Stu has been an investment professional for over thirty years and a vegetarian interested in the natural products industry for over forty. He spent the first fifteen years of his career on Wall Street at firms including Paine Webber (now UBS AG), Advest, Inc., and finally at Oppenheimer & Co. He left the industry in 2006 to launch Snow Beverages, a manufacturer of natural soda. At Snow, Stu personally raised millions in angel financing and acquired distribution in top retail chains including Whole Foods, Central Market, Stop & Shop, Super Target (nationwide) and many others. After serving as Snow’s CEO for six years Stu left in 2012 and founded Green Circle Capital Partners.

A graduate of Cornell University, Stu is also a writer whose first published novel, “The Organ Broker,” was released in 2015 and named one of five finalists for the Hammett Prize for literary excellence in crime writing (the prior year’s winner was Stephen King). He speaks on raising capital and entrepreneurship, has been quoted broadly on food & bev in leading media outlets such as Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, Mergermarket, The Washington Post, Bevnet, Food Navigator, etc., and is a mentor for several Foodtech accelerators. Stu is also a Registered Rep with BA Securities, LLC (member FINRA & SIPC) holding Series 7, 63, 79 and 82 registrations with FINRA.

Jessica leads Dwight’s Business Development team, which is focused on building and nurturing relationships with early stage, growth stage and lower middle market companies in the food and beverage and consumer goods spaces, as well as the network that supports them. Prior to her work at Dwight, Jessica was a Director of Strategy and Partnerships at a fintech lender, while previously she raised private debt and equity capital for companies globally in the Investment Banking Division of Barclays Capital. Jessica graduated with a B.S. in Finance and Accounting from the University of Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce. When she’s not on back-to-back calls or traveling to industry conferences, Jessica can be found running on the West Side Highway in NYC or dining at up-and-coming restaurants with great friends.

Blake Horn is a partner at Giannuzzi Lewendon, LLP, a law firm serving the consumer products industry with offices in New York City and Santa Monica. Blake has spent over a decade focused on guiding consumer brand companies and entrepreneurs from the infancy of an idea through a successful exit, advising on a broad range of matters including fundraising, exit transactions, key supply chain and CPG industry relationships, employees and personnel, and celebrity, athlete and other endorsement and promotional partnerships. Blake currently calls Brooklyn home with his wife Michelle and four year old Vizsla Winston.

Kristena Wozniak is the VP of Business Development at Propeller Industries where she oversees Sales, Partnerships, and Growth initiatives. Kristena joined Propeller over 8 years ago as a Director of Finance after spending the first decade of her career in various accounting and finance positions across large Corporate firms as well as venture backed startups. Her unique experience working within the startup community, then serving Propeller’s client base has allowed her to successfully convey the value prop of Propeller’s premium outsourced solution. Over the last 5 years, Kristena has led her team to engage more than 400 companies, leveraging long standing partnerships and the Propeller client community.

Dr. Bruno Xavier is a Food Engineer with a PhD in Microbiology (Cornell University, 2008), with expertise in Food Science, Biotechnology, and Industrial Microbiology. Currently Dr. Xavier is the Associate Director of the Cornell Food Venture Center, a major extension program of the Food Science Department at Cornell University, and Scientific Advisor to the New York State Center of Excellence in Food and Agriculture. Dr. Xavier and his team develop outreach programs and extension activities to support new and established entrepreneurs, processors and farmers introducing new products into the marketplace, provides guidelines and assist in regulatory issues to ensure the safety of food products. As a Process Authority, Dr. Xavier oversees the establishment of schedule process documentation to comply with federal and state regulatory requirements for more than 2500 products/year, for companies throughout the United States. Dr. Xavier leads the Cornell Fermentation Farming Lab, focused on helping companies in the precision fermentation sector to reach proof of concept and pilot production with minimal capital investment needs. Dr. Xavier is also a Scientific Advisor to Green Circle Capital.