Meet Kristi! She's the driving force behind Mother Raw and its parent company Reunion Foods Inc. As CEO, Kristi is proud to lead the growing and talented team responsible for the success of Mother Raw; a team who shares the belief that helping people eat more plants makes good sense.
With more than 20 years of experience as a senior executive with companies including Unilever, Campbell’s and Molson Coors, Kristi is known for building brands by defining and executing insightful business strategies that drive business success.
Kristi’s lifelong passion for health and wellness, combined with a commitment to help promote healthier relationships with food, attracted the seasoned business exec and busy wife and mom to join the company in 2018. When Kristi isn't hard at work growing Mother Raw, you can find her at the ski hill, travelling, hiking, cooking up a storm or cuddling her family and sheepadoodle, Darwin.
Get to Know Kristi Knowles!
What's your favourite part of your job as CEO?
I love creating a vision and then seeing it come to life with a team of curious, smart and highly principled people who are proud of what they create.
What are you most excited for this coming year at Mother Raw? We just unveiled the brand to consumers in January 2019, so I am most excited to see it take hold across North America and to hear what people have to say about us.
What’s a brand you admire and why? I admire brands for what they do and why they do it. Brands that take a stance, have courage and that challenge the status quo. One brand that I admire is Netflix. They have completely changed the way we consume entertainment and are even changing what we consume with their unique content.
What is your philosophy behind healthy eating? My approach has evolved to become very simple. I think food is meant to be enjoyed and not meant to be complicated. Society, particularly in North America, gets so many mixed messages about what to eat, what not to eat and how to eat. My philosophy is to eat whole foods as close to nature as possible, avoid stuff that comes in boxes, make sure to eat a wide variety of foods and make choices that are kind to the environment.
Are you a dog or a cat person? I am an animal person, period. That said, I am hopelessly in love with dogs!
Your dog Darwin is a regular visitor in the Mother Raw office. Did you always have pets growing up? Yes, Darwin loves his visits to our office and brings a smile to so many faces! I was an equestrian growing up, so was fortunate to have horses. We also had family pets, dogs and cats!
Do you have any hidden talents? I am a pretty good dancer, a dream was to be a back-up dancer for Madonna 🙂
What is your favourite Mother Raw Product? That’s a hard one. It depends on my mood and the occasion, but I love the Ranch dressing in our Tex Mex salad and our French Onion dip spread on my sandwich. Yum.
You can find and connect with Kristi on LinkedIn here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristiknowles