Irvine-based Just Food for Dogs LLC tapped former Nestle and Starbucks executive Heath Nielsen for the top post at the fresh whole food maker for pets.
He succeeds Carey Tischler, who oversaw the firm’s national expansion over the last five years. Tischler is continuing with the company as president.
Nielsen joins Just Food for Dogs after serving as a senior vice president of Nestle Coffee Partners. He was also a senior leader at Starbucks for nearly a decade, where he led business development in stores and food service in North America.
“I spent the past decade helping to create world-class customer experiences around another purpose-driven brand, Starbucks, particularly as it pertains to store-in-store concepts, which is a significant focus of the JustFoodForDogs retail eco-system,” said Nielsen.
Founder Shawn Buckley said Nielsen and Tischler will “shepherd the next phase of growth” for the 550-person company, which got its start in 2010.
