Dive Brief:

• In a Friday press release, plant-based company Beyond Meat named Phil Hardin, a vice president of finance at Amazon, its new CFO.

• Hardin, who will begin in the role next month, replaces CFO and Treasurer Mark Nelson, who joined the company in 2015, led the company through its bombshell 2019 IPO, and stepped down on May 5. He will provide consulting services to the brand for the next two years, Motley Fool reported.

• Also on Friday, Beyond named Deanna Jurgens, chief global sales officer at skincare company Rodan + Fields, its new chief growth officer, and Jackie Trask, senior VP of worldwide HR at JAFRA Cosmetics, its new chief people officer.

Dive Insight:

"We are excited to welcome Phil, Deanna and Jackie to the Beyond Meat executive leadership team," CEO Ethan Brown said in a statement. "In each case, we conducted extensive searches to identify best-in-class talent and I could not be more pleased with the outcome." 

Hardin has spent the last nearly 15 years at Amazon in finance and investor relations. He most recently served as VP of finance for Amazon Advertising, and has held several other leadership roles during his tenure, including director offinance for EU Customer Fulfillment, director of investor relations for Amazon.com and director of finance for Kindle Content & Digital Subsidiaries. 

Hardin’s experience at Amazon aligns with Beyond Meat’s "challenger brand mentality," with an aim of disrupting the largest food category, the brand said.

Brown cited Hardin’s "long tenure of strategic investing for outsized future growth" at Amazon as a vital trait for the role.

Representatives for Beyond Meat and for Hardin did not respond to requests for comment.