Coca-Cola and Twitter Execs Join Beyond Meat Team

California-based vegan brand Beyond Meat appointed two new executives, Kathy N. Waller and Ned Segal, to its board this week. Waller is the chief financial officer (CFO) and executive vice president of The Coca-Cola Company, while Segal is the CFO of Twitter. “We’re fortunate to have access to their expertise and backgrounds as financial stewards at Coca-Cola and Twitter, respectively,” Beyond Meat CEO Ethan Brown said. “I look forward to working with Kathy and Ned as we further our mission to create The Future of Protein and pursue our goal of becoming a global protein company.” Beyond Meat’s popular Beyond Burger is currently available at 25,000 retailers, and the company is in the midst of expanding its distribution to 50 countries. “The growth in the plant-based protein industry has been impressive, and I’m excited to be a part of the Beyond Meat board to help the company through the opportunities ahead,” Segal said. This month, the brand debuted its Beyond Burger at supermarket Tesco in the United Kingdom and filed an initial public offering (IPO) with the intent to trade its stocks under the symbol “BYND” on NASDAQ. “I believe deeply in the company’s purpose,” Segal said. “And I’ve been feeding our teenager Beyond Sausage for the past few months without him noticing the swap, so I’ve seen the likeability of the product firsthand.”