Leaders

Reed Howlett, Chief Executive Officer

Reed is a seasoned consumer goods executive who has been extremely active in the natural pet food industry and beyond. From his start in corporate finance at Chase Manhattan Bank to senior leadership roles across finance, marketing, and sales at Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, he has played a role in growing companies across a variety of disciplines. But once he experienced the world of natural pet food, there was no going back – not even to ice cream.

He first served as the CEO of Nature’s Variety, a full-line natural pet food company, and the North American leader in raw diets for dogs and cats. While there, he led the rapid expansion of the company into new channels and saw the company named to the Inc. 5000 for three years in a row. Now, he leads Wellness Pet and all of its brands, bringing high-quality, natural meals, treats, and dental chews to pets and pet families around the world.

At home, he stays active with his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Jack, who excels in agility drills, playing fetch, and serving as CEO of the sofa. When he’s not following Jack’s lead, Reed spends his time running, swimming, traveling, hiking, reading, and gathering as a family with his wife, two kids, and, of course, Jack.

Heather Gadon, Global Chief People Officer, People & Engagement

Heather has brought best-in-class HR practices and solutions to companies of all sizes, from start-ups to multinational organizations experiencing fast growth and diverse cultures. At Wellness Pet, she creates, implements, and leads the people strategy – working to make Wellness Pet a best-in-class organization. When your personal values mirror your professional values, you do your best work and that is what makes Wellies special.

Heather and her family are lucky to have two dogs. Her Golden Retriever named Ellie, who is simply bursting with personality, and Bean, a mixed-breed lab rescue who enjoys curling up on a blanket. Both dogs have a blast whether on a long walk or a hike in the woods.

Roger Parsons, Senior Vice President, Sales & Customer Experience

Roger has a strong track record of leading growth strategies at major CPG companies. His experience includes launching innovative products such as Swiffer while at P&G and Activia while at Dannon. Roger shares his passion for pets through building high-performance teams, delivering consistent revenue and profit growth, and strengthening customer partnerships – all to spread the message of the benefits of natural pet food and use the insights learned to further improve pets’ wellbeing.

At the heart of his drive to help pets everywhere are the two pets closest to his heart – Benji the Lhasa-poo and Chloe the Shepherd Lab Ridgeback rescue. They happily keep him on his toes with endless long walks and sessions of “tennis ball” in the backyard. Whenever he’s not busy throwing the ball, Roger can be found boating, landscaping, or enjoying a game of golf.

Allison Giorgio, Chief Marketing Officer

Before joining Wellness Pet, Allison, spent 18 years at PUMA North America in various roles, most recently serving as Vice President, Marketing. She led all areas of marketing and brand strategy, spearheaded the development of integrated marketing strategies and experiences for the brand’s portfolio of businesses and focused on consumer awareness in order to drive short and long-term growth. Prior to that, Allison held marketing roles at various brands, including Boston Ski & Sports Club, Sudbury Health and Fitness Connection and Annie’s Homegrown.

At Wellness Pet, she joins the senior leadership team to propel brand strategy and creative marketing, further defining the company’s voice and building consumer awareness to drive growth. Allison has a master’s degree in business from Boston University and a bachelor’s degree in international business and marketing from Northeastern University.

She is a big fitness and wellness enthusiast. In her free time, she enjoys working out, traveling the world with her family, crafting great cocktails and trying new restaurants.

Olivier Fleurot, Senior Vice President, Technical Services

Olivier brings a wealth of experience in the consumer package goods and pet nutrition industries.
Prior to joining Wellness Pet, he was with Mars Petcare, and S.C. Johnson & Son, Inc. where he drove innovation and delivered consumer-driven technologies across multiple pet food categories.

Fleurot holds a doctorate in chemical engineering from Clemson University and a bachelor’s degree from École Nationale Supérieure des Industries Chimiques (ENSIC) in France.

He and his wife are based in Massachusetts, with their 9-year-old tricolor King Charles spaniel, Rauber.

Jessica Gorbet, Vice President of Legal

Jess brings a holistic mindset to enterprise risk management and a partnership mentality to her in-house counsel practice at Wellness Pet. She works closely with global leaders across the organization to execute the company’s ongoing strategy. She leverages her extensive legal experience in the consumer package goods industry, stemming from her time at Keurig Dr Pepper and her contract negotiations skills honed at WilmerHale, LLP to drive value and best-in-class practices. Jess holds a law degree from Northeastern University School of Law and a bachelor’s degree from Colby College.

Jess lives in the suburban wilds of Boston with her husband, daughter and a pair of dogs named after James Bond characters, Moneypenny (a laid-back labradoodle) and Fiona (her adventure-loving pittie mix). When she’s not chasing after her dogs and child in the woods, Jess has been known to frequent the trivia and mini-golf circuits. 

Greg Kean, Global VP Advanced Innovation & Nutrition

Greg has a job that most people – and pets – would love to get their paws on: Innovation & Product Development (also known as creator & tester). He has worked on Innovation and R&D for most of his career, almost all of which has been in the pet food industry. Using consumer insights, he and his team actively put their knowledge and passion to work in developing nutritious and purpose-based products that support healthy, happy, and meaningful relationships between pet parents and their beloved pets. While he’s proud of every product created, he’s even prouder of the way they’ve accomplished bringing products to market – with a focus on nutrition, safety, and supporting long-term health.

The luckiest pet on the planet, his loving and playful Boston Terrier mix named Violet takes just as much pride in her role as official tester – and Greg loves to watch her enjoy the team’s new creations. They balance out the taste tests with a healthy amount of fetch and cuddles (to aid in digestion, of course). Greg also finds balance in a life of running and swimming, picking on the mandolin or guitar, exploring new healthy foods, and savoring a great Belgian Lambic beer.

Mark House, Vice President of Information Technology

Mark has more than 25 years of strategic planning, operational excellence, compliance, data management, and cyber security experience.

Before joining Wellness Pet, he served as Vice President, of IT, Security, and Digital Operations at ENGIE Impact, a sustainability-focused global advisory firm. 

He also led IT for Crane Currency, and has held IT and operations positions across pharmaceutical, robotics, contract manufacturing, and telecom industries. At Wellness Pet, he is responsible for leading and directing the alignment of information technology, business systems, and teams to achieve the company’s goals and objectives. 

He holds a master’s degree in operations management from Boston College and a bachelor’s degree from Colby College. 

In his free time, Mark enjoys traveling, hiking, baking, and attending his kid’s sporting events. His family is passionate about animals and is very involved in 4H.

Martin Bahr, Managing Director, Asia Pacific

Martin has chased his passion for pets all over the Asia-Pacific region. Starting in Marketing and Sales and moving into General Management early on in his career, his focus has always been on developing new business and setting up strong local teams. He set up the Wellness Pet APAC organization, the first company venture outside of North America, which is now successfully established with offices in Japan, Australia, Taiwan, and Singapore.

He currently lives and works in Singapore, where he doesn’t have a dog at the moment due to travel and space. But he is lucky to have a lot of friends with pets – and those friends’ pets are lucky that he always brings along a bag of WHIMZEES® dental chews when he visits. In addition to being a great house guest, he considers himself a passionate hobby chef and baker, collector of contemporary art, fashion, and interior design enthusiast, and the proud owner of a growing jazz record collection.

Wim Petermans, Managing Director, EMEA

Wim is a passionate entrepreneur known for building brands, breaking barriers, and coaching high-performing teams to success. He holds both a Master’s in Law and an MBA and has worked as a Sales Director for Unilever (Belgium), and The Wonderful Company (EMEA). Most recently, he built up his e-commerce experience and learned the true power of digital while running a chocolate venture in China as Managing Director. He now brings all of that drive and experience to help grow the brands and teams at Wellness Pet.

While Wim may be a rock star in the business world, the real rock star of his home is his Cavalier King Charles Spaniel named Charlie. Charlie has made a name for himself as a big hugger and a lover of walks. He’s always there to help Wim warm-up for his 1st Iron Man 70.3 – which he hopes to do in 2022 – after already being well on his way to becoming a Six Star medal holder of the Marathon Majors.