Amy’s Kitchen President Xavier Unkovic has been appointed to company Chief Executive Officer. Xavier has been leading Amy’s day-to-day for the past three years under the leadership of company founder Andy Berliner. Over the course of his time at Amy’s, Xavier has been responsible for laying the groundwork to achieve the Berliner Family’s Vision of building a thriving, collaborative, efficient, engaged and sustainable organization.

Prior to joining Amy's, Xavier spent 25 years with Mars Incorporated serving as Global President of Mars Drinks, CEO of Royal Canin Canada and CEO of Royal Canin USA, the pet care division of Mars Incorporated. Xavier has a passion for family-owned organizations that provide great value to the consumer and possess the agility to influence positive change within their respective industry and beyond.

“It is very difficult to grow and professionalize a company without compromising its magic, and yet Xavier has shown that is possible,” said Amy’s Kitchen Founder Andy Berliner. “And during the past few months, under the stress of the Coronavirus crisis, Xavier has provided exemplary leadership in keeping our employees safe and continuing production for those dependent on our food, leaving us confident that he can help guide the company through challenges that might arise in the future. We have a strong vision for the future of Amy’s and the positive impact we can make through our business, and we’re excited to have Xavier at the helm, turning that vision into reality.”

Xavier, along with the Amy’s leadership team, is working to execute the Berliner Family’s progressive vision for Amy’s—building a thriving, collaborative, efficient, engaged and sustainable organization—through a People, Planet, Performance strategy. This triple-bottom-line framework challenges employees to deliver beyond financial success and holds the company accountable to make meaningful progress on the family’s vision.

“At Amy’s, we know that post-COVID, consumers will look to companies across industries to not only act responsibly but to go far beyond that, making measurable positive impact in our world, whether that’s socially, environmentally or locally,” said Xavier. “Amy’s has always been ahead of the curve doing good by doing well, and we are working diligently to aggressively to increase our positive impact.”

The goal is to become a company that not only provides great quality food and lowers emissions, but one that actually improves the wellbeing of people and heals our planet. We are working to improve the wellbeing of people by democratizing organic food, making it even more widely available and accessible to everyone. We are taking action to create a more just, equitable and inclusive environment in our workplace and in our community, first, through thorough education and assessment, and then by integrating equality and inclusiveness into our culture and ways of working in a meaningful way. And we are striving to heal the planet by negating our environmental impact through things like sustainable agriculture, energy-efficient production, and eco-friendly packaging.

“Our People, Planet, Performance strategy is highly integrated and based on the premise that when you do good, you do well and vice versa,” says Xavier. “Caring about the planet creates engagement for our people. Engagement with our people, allows us to perform well. Performing well gives us the resources to invest in healing the planet, and so on.”

Charting new territory is nothing new for Amy’s Kitchen. Andy and Rachel Berliner committed to making food from organic ingredients well before organic was widely available and familiar to consumers. The Berliners committed to organic because they knew it was better for the consumer, the farmer and the planet and were driven to do what is right, even if it wasn’t the easiest thing to do.

Andy and Rachel and their daughter Amy and son-in-law Jace remain very involved in the business, from product inspiration and recipe creation to defining and promoting the vision for the company’s future. Andy now serves as Executive Chairman of the Board.

As a food company, we have an incredible opportunity and responsibility to help people and our planet through our product and the way we make it. This responsibility feels more vital and urgent than ever before. With Xavier at the helm, working closely with the Berliners and Amy’s leadership team, we are well equipped to make meaningful impact for the long term.