Guild of Future Architects (GoFA) and Colorado Food Works. Paloma holds an M.S. in Sustainability Leadership from the University of Cambridge and an M.S. in Business Administration.

Leslie Na

Leslie Na likes to say that she’s a career data geek. She got started in consumer research at Procter & Gamble, where she led research around the the world in skin care and oral care. Then she heard the call of the mountains, so she moved to Colorado where she led research for White Wave Foods in their plant-based beverage division.

Currently, Leslie is the Senior Director of Business Development at Ibotta Insights, an independently run consumer data and research agency within Ibotta. At 6MM strong, Ibotta Insights boasts the largest and most comprehensive panel of verified buyers and their data in the U.S. In her role, she’s focused on spreading awareness and serving CPG brands of all stages and sizes with best-in-class data and true, collaborative partnership.

When she’s not at work, she’s considering dabbling in the many, many hobbies she has kickstarted but has never followed-through with – photography, stand-up paddle boarding, snow shoeing, reading, punch needling, resting… just to name a few. She lives in the foothills of Conifer, CO with her husband and 2 rowdy kids.

Randy Gilbride

Randy Gilbride is the Vice President of Commercial Operations at Sunrise Strategic Partners, a growth equity investor primarily focused on the better-for-you food & beverage space. In his role at Sunrise, he focuses on new investment sourcing, due diligence, and partner company support.

Randy has over 15 years of experience in the CPG space, primarily working on emerging food and beverage brands. He joined Sunrise from Thanasi Foods, where he oversaw brand management functions for Duke’s Smoked Meats and BIGS Sunflower Seeds, leading to the company’s sale to Conagra during his tenure. Prior to Thanasi, Randy held senior marketing and innovation positions at Udi’s Gluten Free Foods before and after the business sold to Boulder Brands, and later to Pinnacle Foods. Randy holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Denver and a Bachelor of Arts from Colorado College.

Randy lives in Boulder, where he enjoys biking, skiing, camping, playing hockey, and spending time with his family.

Kelly Perkins

Kelly Perkins is the founder of Spinster Sisters Co. We are a conscious skincare brand in Golden, Colorado. We are a WBENC Certified Women-Owned and B Corp Certified business and consciously craft all of our skin, hair, and bath made with premium, plant-based ingredients, with a focus on plastic-free packaging, sustainability and great scents. Kelly grew up in Boulder, CO, and is an Eisenhower, Burbank, Fairview and CU alum (Go Buffs!).

Kelly has 30+ years of operations and logistics experience, including 10 years in CPG. Prior to starting Spinster Sisters Co, Kelly worked for the US Antarctic Program, a contractor to the National Science Foundation. Kelly spent time at both McMurdo Station on the coast of Antarctica, as well as time at the South Pole, doing budgeting and cost control for the building of the South Pole Station.

Outside of work, Kelly enjoys sailing, camping, hiking and reading. Travel is life to her, and she has made it her personal mission to try every spicy margarita and every conch fritter on the planet, to find the best. She has 2 dogs, and a super cute husband, and currently lives in Golden.

Sindy Wise

Sindy brings 25 years of natural products experience to the Naturally Boulder Board. She currently serves as the Vice President of Research & Innovation for WishGarden Herbs.

Prior to her brand work, she worked for pioneering natural products retailers, including Wild Oats, Pharmaca and Lucky’s Markets. Sindy knows the wellness product space inside and out.

Balance to mind, body and spirit is important to her, so when not attending her kid’s sporting events, she practices Pilates, travels internationally exploring all things food and wine, and makes her own hard kombucha – because gut health is so important!

Asa Waldstein

Asa Waldstein is a Certified Clinical Herbalist and a 20-year dietary supplement executive who has helped oversee three FDA inspections with no 483s. Waldstein is principal of the consulting company Supplement Advisory Group, a boutique group focusing on marketing risk analysis and practical marketing solutions for the web and social media. He is the founder and host of Asa’s Regulatory Education Series, a free educational platform focusing on GMP compliance, enforcement trends, and marketing tips for the supplement and hemp industries. He also chairs the American Herbal Products Association’s (AHPA) Cannabis Committee and is a Naturally Boulder board member. = Learn more and contact him at AsaWaldstein.com.

Justin Levy

Justin Levy is Executive Director of Conscious Alliance (consciousalliance.org), the Colorado-based national hunger relief organization that uses the connective power of art and music to feed communities in need. Levy was awarded the 2021 Industry Leader & Community Champ Award by Naturally Boulder and was formerly named a Top 25 Influential Young Professionals in ColoradoBiz GenXYZ Awards, and selected for BizWests 40 Under 40, among other accolades. He holds a degree in Service-Learning Program Development from Warren Wilson College.

Conscious Alliance combats hunger via strong relationships with like-minded brands and industry leaders, world-class musicians and artists, and service-driven local community partners and advocates. The organization focuses on expanding food distribution, improving food quality, diverting food waste, youth empowerment and volunteerism, and connecting people through the power of community.

Erin Costa

Erin Costa is an experienced marketing leader with a passion for building brands. She is skilled at multi-channel marketing integration and strategic business planning in established, mature brand settings as well as fast-moving CPG environments.

She is currently VP of Marketing at Remedy Drinks International, a live culture beverage company and the third largest kombucha brand globally. Remedy Drinks is an emerging brand in the US, leveraging an Australian history and bringing the first shelf stable, no sugar kombucha that is live, raw, and not pasteurized to the States. Prior to her role at Remedy, she was the VP of Marketing at ONE Brands, which was one of the fastest growing protein bars in the US, and eventually sold to The Hershey Company. Before her time at ONE, she worked at Celestial Seasonings, THANASI Foods, and Gorton’s Seafood, always working across the marketing function to connect with consumers, build brands and scale marketing business models.

Erin earned her MBA at CU-Boulder and lives just outside of Boulder, with her husband, Nic, and 10-year-old English Bulldog, Fergie. In her spare time, she loves to travel, explore the amazing CO outdoors, and read books (the old school way!).

Rebecca Schepps

Becca Schepps is an experienced creative director, copywriter, designer, entrepreneur and former professional bike racer and collegiate rower.

She is the founder and CEO of Mortal Ventures which produces Mortal Kombucha and Mortal XXX Hard Kombucha. Prior to founding Mortal, she worked as a freelance Creative Director across many industries including many CPG and natural food product brands including Yasso, One Bar, Stages Cycling, Ringling, Carrots, Pearl Izumi and more. She helped launch TheFeed.com, a DTC sports nutrition subscription service based out of Boulder, Colorado. She also has extensive ad agency experience across all types of media while working at Crispin Porter Bogusky, R/GA and Saatchi NY, helping to build brands, develop campaigns and launch products and for Nike, Verizon, Fruit of The Loom, Jell-O, McCormick, Toyota, Google, General Mills, U.S. Cellular, K&N, Sperry and many more.

Becca and her husband Daniel currently live in Boulder with their son and dog. While she doesn’t ride as much as she used to, she is slowly falling in love with running and is also a devout Pelotoner.

Jennifer Rosenthal

KO Firm

Jennifer Rosenthal is a corporate partner in the Boulder office of KO. Jennifer’s practice focuses on corporate transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, venture capital and private equity investments, and company formations. She also serves as outside general counsel for many of her clients, acting as their first point of contact for legal assistance. Jennifer works with clients ranging from startups to public companies with industry focuses on consumer products and technology.

Jennifer has been recognized by her peers as a Super Lawyers Rising Star for multiple years, named as one of Boulder Valley’s 40 under Forty honorees and has been awarded the Silicon Flatirons Entrepreneurship Supporter of the Year recognition. She has also been an Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado Law School where she taught Venture Capital Drafting and served on the Entrepreneurship Advisory Board for the Silicon Flatirons Center.

Prior to joining KO, Jennifer practiced in the Denver, Colorado, office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, an international law firm based in Los Angeles, California. Jennifer graduated from the University of Colorado Law School, where she was elected to the Order of the Coif and served as an Associate Editor on the University of Colorado Law Review.

In addition to her work, Jennifer is passionate about her family, road biking, skiing, hiking and hatch green chile.

John Simmons

Weller

As an entrepreneur with an eye for early trends, John has a passion for creating brands and establishing new innovations that ignite previously unknown categories. In 1995, he co-founded Third Street Chai and led it through its acquisition in 2013, paving the way for sustainable supply chain standards via Fair Trade and Certified Organic ingredients. With Weller, he is once again focused on developing interesting products that can help CBD’s wellness benefits go mainstream. John himself embraces a life of living well-er as a former professional bicycle racer who lives in Boulder, Colorado.

Rajesh Babu

Rajesh Babu brings 15 years of strategy and operating experience to the Naturally Boulder board, along with a passion for helping fledgling natural and organic food companies prosper and grow.

After spending several years at BCG, Bain and other consulting firms, Raj followed his interest in natural food and healthy living to WhiteWave Foods, where he held a number of strategic leadership roles. There, he helped to build the company’s corporate strategy, acquire businesses, and integrate businesses post-acquisition, including Whitewave’s own acquisition by Danone in 2016.

Raj then served as the President and Chief Operating Officer of Birch Benders, the #1 natural pancake & waffle mix brand and one of the fastest growing brands in the US. Since joining Birch Benders in 2018, Raj’s deep industry knowledge and strong leadership have helped mature the company, scaling the business to include four product lines and distribution in over 10,000 stores, including Walmart, Kroger, and other key retailers. He also led the brand through its acquisition by Sovos Brands, where he continues to run the business today.

Originally a Chicago native, Raj earned both his B.S. and his MBA at Northwestern University. He currently lives in Denver with his wife, Laura, and their two small children. In his spare time, you can find him playing softball, tennis, running or (despite his wife continuing to tell him he is too old) playing football.

Jenna Fitch

Jenna Fitch is the Community and Conference Content Director at New Hope Network. In this role she is passionate about using education and community building to empower stakeholders in the natural and organic products industry. Prior to serving in this role, Jenna led digital content production for the NEXT Accelerator, an educational platform for entrepreneurs, as well as supported exhibitors and attendees as customer and exhibitor service representative for tradeshows and conferences such as Natural Products Expo West and NBJ Summit.

Dedicated to the outdoors, conscious leadership and using business for good, Jenna has also spent time learning from and supporting organizations such as the Outdoor Industry Association, Restorative Leadership Institute, CU Leeds Professional Mentorship Program, Camber Outdoors and the Lake Champlain Committee.

Jenna earned her MBA from the University of Colorado at Boulder, Leeds School of Business, as well as an undergraduate degree in Environmental Studies with a certificate from the Program in Community Action and Public Policy from Connecticut College.

When not obsessing about sustainable packaging and soil health, you’ll likely find her hiking in Colorado with Oscar the Black Lab, playing beach volleyball or laughing out loud to Wait Wait… Don’t Tell me!

Mike Murray

Mike Murray is a 20 year CPG veteran with a passion for leading mission-driven food brands to the ethical definition of success.  After 10 years successfully growing iconic brands like Betty Crocker, Nature Valley and LARABAR at General Mills, he transitioned to the natural side of the industry to lead So Delicious Dairy Free (SDDF) from $54 to $195 MM in 3 years. Having driven the successful SDDF exit and integration into WhiteWave Foods, Mike was recruited to leverage his proven leadership, team-building, innovation strategy and brand-building skills as CEO of high-growth free-from snacking brand free2b Foods.  Now, as CEO of Teton Waters Ranch, Mike and team are working diligently against their mission to create a more regenerative, humane, healthy food system for all.  Mike earned his MBA at UCLA, and lives in the Front Range with his wife, Sunshine, and three sons Sean, Kyle, and Connor.  They love enjoying the CO outdoors together, from team sports to hiking, biking and skiing.

Brandon Hernandez

Brandon Hernandez is a Senior Partner at Whole Brain Consulting, which operates nationally out of its two offices in Colorado and Chicago. After earning his degree in Biology from Colorado State University (Go Rams! – Please don’t hold it against me, Boulder!), Brandon began his career in food safety at Zateca Foods (now Teasdale Latin Foods). He spent a number of years working his way through the operational, research and development, supply chain, and quality assurance aspects of food manufacturing, and now plans to use those skills in the Boulder community. Brandon enjoys spending his free time with family and friends, snowboarding, and playing soccer. He looks forward to serving the Naturally Boulder community to the best of his ability for years to come.

Joan Boykin

Joan Boykin has +40 years of experience in the natural/organic products industry in consumer package goods, retail, publishing and nonprofits. She was formerly ED of The Organic Center and held leadership positions at The Hain Celestial Group, New Hope Network and Alfalfa’s and Wild Oat Markets. She’s been a Senior Consultant to WhiteWave Foods, Celestial Seasonings, Way Better Snacks, 1908 Brands, Goddess Garden, and many others. Joan was a founding member of The Organic Center and Naturally Boulder and was the recipient of Naturally Boulder’s Local Hero and Lifetime Achievement awards. In 2017, she was inducted into the “Hall of Legends” at Expo West.

Mark Retzloff

Senior partner with Boulder Farm Team, chairman of the board of Alfalfa’s Markets, co-founder and board member of Aurora Organic Dairy, co-founder and venture partner of Greenmont Capital Partners, former chairman of the board of The Organic Center and former president and co-founder of Horizon Organic Dairy. He is a recipient of Naturally Boulder’s Lifetime Achievement Award, the Organic Trade Association Lifetime Achievement Award and the Boulder Esprit Entrepreneur Lifetime Achievement Award.

Sylvia Tawse

A co-founder of Naturally Boulder and Naturally Network, Sylvia is founder and president of Fresh Ideas Group (FIG), a PR and Branding firm specializing in natural and organic since 1995 and representing some of the nation’s most dynamic brands, nonprofits and trade associations.  FIG has conducted “True Brand Storytelling” workshops and crisis communications for national and international CPG brands and many of the organic industry’s top nonprofits and trade groups. She received Naturally Boulder’s “Local Hero” award in 2017 and the Organic Trade Association’s ‘Organic Pioneer’ award. Sylvia and her husband, after 28 years of organic farming in Boulder County, now reside on two organic acres in Taos, NM.

Amy Corstorphine

Operations

Amy has wide-ranging experience in the natural and sustainable foods world, starting with her degree in Sustainable Agriculture & Food Systems from UC Davis. She’s passionate about eliminating food waste, and has helped grow and support various food start-ups, including Imperfect Foods (formerly Imperfect Produce) and Diaspora Co. She looks forward to continuing her journey in supporting mission-driven businesses making a positive impact for farmers, consumers, and the planet.

Bill Capsalis

Executive Director

As an avid healthy lifestyle expert, Bill works with emerging brands as well as mid-sized companies on everything from brand & sales channel strategy, finance, operational challenges and product innovation. His in-depth knowledge of the natural products industry gives him a unique perspective on the challenges and opportunities facing todays food and beverage brands. He is a recognized expert in healthy lifestyles and go to market strategies in the natural and organic industry. Practicing what he preaches, Bill leads a vegan low-impact, conscious lifestyle and has done so in Boulder Colorado for 34 years.

Julie Zagars

Managing Director

Julie has over 25 years of experience in the natural foods world, including stints in store management with Fresh Fields, buying for WholeFoods.com and Sutton Place Gourmet/Balducci’s, managing social media for Sprouts Farmer’s Market, and working with a number of small manufacturers and large hotel brands as a retail and marketing consultant. Today she also manages MBArk, a program for progressive-minded MBA students looking to break into the natural foods industry, and FIELD, which provides executive education for natural foods executives. Julie believes her life’s work is to bring natural and organic products to wider audiences. She is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Hotel Administration.