Mark was the Founder and CEO of ZICO Beverages, one of the trailblazers of today’s $8 billion coconut water category. Under Mark’s leadership, ZICO delivered nine years of explosive growth, became one of the fastest growing beverage brands in the world, and was acquired by The Coca Cola Company in 2013.

Mark was recognized as Bevnet’s 2010 Beverage Innovator of the Year and has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Bloomberg, CNBC and Conscious Company. He is the Author of High Hanging Fruit: Build Something Great by Going Where No One Else Will and speaks around the world on entrepreneurship, the global food system and social impact investing. Mark has advised more than 100 CEOs, served on dozens of boards and invested in more than 30 social-impact startups across the food, beverage, foodservice, technology and alternative energy sectors.

He began his career as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Central America and has as a BA in business from Marquette University, and an MBA and Masters in Environmental Management from Duke University. Mark enjoys yoga, paddle boarding, and traveling to remote corners of the world where life moves at a slower speed.

Dan is the Co-Founder and Board Chairman of Health Warrior, a plant-based superfood company. Within the first year of launching, Health Warrior’s Chia Bar was the #1 best-selling new bar in the natural channel. Today, Health Warrior is a nationally recognized brand and is on a mission to make radically convenient, real food and positively influence the health habits of Western civilization. Health Warrior successfully exited to Pepsi in 2018.

Prior to diving into entrepreneurship, Dan spent 15 years working on Wall Street as a Partner at a large investment management firm. Dan has experience investing in a breadth of companies, up and down the capital structure, and across the globe from the United States to Latin America, Europe, Middle East and Asia.

When Dan is not investing, he can be found on the trails of Northern California mountain biking and trail running. Dan is a 2X Ironman, marathoner, and celebrated his 40th birthday by competing in a 24-hour Spartan Race in Iceland. He is also a proud 2X dad. Dan has a BA from Colgate University.

Kevin was born and raised on Long Island where he developed an aversion to cold weather. This led to 4 years at Arizona State University graduating with a B.S. in Business promptly followed by a quick sprint to Los Angeles to join Drexel Burnham Lambert.

After 10 years of high yield financing, he created Standard Capital Group where he spent 15 years advising small and middle-market companies before co-founding Veggie Grill which has grown to 35 locations serving in excess of 1 million guests every 90 days, making it the largest plant-centric restaurant company in the United States. Forbes recently named Veggie Grill one of the “25 Most Innovative Consumer Brands”.

Kevin serves on the advisory boards of The Good Food Institute, Tufts University Friedman School for Entrepreneurship, and UCLA School of Law Resnick Program for Food Law and Policy. He enjoys family, friends, good wine, U2, scuba diving and the endless pursuit of perfecting his very imperfect golf game.

Pillan co-founded Veggie Grill, the largest plant-centric restaurant company in the United States.  With locations up and down the West Coast and starting to expand eastward, Veggie Grill was recently named one of the “25 Most Innovative Consumer Brands of 2016” by Forbes.

Pillan received a B.S. in engineering from MIT, an MBA from UCLA, and is a member of YPO.  Prior to entering the food arena, Pillan co-founded Guidance Solutions, one of Los Angeles’ first e-commerce development firms.  The company was one of LA’s 15 fastest growing technology companies three years in a row, raised $25 million in growth capital, and continues to operate today.

When not helping to advance a plant-centric future, Pillan enjoys playing beach volleyball and trying to reclaim his glory days of playing collegiate baseball and basketball at MIT.

Julianne Hummelberg is a Senior Associate at PowerPlant Ventures. Julianne leads deal sourcing and execution projects and is a board member and observer for portfolio companies including Veggie Grill, Jot Coffee, and OWYN.

Julianne entered financial services in 2012 at Emerging Global Advisors where she was a Director and Portfolio Specialist, heading Western US distribution for their ETFs across both institutional and retail channels. She then joined Invesco as a Regional Vice President in their institutional sales group, managing the firm’s West Coast relationships and strategizing with the top private wealth advisors and family offices on portfolio construction and asset allocation. In 2018, she transitioned into venture capital during business school, working as an Investment Associate at Trial Mix Ventures and Spring Mountain Capital.

Julianne earned her MBA from Columbia Business School where she was a Venture and Private Equity Fellow, President of the Healthy Living Club and Vice President of the Venture Capital Club. She also holds a BA in Economics from Wake Forest University, where she graduated cum laude, and an associate degree in Economics from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

In her free time, she enjoys international travel, HIIT workouts, learning Spanish and contributing as a board member of Synergist Network, a non-profit organization that work towards gender parity in the private equity and venture capital industries.

Cessna Mac is a Senior Associate at Powerplant Ventures. Cessna leads deal sourcing and execution and serves as a board observer to support PPV portfolio companies, including Flying Embers, Your Super, and Thistle.

Cessna began her professional career as a public school teacher with Teach For America in the Bay Area before moving to New York City to become a management consultant at EY-Parthenon, a strategy consultancy, where she worked with private equity firms and corporate clients across the consumer & retail industry to assess investment opportunities and develop growth strategies. Cessna transitioned into investing during business school, working as an Associate at The Raine Group, an integrated merchant bank advising and investing in high growth sectors of technology, media and telecom.

Cessna earned her MBA from Wharton, where she was President of the Private Equity & Venture Capital Club, the Yoga & Wellness Club, and the Wharton Graduate Association Cluster Council. She also holds an A.B. in Psychology from Harvard University.

In her free time, she enjoys teaching and practicing yoga, serving as an active member of the Wharton Alumni Association, and being a new dog mom!

Nicole Montano is Chief of Staff at PowerPlant Ventures (PPV), an investment fund that supports world-changing, plant-centric companies that deliver better nutrition in more sustainable and ethical ways. She supports the overall operations of the firm, the managing partners and leads their marketing and communications.

Prior to joining PPV, Nicole supported several high net worth family offices and was the Director of Operations at a VR Production company.

Nicole holds a B.A. from the University of North Texas and is a certified Reiki Master and Meditation Guide. She is passionate about health and wellness, creating connections and is an avid animal lover and dog mom of 3.

Richard Schnuerer, CCO & VP of Finance and Operations at PowerPlant Ventures (“PPV”). Powerplant Ventures is a growth equity fund investing in emerging consumer food, beverage, foodservice and food-tech companies. PPV provides capital, strategic guidance and operating expertise to visionary teams leading disruptive plant-centric brands. Notable portfolio companies include breakout brands such as Beyond Meat, Ripple Foods, Thrive Market, and Apeel Sciences. PPV is currently investing out of its second, $165M fund.

Prior to joining PPV, Richard was a Director and Senior Due Diligence Analyst within the Chief Investment Office at Merrill Lynch.   During his time at Merrill Lynch, he was responsible for conducting business and operational due diligence on alternative investment managers and their managed hedge funds, fund of hedge funds, private equity funds, real estate funds, venture capital funds, and social impact funds offered on the Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Private Bank platforms.  Richard has also held various audit and accounting advisory roles in the investment management industry at Deloitte in New York and London.

Richard earned his BSBA in Accounting, BSBA in Finance, and Minor in Economics from The Ohio State University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

While working for Deloitte in London where Richard met his wife, his love for travel and experiencing new cultures was cultivated.  They have visited close to 30 countries and hope to instill their love for travel in their children – although on long haul trips these days, he looks like more of a pack mule for the children than a leisurely traveler!  Outside of traveling, Richard loves golfing, experimenting in the kitchen, and reading.  Most of all, Richard cherishes his time with his wife and two young children.