Executives

Our executive team has experience in food, wellness, technology, and the viral introduction of new products. This team has successfully grown companies and placed food products at Trader Joe’s, Whole Foods, and Williams-Sonoma.

 

Keith Lauver, CEO
Lauver is a serial entrepreneur with expertise in starting, building and managing companies in emerging markets. This is Lauver's fourth company, his second in food, and the one he's most excited about! Lauver started his career as a software nerd, and used his programming skills to eventually build a 20-person services company. In 1999 he started Gearworks, a wireless application software company that later merged with Xora in 2009 to create the clear market leader in Field Service Automation. Lauver moved back to his home state of Montana in 2004 to run a premium beef company started by a fourth-generation ranching family, and as CEO he helped grow it nearly 10x, securing accounts with Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Williams-Sonoma before he left at the end of 2007. The Healthy Pantry was founded in early 2008 in response to his personal wellness journey and a clear market need. Lauver has raised over $30M to grow companies, and has delivered strong returns for past investors. To learn more about Lauver, please visit his Linkedin Profile.

David Lukens, VP Business Development
David built and maintained critical relationships with local bankers, government officials, and industry leaders. These relationships resulted in SBA-backed loans and an RBEG grant that was instrumental in helping us get into our first thousand retail stores (including Whole Foods and Safeway), key regional brokerages, and the three leading distributors of natural foods (UNFI, KeHe/Tree of Life and Nature's Best).

Tony Sobiech, Co-Founder and Executive Chef
Sobiech is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, and his impressive career with food has included work in fine dining restaurants as well as high-volume foodservice accounts such as LSG Sky Chefs and Sodexho. A native of Minneapolis, Sobiech was led to Montana where we assumed the position of Executive Chef and Product Marketing Manager at a premium beef company, and joined his former colleague Lauver to start The Healthy Pantry in 2008. Sobiech is responsible for creating our delicious recipes.

 

Advisors

We have also assembled a terrific group of outside advisors, including:

Jonny Bowden
Jonny Bowden, PhD, C.N.S. is a board-certified nutrition specialist and a nationally known expert on weight loss and nutrition. Jonny has advised The Healthy Pantry on its nutrition philosophy, and has contributed a number of recipes from his book, The Healthiest Meals on Earth, as the basis of meal kit recipes. Other books by Bowden include: • “Living the Low-Carb Life: Choosing the Diet that's Right for You from Atkins to Zone” (100,000 in print and winner of the “Consumer Nutrition Book of the Year” award) • “The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The surprising unbiased truth about what you should eat and why” • “The Most Effective Natural Cures on Earth: The surprising unbiased truth about what treatments work and why” His work has been endorsed by a virtual who’s who in the world of integrative medicine and nutrition including Dr. Christiane Northrup, Dr. Mehmet Oz, Dr. Barry Sears (who calls him “one of the best”) and Dr. Ann Louise Gittleman, (who calls him “the personal health coach I would want in my corner no matter what”). He has been featured in or contributed material to The New York Times, The New York Post, Bottom Line Health, Chicago Sun Times, Chicago Tribune, Time Magazine, GQ, Muscle and Fitness, Cosmopolitan, Oxygen, Seventeen, MSNBC Online, MSN Online, The National Star, Self, Fitness, Family Circle, Marie Claire, Allure, Men’s Health, Ladies Home Journal, Walking, Prevention, Total Health, Woman’s World, Weight Watchers, In Style, Shape and the National Enquirer and has appeared on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, ABC, NBC and CBS as an expert on nutrition, weight loss and fitness. Dr. Bowden has a Master’s Degree in psychology and counseling and a PhD in nutrition, and has earned six national certifications in personal training and exercise. He is board certified by the American College of Nutrition. He is adjunct faculty at Clayton College for Natural Health, and a much in-demand speaker at conferences and events across the country.

Gina Lombardi
Twenty years experience and 60,000 hours of one-on-one personal coaching has made Gina Lombardi one of the most sought after Fitness Experts in the entertainment business. Gina has created a number of The Healthy Pantry's Weight Loss meal kits, and in addition to using them herself frequently recommends our meal kits to her celebrity clients. Gina is HOST of FIT NATION on the Discovery Channel’s FitTV, their only investigative reporting show. Gina has a regular column in HEALTH Magazine called “Inside Track,” where she tests and reviews health & fitness products. She’s been a TELEVISION SPOKESPERSON for HEALTH Magazine and SHAPE Magazine. WWW.MSNBC.COM features her celebrity fitness tips on their FIT LIST. She is a Spokesperson for NASONEX, The Yogurt Smoothie, Purple and FUZE Beverages as well as fitness expert for the WEIGHT WATCHERS Start Getting Healthy DVD series. Gina is the most requested health & fitness RADIO GUEST on the radio waves, entertaining markets such as New England, New York, Los Angeles, Dallas, Atlanta and

Jeannette Bessinger
Jeannette is a Board Certified Holistic Health Counselor, Author, award-winning motivational educator, and creator of the Whole Life Nutrition approach. As an advisor, Jeannette has generously contributed a number of terrific recipes that have become meal kits, codified our nutrition philosophy, and is a frequent taste-tester of our products! A graduate among the first class of women at Columbia College, Columbia University, Jeannette has pursued an extensive, multi-modal education in teaching, health and wellness that spans fifteen years. After researching the most practical and effective strategies for creating total lifestyle health, she obtained certifications and registrations in three primary areas; body, mind/emotion, and spirit. Jeannette is a Board Certified Holistic Health Counselor (graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition), is a Certified emotional integration coach (graduate of the Wave Work Institute), and an ordained and registered interfaith minister (graduate of the All Faiths Seminary International). She also has specialized training in stress management, pain management and the psychology of eating and nutrition.