The New Face of Innovation

David Donnan is a Senior Partner with A.T. Kearney, a global management consulting firm based in Chicago. He is an experienced business leader and consultant with significant global experience in agriculture, food and retail industries. During his career David has managed operating companies, run food plants and consulted to leading global retail and consumer product companies in technology and supply chain strategies, brand growth and positioning. He works with major hunger relief organizations such as Feeding America and Top Box as well as food startups in the Chicago area as a mentor. Dave is widely recognized as an industry leader with a diverse background who actively speaks and writes on topics of importance to the agriculture, food and beverage, retail, and restaurant industries. He has presented at a variety of industry conferences for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, Food Marketing Institute, National Restaurant Association, International Grain Transportation Conference and the Retail Council of Canada. He has also appeared on Bloomberg TV and is quoted in various business journals including Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, and Forbes. Dave earned his Masters of Business Administration at the University of Toronto Rotman School of Business and his Bachelor of Applied Science in Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto. He lives in Chicago with his wife Karen.

Natalie Shmulik is the go to resource for everything food business related. Along with an M.L.A. in Gastronomy from Boston University, she has a wide range of experience working with supermarkets, culinary publications, consumer packaged goods companies and food service establishments. After successfully operating her own restaurant, Natalie was hired as a specialty consultant for one of Ontario’s largest supermarket chains where she enhanced consumer experiences through educational initiatives. Discovering her passion for innovation, Natalie was brought on as a brand strategist for the first cold brew tea company and later moved to Chicago, IL to run a food business incubator. With over 5 years of food incubation experience, Natalie has gained a unique perspective on the industry and what it takes to launch and grow a successful business. She was recently featured in Forbes and continues to play a valuable role in branding and marketing for food businesses around the country, with her specialty in trend forecasting. She is now the CEO of The Hatchery- Chicago's premier food business incubator.

Andy Whitman is a successful consumer products executive and investor who melds the experience of a Fortune 100 leader with the passion and resourcefulness of an entrepreneur. After a successful career with General Foods and Kraft Foods and recognizing that nurturing smaller businesses to achieve rapid growth was his passion, he focused on investing in and helping to operate small consumer products companies. Andy has been an active part of the emerging branded consumer products eco-system since founding 2x Consumer Products Growth Partners in 2001. Andy began his career managing icons like Kool-Aid and Tang. After years of delivering results on big brands, he jumped at the opportunity to run small, autonomous businesses within Kraft in a shirtsleeves environment. Taking charge of brands as small as $10 million that Kraft had been unable to grow or run profitably, Andy's entrepreneurial leadership produced outstanding results. His ability to grow businesses comes from his proven general management experience built upon a diverse breadth of prior functional assignments, including marketing, sales, operations planning and corporate development. He currently or previously assisted pro bono by serving as a board member for the Jewish United Federation Foods & Hospitality Trade Sector, Marketing Executives Network Group (MENG), Venture Board of the Women's Self-Employment Project and White Plains Child Day Care Association, a Head Start agency. Andy received a B.B.A. from the University of Wisconsin and an M.B.A. from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. He is an outdoor adventure traveler, an active skier, an avid college basketball fan, a Culinary Institute of America-trained cooking enthusiast and a devoted Parrothead – as a result of traveling early in his career with singer Jimmy Buffett.

David is the co-founder and CEO of Tovala - a company that has built a smart oven and tandem meal service that allow you to enjoy fresh, healthy and home-delivered meals at the touch of a button. As CEO, David has taken the company from a wild idea to reality – with Tovala ovens and meals now available in homes across the U.S. David launched Tovala while earning his MBA at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. At Booth, David worked part-time for the venture firm, Foundation Capital, ran the entrepreneurship club on campus and spent his summer interning at Google. Prior to Booth, David co-founded the mobile app Draftpedia - the first sports encyclopedia built exclusively for mobile. David’s first taste for entrepreneurship came before that, when he was responsible for running a bi-coastal chain of frozen yogurt stores. He trained for that role by spending two years working directly under the CEO of the Veggie Grill – the largest chain of vegan restaurants in the country. David graduated with high honors from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2009 with a B.A. in History. He's spent time living in China, and studying in London and Madrid. He speaks four languages and is an avid NY Jets and Los Angeles Lakers fan. He has been passionate about eating right since attending a health retreat at age 18.

Chef Josh worked in the culinary industry for years, learning the importance of using fresh, whole ingredients. It wasn’t until he was a personal chef for a woman recovering from cancer that he learned the true power of food as medicine. He leaned into anti-inflammatory ingredients, spices, and clean sources of meats and found he could still create truly delicious, satisfying meals. Kitchfix now delivers healthy, prepared meals and snacks throughout Chicagoland. Kitchfix also has a Grain-Free granola and Grain-Free frozen waffles available nationwide in grocery stores. Kitchfix believes that the healthy choice should always be delicious, convenient and transparent.

Sarah Renahan is co-founder of The Worthy Company, which she launched in 2016 alongside her friend and business partner Nydia Shipman. Their Worthy adventure began as a happy accident in Sarah’s kitchen. They needed convenient, nutritiously well-rounded snack/mini-meal options that were good on-the-go. No bars or shakes. They couldn't find anything, so they got to work in their kitchens. Worthy Super Blendies were born – spoonable, vegan blends of fruits, veggies, protein and fiber - all in one cup! Worthy is now being sold across the county, on Amazon, and growing daily. Prior to Launching Worthy, Sarah spent 15 years in Luxury Brand Management and Merchandising for NYC / Italy based luxury brands Gucci, Ferragamo and Frette.