A Natural Products Industry Socialpreneur with 25+ years launching new brands. From startup to exit, Eric is a Visionary Disruptor with deep experience creating Mission-based and Purpose-driven products.

Eric is the recipient of New Hope Media's 2007 "Sustainable Business of the Year Award" and 6X winner of their Expo NEXTY Awards, 4X annual winner BevNET.com, 2X winner of the Beverage Digest "Best Product of the Year Awards" - and awarded as a Top 50 Beverage World Magazine "Disruptor".  Since 2012 Eric serves as a Nutrition Capital Network Selection Committee Member & Cornerstone Investor.

 In 2002 he Co-Founded Steaz, world's first USDA Organic RTD tea brand and positioned it to be a leader today in the beverage category, while establishing a Triple Bottom-Line business model founded on People, Planet & ethical Profitability. With a successful sale to a strategic in 2016, Steaz is the leading RTD Fair Trade tea brand in the US.

Prior to Steaz, Eric was President of Long Life Tea, tripling their organic tea lines before sale to Kikkoman. Before he served as the National Brand Manager for Country Life Vitamins and was on the Exec Committee, co-directing 5 brands and over 1,000 SKUs globally.  In 2011, Eric founded MetaBrand, an R&D shop focused on organic beverages as well and MetaBrand Capital, which led the Series C round into Runa Tea in 2014. The company had a strategic exit in 2018 to Vita Coco.  In 2015 Eric co-founded mood33, pioneering this new category and marketing cannabis and CBD infused beverages to consumers seeking the benefits of this healing plant in a new delivery format.

ln early 2016, Eric launched the strategic consulting agency BeyondBrands, together with his wife, Eco-Fashion pioneer, Marci Zaroff. BeyondBrands is a "Conscious Products" launch platform with its own  accelerator program, BeyondSKU.  The agency focuses its Super-Tribe of experts on a advising entrepreneurs, CPG brands and VCs in need of developing better-for-you, products in Food, Beverage, Fashion, Beauty, Plant Medicine & Nutraceuticals. In 2018 the first of many companies incubated from within is Good Catch, today a global plant-based seafood brand. In 2020 plant-based frozen wrap brand Cool Beans followed on with a national launch through the natural grocery channel, and in 2021 the brand GoodSam was launched after a 2 year Direct-Trade, Regen Ag supply chain buildout from Columbia to Africa and has secured Thrive Markets as its founding equity partner.