CEO
Karen Huh brings a deep background in consumer, brand, and products from 15 years in the food and beverage industry. Prior to Joywell Foods, Karen served as Vice President of Product and Brand Strategy at Bulletproof 360, a food and beverage brand, where she built the consumer strategy and product portfolio to support the Bulletproof lifestyle while scaling teams across R&D, brand, marketing and product development. Prior to Bulletproof, Karen was at Starbucks Coffee Company for nearly 11 years in a wide range of roles including coffee innovation, launch of ready-to-drink and packaged coffee in international markets, and the acquisition of Evolution Fresh. Before joining Starbucks, Karen was an investment professional at two tech-focused venture capital firms.
CTO & Co-Founder
Jason Ryder is an entrepreneurial chemical engineer with experience in process and product development, engineering design, scale up, and commercialization in the industrial biotech and food tech sectors. Jason’s professional work has ranged from small molecules to proteins with applications spanning sustainable chemicals, fuels, materials, and foods. Prior to Joywell Foods, he served in senior technical leadership roles at Amyris, Bolt Threads, and Hampton Creek. Jason earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Alabama and a Ph.D. from UC Berkeley where he also teaches bioprocess engineering.
Executive Chef & Culinary Innovation Director
After nearly 15 years of cooking and running kitchens at Michelin-starred restaurants, Ben has become a leading expert in commercial food product development. His experience in all project stages, from initial concept to finished product, and his proficiency with plant-based functional proteins help bring the magic of “sweet protein” to CPGs. His innovative cooking and his quest for “all that is delicious” have led to many unique opportunities, including consulting with NASA’s Institute of Advanced Concepts, delivering a keynote on “Food as Alchemy” at TED 2011 and a victory on Iron Chef America.
