Greg Shearson Joins Cerebelly As Chief Executive Officer, Partnering With Co-Founders Dr. Teresa Purzner And Nick Langan

NEW YORK, Nov. 12, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Cerebelly announced today that Greg Shearson will join the company as Chief Executive Officer effective immediately. Shearson, a long-time consumer products and private equity operating executive, brings over three decades of experience in the consumer packaged goods industry. Since its September 2019 launch, Cerebelly has emerged as a breakthrough start up in the infant nutrition category. Since the beginning of 2020, the business has expanded to over 4,000 stores in the United States, including Whole Foods, Target, Kroger and Wegmans. Under Shearson's leadership, the brand is expected to continue its impressive growth in both traditional retail and direct-to-consumer channels.

"I started Cerebelly with a clear vision to change the way we nourish our children," said Dr. Teresa Purzner, a practicing neurosurgeon M.D., PHD. "I have spent the past decade of my medical and scientific career studying the very complex systems that drive early brain development and what critical factors push it in the right or wrong direction. Cerebelly was built to ensure children were receiving the nutrition they needed to thrive in those important early years of brain growth. Bringing Greg on board to help further Cerebelly's mission, building on his experience in both creating winning brands and teams is exactly what we need. We all believe that Cerebelly has the opportunity to have a real impact on the world and how we provide meaningful nutrition that supports critical stages of cognitive development."

"I've been watching Cerebelly's incredible growth over the last year and have been impressed by what has been built in such a short period of time by Teresa and Nick," said Shearson.  "I am very excited to partner with Dr Purzner. Teresa is the very rare combination of a passionate scientist, an insightful entrepreneur and a committed full-time working Mom of 3 young children.  She is completely living this life for the betterment of her kids and others," said Shearson. "Nick has helped put some great pieces already in place. I look forward to working with the team as we continue to grow and become leaders in this category."

Cerebelly's rapid expansion has been aided by early stage investors KC/LLC and Imaginary Ventures. "It was our early belief in Teresa's science-based vision of improving the health of children everywhere that inspired us to be one of the first investors in Cerebelly," said Webb Knudsen, founder of KC/LLC. "Greg's experience of scaling businesses and building teams is a tremendous opportunity for us to further that mission in a way that makes Cerebelly a key player in this category." Logan Langberg of Imaginary Ventures said, "Imaginary focuses the majority of our investments in disruptive start-ups with unique, mission-driven brands. With Greg's extensive CPG experience and leadership, we are confident that Cerebelly will capture the opportunity to change the way children are fed forever."

Shearson, who has a self-described passion for leading health, wellness and nutrition businesses, most recently served as CEO of Ancient Nutrition. The consumer veteran spent decades as a global executive with multinational giants PepsiCo and Procter & Gamble before starting his private equity career. It was his impressive experience with Merrick Pet Care that led the Cerebelly board to invite him to lead their next growth phase.  Under Shearson's leadership, the founder-started Merrick business has grown 10x with superior innovation, marketing and customer development. Nestle Purina ultimately acquired the Merrick business in 2015 and has continued to drive impressive growth as a stand-alone business.

Shearson is expected to oversee Cerebelly's expansion into other food categories and verticals. Most recently, Cerebelly launched its Smart Bars, a snack bar line, featuring the brain-supporting nutrition parents have come to expect from the brand. The bars have zero grams added sugar, 3g of protein and 10+ brain supporting nutrients and are currently available exclusively in Whole Foods and at www.cerebelly.com

ABOUT CEREBELLY
Cerebelly is a brain-focused children's nutrition brand offering science-based, veggie-first baby foods that nourish specific regions of the brain based on a child's age and developmental milestones. Co-founded by neurosurgeon and PhD developmental neurobiologist Dr. Teresa Purzner, Cerebelly is committed to nourishing kids' minds and bodies to give them the best possible start in life, with science and transparency at its core. For more information, visit www.cerebelly.com and follow @eatcerebelly on Instagram.

SOURCE Cerebelly