SPMB Assists Impossible Foods Recruit Chief Experience Officer

April 29, 2021 – SPMB, an executive search firm that helps find transformative executives throughout Silicon Valley, has assisted in the placement of former Apple creative leader Steve Turner as chief experience officer of Impossible Foods. Partner Becky Stein led the search. “Steve Turner was the best of an exceptionally talented group of all-star candidates to take Impossible to the next level of brand love and recognition,” said Pat Brown, founder and CEO of Impossible Foods. “Steve stood out for his unusually broad range of experiences across technology, entertainment, sports and health industries, in both the United States and Europe. I’m positive he will help transform Impossible Foods into the world’s most beloved brand.”

In 2017, Mr. Turner founded Sublime, a strategic creative consulting firm that advises CEOs, CMOs and other executives. Before that, he spent 11 years at Apple, where he rose to global executive creative director for Apple’s Media Arts Lab. He worked with Steve Jobs and helped launch Apple’s unprecedented stream of disruptive new technologies from iPod+iTunes, Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple TV and Apple Music. Mr. Turner has also worked with Jimmy Iovine at Beats and Phil Knight at Nike. As both an internal employee and a consultant, he’s helped guide the creative work for some of the world’s most innovative companies, including Apple, Adidas, Apeel, Beautycounter, Bird, Lululemon, Samsung, Quiet, Nike and the BBC.

In this newly created role with Impossible Foods, Mr. Turner will be in charge of building brand awareness and accelerating the global consumer movement to a sustainable food system. He’s a key member of the company’s senior executive team and reports directly to CEO and founder Pat Brown.

Mr. Turner arrives as the food tech start-up accelerates growth and takes advantage of mounting economies of scale, from manufacturing to marketing. “Impossible Foods is solving the existential threats of global warming and biodiversity collapse,” Mr. Turner said. “The moment I discovered the company’s inspiring mission, I wanted to be a part of it. The team at Impossible Foods is truly making the Impossible possible.”

Related: SPMB Recruits Chief Product Officer for Magnifi

Located in Redwood City, CA, Impossible Foods makes nutritious meat and dairy products — with a much smaller environmental footprint than meat from animals. The privately held company was founded in 2011 by Dr. Brown, professor emeritus of biochemistry at Stanford University and a former Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator. Investors include Khosla Ventures, Bill Gates, Google Ventures, Horizons Ventures, UBS, Viking Global Investors, Temasek, Sailing Capital and Open Philanthropy Project.

Veteran Search Consultants

For over 40 years, SPMB has worked alongside its clients to build executive teams that ensure venture capital and private equity-backed game-changers achieve scale, and position multi-billion-dollar public companies to unlock innovation. Specializing in technology and innovation, SPMB recruits upper management and board members to growth-oriented companies in tech, consumer and sustainability industries. SPMB has also placed dozens of senior executives at the portfolio companies of leading private equity firm partners including Blackstone, KKR and TPG.


SPMB Recruits CEO for Shutterfly
The private equity sector is witnessing an explosive bidding war for top leaders as portfolio companies expand their needs for C-suite talent. SPMB, an executive search firm that helps find transformative executives throughout Silicon Valley, recently placed Hilary Schneider as the new CEO of Shutterfly, which was acquired earlier this year by private equity firm Apollo Global Management. She succeeds Ryan O’Hara, effective Jan. 15. Partner Becky Stein led the search.

“Hilary is an accomplished executive with significant digital industry expertise and a focus on innovation and superior customer experiences that will support Shutterfly’s next chapter,” said Reed Rayman of the Apollo private equity team and a member of Shutterfly’s board of directors. “We look forward to partnering with Hilary as well as the Shutterfly management team and employees to grow its three divisions and deliver the best products and services to consumers.”


Ms. Stein joined SPMB in 2015 and spearheads the firm’s consumer practice. She joined the firm from Korn Ferry, where she co-founded its consumer digital sector. Earlier in her career, she worked for Russell Reynolds Associates, FAO Schwarz and Gilder Gagnon Howe & Co, a private investment firm.

SPMB also recently assisted in the placement of Andrew Savitz as the new chief marketing officer of Azul Systems. Dave Mullarkey led the assignment. “Andrew has a tremendous amount of experience across all aspects of marketing, and a proven track record of helping companies effectively message, drive awareness and leads, position products, create new market categories and enable high growth sales,” said Scott Sellers, co-founder, president and CEO of Azul.

Mr. Savitz brings more than 20 years of experience leading global marketing teams at high-growth SaaS companies. He joined Azul from BetterCloud where, as chief marketing officer, he coined, scoped and launched the “SaaSOps” movement.

Related: SPMB Assists NewView Capital in Recruitment of New COO

Contributed by Scott A. Scanlon, Editor-in-Chief; Dale M. Zupsansky, Managing Editor; and Stephen Sawicki, Managing Editor – Hunt Scanlon Media

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