VICTORIA – The Very Good Food Company Inc. announced that veteran plant-based food production executive, Ana Silva, will join VGF as president commencing in January 2021.
Ana Silva
Silva has spent the past five years with Daiya Foods Inc., where she served as chief financial officer. Daiya is a Canadian-based company that manufactures plant-based dairy alternatives available at more than 25,000 stores across North America.
During Silva’s time with Daiya, the company underwent a CAD$405 million/USD$326 million acquisition by Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, a Japanese pharmaceutical and nutraceutical company.
Along with this significant acquisition, Silva oversaw a period where Daiya was ranked as the fastest-growing plant-based food company in America by SPINS.
“I’m thrilled about the possibilities in the plant-based food industry, and I believe it will secure our long-term global food supply,” said Silva. “Very Good Food offers three unique assets: The founders are innovative risk-takers with a great vision. The core values and purpose are truly inspiring. And finally, this company is at the early stages of growth, which for me, is an important opportunity to contribute.”
Mitchell Scott
Silva’s appointment comes at a transformative time as VGF steps into a period of expansion and brings online additional production capacity with its proposed Rupert and Patterson facilities, and expands R&D capabilities with its Mount Pleasant facility, in order to meet strong demand for the Company’s products. Ana’s experience will also guide the Company as it pursues its efforts to expand into the U.S. and other international markets.
“We are fortunate to have someone of Ana’s caliber and experience joining our team at a critical inflection point for our company, as we are on the verge of scaling our operations by a very substantial margin,” said CEO Mitchell Scott. “With significant capacity expansion and a large waitlist of wholesale accounts, Ana’s previous executive-level experience at Daiya Foods will be an invaluable asset to our team.”
Silva has more than 15 years of experience in business finance, with a track record that includes the energy and infrastructure sectors in addition to food. She is a Certified Public Accountant and has an MBA and Honours Bachelor of Commerce from Laurentian University.
