Founders
John Mackey
John Mackey is an entrepreneur and the co-founder and visionary of Whole Foods Market. In his 44 years of service as CEO, the natural and organic grocer grew from a single store in Austin, Texas, to 540 stores in the U.S., U.K. and Canada, with annual sales exceeding $22 billion. Mackey co-founded the Conscious Capitalism Movement and co-authored a New York Times and Wall Street Journal best-selling book entitled “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” and follow-up, “Conscious Leadership: Elevating Humanity Through Business.” He is also the co-author of “The Whole Foods Diet: The Lifesaving Plan for Health and Longevity” and “The Whole Foods Cookbook: 120 Delicious and Healthy Plant-Centered Recipes.” Mackey currently serves on the board of directors for Conscious Capitalism, The Motley Fool, CATO Institute, The Institute for Cultural Evolution and Students for Liberty.
Walter Robb
Walter Robb is an investor, mentor and advisor to the next generation of American food companies with 40+ years of experience in natural and organic food. He served as co-CEO of Whole Foods Market and has a long and varied entrepreneurial history, ranging from natural food retailer to farmer to consultant. Robb is a passionate advocate for food access as well as a longtime champion of organics, serving on the board of directors of the Organic Trade Association and the Organic Center for Education and Promotion. In 2018, he was inducted into the Expo West Natural Products Expo Hall of Legends. Robb is currently a senior executive partner at S2G Ventures and serves on the board of directors for Union Square Hospitality Group, Tilray (NASDAQ: TLRY), LIVEKINDLY Collective, Apeel Sciences and Hungry.
Betsy Foster
Betsy Foster joined Love.Life in 2020 after a 26-year career at Whole Foods Market, where she held a variety of leadership positions, including national operations controller, chief information officer and vice president of Purchasing, Distribution and Private Label. In her most recent role as senior vice president of Growth and Business Development, Foster led the development and operations for Whole Foods Market’s Medical and Wellness Centers, which offered primary care as well as diet and lifestyle support. She was also responsible for developing the Whole Heath Care insurance plan. She also oversaw the company’s Total Health Immersion programs, which offered team members access to a medically supervised programs to heal and reverse disease through intensive training in healthy eating and lifestyle habits. Foster created the grocer’s venture equity fund that invested in dozens of companies ranging from Vital Farms to Kite Hill and Waterloo. Prior to Whole Foods Market, she worked for Exxon in various roles. Foster has served on multiple boards of Whole Foods Market suppliers and currently serves as board chair emeritus of Marathon Kids Inc. in Austin, Texas.
Culinary Team
Brooks McCarty
Executive Chef
Love.Life
With more than a decade of plant-based culinary experience, Brooks McCarty shares Love.Life’s passion for nourishing food, health and wellness. Using his creativity and well-versed palate, Brooks creates delicious, healthy dishes that showcase fresh whole-food ingredients. As executive chef for Neiman Marcus in Beverly Hills, Brooks introduced a more plant-forward menu. He spent four years in a variety of roles at Matthew Kenney’s restaurants, including chef de cuisine at Plant Food + Wine in Venice, California, and also served as a culinary instructor at Kenney’s culinary program.
Diego Tosoni
Chief Creative Officer
Love Life Cafe
Diego co-founded Love Life Cafe in the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami with his wife, Veronica Menin, in 2015. A self-taught cook with a deep passion for creative and nourishing plant-based food, Diego is responsible for the restaurant’s creative vision and recipe development. He has an accomplished career in visual arts and completed Cornell’s Plant-Based Nutrition program in 2012. His creative influence shines both on the plate and in the design of the restaurant.
Nutrition Team
Brian Asbill,
Chief Health Officer
In his almost 20 years of experience as a cardiologist, Dr. Asbill has witnessed the powerful difference that simple, lifestyle-focused changes can make in people’s lives. He is excited now to shift his focus from helping his patients survive to helping them thrive by aligning mind, body and spirit. He earned his M.D. degree from the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston and proceeded with his cardiology fellowship there after completing his internship and residency at the University of Virginia Health Sciences Center in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is board-certified in cardiovascular diseases and lifestyle medicine, and served as a cardiologist at Asheville Cardiology Associates (Asheville, North Carolina), 2001–2020, where he was director of the Lipid Clinic.
Lisa McDowell,
Human Performance Lead
A human performance expert and registered dietitian, McDowell holds a Master of Science degree and CSSD, DipACLM, ISAK, culinary genomics and METS accreditations. She is the team dietitian for the Detroit Red Wings and has privately counseled PGA golfers, Formula 1 race teams, Olympic, collegiate, and international athletes, Grammy-winning artists, and actors. McDowell also serves as the Director of Clinical Nutrition and Lifestyle Medicine at Trinity Health in Ann Arbor, MI where she helped start the first hospital campus farm in the country. Her story was recently featured in the film Feeding Tomorrow and describes her passion to scale hospital farming to transform our broken food and health care system.
Cynthia Sass,
Registered Dietitian
Cynthia Sass, MPH, MA, RDN, CSSD is a registered dietitian nutritionist, three-time New York Times best-selling author, writer, editor, plant-based recipe developer, speaker, frequent media guest and practitioner with master’s degrees in both nutrition science and public health. She is a board-certified specialist in sports dietetics and a certified plant-based professional cook with formal training in mindfulness meditation. Sass has consulted for five professional sports teams in the NBA, MLB and NHL, and has privately counseled Oscar, Grammy and Emmy winners, CEOs and pro athletes in numerous sports.
Amanda Archibald,
Registered Dietitian
Amanda Archibald is widely recognized as one of the foremost leaders in culinary genomics, connecting genomic science to everyday health. A global pioneer in personalized eating plans for your genes, she is also an author, educator, consultant and public health advocate. She founded The Genomic Kitchen in 2017 to showcase the relationship between genes, food and health.