Leadership Team
Our team has extensive experience creating new health-oriented businesses
Ross Consaul, CEO. Ross is a food and nutrition executive with over 20 years experience leading R&D, Innovation, and New Ventures for large and small companies including Bayer, Kellogg, Pizza Hut, Pillsbury and Kashi. Skilled at matching technology possibilities with market needs, he has created and launched new products and businesses with annual sales of $2 billion across multiple categories, brands and channels. He has also been instrumental in identifying, acquiring and integrating new businesses with annual revenue of $3 billion.
Most recently, Ross served as General Manager, Nutrition for Bayer BioScience where he was responsible for identifying and creating new businesses in health and nutrition for the $38 billion Bayer Company. Prior to joining Bayer, he held key leadership positions in R&D at the Kellogg Company, Kashi, Pizza Hut and Pillsbury. In these roles he directed teams and organizations responsible for new product development, new business development, acquisitions, technology development and strategy development.
Keith Wakeman, President. Keith is an entrepreneur, general manager and brand strategist with a passion for improving health and well-being in first world and developing countries. Keith also serves as CEO of Gene Smart Wellness.
Keith has over 20 years experience in the food, nutrition and wellness industries with leading companies including Kellogg, Keebler and Nabisco, growing brands and creating new businesses across a wide range of categories. He was head of Innovation for the $2 billion Kellogg’s Snacks Division and led New Ventures for both the $9 billion Kellogg Company and the $2 billion Keebler Company. He also led brand teams and held various trade marketing and sales roles at Nabisco, Leaf and Procter & Gamble. Keith has developed and launched new businesses generating over $1 billion in annual revenue.
Keith serves as an advisor or board member for several like-minded entrepreneurial organizations including Lenny's Real Beef Company, a startup company with a scalable model to bring branded, healthy grass-fed beef to mainstream America; big Boing, a brand innovation and launch company with strong interest in the power of play, health and sustainability; a startup functional beverage company; and Gene Smart Compassion, a not for profit that creates innovative solutions to address malnutrition and other urgent needs of children in Africa.
Dr. Floyd "Ski" Chilton III, Chief Science Officer. Dr. Chilton is widely recognized in academia and industry for his work on the role of fatty acid metabolism in human diseases. He is currently a Full Professor in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology and Director of the Wake Forest and Brigham and Women’s Center for Botanical Lipids at Wake Forest University Health Sciences. Dr. Chilton also founded the Program in Molecular Medicine at Wake Forest University Health Sciences and helped build it into one of the most successful programs of its kind in the U.S.
Dr. Chilton has served as Professor of Internal Medicine and Professor of Biochemistry at Wake Forest University Health Sciences as well as Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He also served as Associate Director of the Asthma and Airways Diseases Center and Associate Director of Programs in Clinical Research at Wake Forest University Health Sciences. Dr. Chilton has served as Chairman and has organized several international meetings on dietary regulation of human disease and lipid metabolism.
Dr. Chilton has authored or co-authored over 110 scientific articles and book chapters. He holds 32 issued and 17 pending patents. In 2005, Dr. Chilton wrote Inflammation Nation, which was published by Simon and Schuster. In 2006, he wrote Win the War Within, which was published by Rodale.
Dr. Chilton obtained his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Wake Forest University in 1984. He served as a Postdoctoral Fellow in Pharmacology at the University of Colorado until 1986. He has received numerous awards in his career including the Cowgill Scholar Award at Wake Forest, the Sigma Xi Research Award at Wake Forest, the 1999 Distinguished Academic and Achievement Award from Western Carolina University and The Distinguished Service and Teaching Award from the Italian Congress on Allergy and Immunology.
Scott Derks, Chief Operations Officer. Scott combines the practical skills of a veteran banker with the creative drive of an award winning writer who has authored 14 books. He spent 20 years managing cultural change, profitability and merger activity during the consolidation of the banking industry in the 1980s and 1990s. During his last three years in banking, he served as a senior executive with Bank of America and Chief of Staff to the company's flagship North Carolina and South Carolina operation.
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Scott is credited with orchestrating the renaissance of Pilot Therapeutics Holdings, Inc., the parent company of Gene Smart Health, from dormancy to its relaunch first as a consultant, then as President. During that time he focused on establishing a commercial foundation for the company in partnership with Wake Forest Medical University.
Scott’s most recent book is The Revolutionary War to the Civil War, his ninth book in the series. He also serves on the board of CIVISonLine, an internet company working with the BBC, New York Times and Yahoo to create the "global conversation.”
Dr. Linda Stewart, Vice President Marketing & Insights. Linda is a strategic marketer with expertise in consumer insights, new product innovation and branding. Her skills have been honed by marketing some of the world's most valued and recognizable brands over a more than 25 year career in the consumer packaged goods, advertising, and brand consultancy industries. She is also an accomplished lecturer and speaker, has served on the faculty of Washington University in St. Louis prior to launching her business career, and appeared as a featured speaker on brand equity management and new product development for the American Marketing Association and the Advertising Research Foundation.
Linda was formerly Vice President of Consumer Insights and Strategic Communications for Kellogg Company, and Vice President of Market Research and Consumer Affairs for Keebler Company. She was also Director of New Product Development for Keebler where she led all facets of new product development for the Salty Snacks Division, from idea generation and concept and product development through launch management. Her leadership delivered first year new product revenue of over $280M through the introduction of six new products, boosting Keebler to the #3 position in the multi-billion dollar salty snack market.
Linda has a Ph.D. and M.A. in Educational Psychology from Columbia University and a B.A. in Psychology from Barnard College
Dr. Hans Zoerb, Vice President Research & Development. Hans is a highly respected and accomplished technology expert with over 30 years experience in the food, nutrition and ingredient industries leading development and execution of new products, new technologies, ingredients, regulatory strategies and intellectual property for leading food and ingredient companies.
Hans is an Adjunct Professor of Food Science at the University of Wisconsin at River Falls. He led applied research and development for the Cargill Health and Food Technologies Division and spent 18 years with Pillsbury where he was Director of Strategic Technology Development and held key leadership roles supporting major businesses. He led product and process development teams for the Refrigerated Dough Products and Breakfast Group, and managed the company's analytical chemistry and new technology group.
Hans has a Ph.D. in Food Chemistry and a B.A. in Zoology from the University of Wisconsin. He also has a B.A. in Biology from the University of Colorado.
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Brad Johnson, Chief Financial Officer. Brad has had extensive experience supervising and creating business plans and financial models for existing businesses and start up operations primarily in the media and telecommunications industries. He has also managed and operated companies, and been responsible for new business development activities. Much of his over 25 years of experience has been in international markets working for subsidiaries of U.S. companies. 

Brad was formerly CEO of Pramer, S.C.A., an Argentine company owned by Liberty Global Inc. Pramer owns and produces television programming for cable and satellite television systems in Latin America and Spain. Prior to that he was CEO of Velocom Argentina, S.A., an Internet service provider in Argentina established by U.S. investors. He was also a Senior Vice President of United International Holdings, Inc.’s Latin American division, and business development manager for UIH’s start up operations in France and Spain. He is a Director and former Treasurer of the Virginia Museum of Natural History Foundation. Brad received his MBA from the Darden School at the University of Virginia, and a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. He is a graduate of Dartmouth College.
