CPG Power List: 7 Fast-Growth Superstars Looking to Build the Next Breakout Brand

These leaders built winners like Poppi, Oatly, Bachan’s, Hint, and Burt’s Bees. Here’s what draws them to the next challenge—and what it means for consumer brands’ future.

BY KEVIN J. RYAN, FREELANCE WRITER @WHERESKR

Illustration: Inc.; Photos: courtesy subjects

What do you do after driving a consumer upstart to a nine- or 10-figure success? It isn’t going to Disney World. You recharge and wait for the chance to do it again.

Running a fast-growing CPG brand is hard. Founders, especially first-time founders, get all the glory when a company clicks. But working alongside them are always operators who know how to drive growth, profitability, and awareness to get a company across the finish line to a big exit. Behind every winning brand are always proven leaders in key roles.

These are seven CPG stars that could elevate your new product (or your latest favorite) to those heights.

For the latest Inc. CPG Power List (See “26 Insiders Supercharging Your Favorite Startup Consumer Brands”), we’ve put together a roster of valuable free agents. Each of them has helped guide a CPG brand to fast growth, and they’re ready for their next opportunity, should that perfect situation arise. That’s not to say any of them are desperate for their next rodeo—more on that below.

The CEO and CFO who recently managed a landmark multibillion-dollar exit

The two-time winner who shepherded two brands to acquisitions collectively worth over $1.6 billion

The creative genius who mainstreamed a product previously unknown in the U.S. and drove approximately 4,000 percent growth through ceaselessly clever anti-marketing

The comms chief and growth exec who worked every lever to entice people to try something new before it became irresistible to an acquirer willing to pay mid-nine figures

An ahead-of-her-time beverage startup CEO who grew her company to a $150 million valuation before stepping aside

If your fast-growing CPG company is looking for its newest high-performing executive, or you want to bet on which brand is about to get big, keep an eye on what these folks do next.

Chris Hall: The extra pop in Poppi

Former roles: CEO of soda brand Poppi; former CEO of beverage brand Talking Rain

Recent achievement: Engineered Poppi’s $2 billion sale to PepsiCo in 2025

Career calculus: After several years of running Talking Rain, maker of Sparkling Ice beverages, Hall took the helm at Poppi in 2022. Between that year and 2024, the company increased revenue by 915 percent, to over $500 million, landing it at No. 148 on the Inc. 5000 list in 2025. He remained at the company for a year following the sale and departed in May. 

Hall chalks up some of Poppi’s success under his leadership to the brand’s understanding that culture and community are critical to modern beverage brands. “We built something people genuinely wanted to be part of,” he says, “not just something they wanted to drink.” 

A major focus of his time at Poppi, Hall says, was empowering the people around him to make decisions and execute on them, all while holding everyone to a high standard. “I had a saying: ‘Drive, not ride,’” he says. “Don’t wait for someone else to solve the problem. See the opportunity, take ownership, and go.” 

Hall says that his experiences at both Poppi and Talking Rain taught him that strategy matters, but the people and execution ultimately determine whether it works. “My philosophy,” he says, “is to be engaged, genuinely care, and drive all-out while being better every day.” 

What he’s doing now: Hall is serving as an adviser to a handful of founders and leadership teams, though he won’t say which ones. 

What he wants to do next: Something both fulfilling and challenging. Hall points to “functional CPG”—energy, hydration, protein, sleep, and cognition, to name a few examples—as an arena with particular potential. “Every chapter of my career has forced me to learn something new, reset myself in some way, and become a better leader,” he says. “Whatever I do next needs to do the same. The opportunity has to be compelling enough that I can’t stop thinking about it.”

John Schoolcraft: The mad genius of ‘don’t call it marketing’

Former roles: Chief creative officer at oat milk brand Oatly

Recent achievement: Helped raise Oatly’s profile during a period in which it grew from $20 million to $800 million in annual revenue 

Career calculus: When former Oatly CEO Toni Petersson asked Schoolcraft to join Oatly as chief creative officer in........

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