AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Amplify Snack Brands, Inc. (“Amplify” or the “Company”) (NYSE:BETR), a leading marketer and manufacturer of branded better-for-you snack food products, today announced the appointments of two consumer packaged goods industry veterans with proven track records of growth. Greg Christenson joins Amplify as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer and Craig Shiesley joins as Chief Operating Officer and President, North America, effective September 12, 2017. Mr. Christenson brings prior experience as a public company CFO and is a seasoned executive with extensive experience delivering growth and profitability, maximizing shareholder value and developing and executing on corporate strategy at leading growth oriented organizations including DanoneWave (formerly WhiteWave Foods), Oberto Brands, and Kraft Foods. Mr. Shiesley is a seasoned 25-year international consumer packaged goods executive with strong experience in marketing, innovation, general management and international expansion across several categories, and has been responsible for successfully leading operating teams to deliver against aggressive growth agendas on global brands at both DanoneWave and S.C. Johnson.
“We are very excited to welcome Greg and Craig to our team. Both bring an extensive depth of experience across high growth oriented international consumer products companies,” commented Tom Ennis, Amplify’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “Greg is a well regarded public company financial executive with significant leadership experience managing all financial and accounting functions, driving business performance. He will be a strong asset to our team and a fantastic business partner. Craig is a talented international CPG executive with a successful track record of transforming categories and creating large scale better-for-you brands across multiple sales channels and geographies, and we look forward to his strategic contributions as we build upon our growth potential globally. I am particularly excited about their experience at WhiteWave, where they grew a business that was at a similar stage in the development curve to Amplify. I am confident they will help us execute on our long-term plan of growing into a multi-billion dollar global better-for-you snack food company.”
As previously announced, in an effort to optimize Amplify’s new global organization, Brian Goldberg, Amplify’s Chief Financial Officer, will transition into the newly created role of Chief Strategy Officer and Executive Vice President Corporate Development, primarily focused on corporate strategy, strategic partnerships, merger and acquisition execution and integration, as well as other global corporate development initiatives.
Mr. Ennis continued, “Brian’s contributions have been invaluable to Amplify, particularly as we transitioned from a private to public company and completed strategic brand acquisitions to build our leading international product portfolio. We look forward to Brian transitioning into this important new strategic role, where his deep financial expertise and operational track record has prepared him to help us accelerate the execution of our strategic plan.”
Mr. Christenson joins Amplify from DanoneWave where he most recently served as Chief Financial Officer of WhiteWave, with responsibility for all public company financial and accounting aspects. He previously served as Chief Financial Officer, America Foods and Beverages and Senior Vice President of WhiteWave. While at WhiteWave, he was integral in driving sustained growth in the business, including the acquisition and integration of six companies, selling the company to Danone, generating continued profit improvements, and leading the development and strengthening of its finance, accounting and IT functions. Prior to joining WhiteWave, Mr. Christenson was Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Oberto Brands from 2011 to June 2013 where he worked with Mr. Ennis and was responsible for the finance, accounting, IT, procurement and risk management functions. Before that he spent 14 years at Kraft Foods in several financial leadership roles of expanding responsibility across several business units and functions as well as a number of corporate roles. He spent the first seven years of his career in public accounting. Mr. Christenson holds a Master of Business Administration in Finance from Northeastern University and Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Providence College.
Mr. Shiesley also joins Amplify from DanoneWave where he held several positions including most recently as President of Vega® and the Performance Nutrition Division. He led the integration of Vega Nutritionals, one of WhiteWave’s most important acquisitions, in the U.S. and Canada, doubling topline sales and profit since the acquisition, built new capabilities in Innovation, Sales, Operations and IT to scale the business, and enabled the first global expansion of the brand with the launch of Vega in the United Kingdom. Prior to Vega®, Mr. Shiesley also served as President of Plant-Based Foods and Beverages, Yogurt and Canada at DanoneWave. Under his leadership the Plant-Based Division more than doubled in size to a $1 billion business platform driven by the transformation of the Silk® brand from what was formerly a soymilk business into a broader plant-based nutrition platform with the launch of Almond and Coconut Milks, expansion into yogurts and other nondairy category adjacencies, in addition to successfully integrating the So Delicious® brand into the Plant-Based business platform. Prior to DanoneWave, he spent 17 years at S.C. Johnson in various International, Innovation and Brand Management roles leading their portfolio of leading brands across several categories. Mr. Shiesley holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Management and Finance from Cornell University.
About Amplify Snack Brands, Inc.
Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Amplify Snack Brands is a high growth snack food company focused on developing and marketing products that appeal to consumers’ growing preference for Better-For-You (BFY) snacks. Our brands SkinnyPop®, Tyrrells®, Paqui®, Oatmega®, Lisa’s® Chips, The Wholesome Food Company™, and Thomas Chipman™ embody our BFY mission of “snacking without compromise” and have amassed a loyal customer base across a wide range of food distribution channels in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Europe and Australia. For additional information, please visit: http://amplifysnackbrands.com.
