TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – Animal-free dairy developer Remilk appointed Tomer Harpaz as the chairman of its board of directors.

The former chief executive officer of global food companies Strauss Coffee and Sabra Obela, Harpaz was chosen for his business insights, industry expertise and experience as an entrepreneur, investor and innovator, per Remilk’s leadership.

"In the past year, Remilk has made significant progress toward realizing our promise of reimagining the global dairy category," said Aviv Wolff, co-founder and CEO. "A trailblazing and strategic leader, Tomer's contributions as chairman of the board will be invaluable as Remilk prepares to accelerate our journey. We are thrilled that Tomer shares our vision for the future."

Earlier in his career, Harpaz founded Rebar, a fresh food retail chain, and launched food tech initiatives Alpha Strauss and The Kitchen. He also worked as executive vice president of business development and strategy at Strauss and served on a number of boards, including time as chairman for Brazilian coffee company Tres Coracoes.

"The future of our world depends, in no small part, on bold changes to our food systems," Harpaz said. "We are experiencing an escalation in global warming and supply chain crises that demand immediate changes to our global food systems, making them more resilient and sustainable. To generate real change, we must adopt disruptive technologies via new business models and by teams with the power to drive change and execute on global scale. I have the utmost confidence in Remilk's ability to deliver against these great challenges. Aviv and the team at Remilk have developed an extraordinary and scalable organization and technology that I believe will be the catalyst for a sustainable evolution throughout the dairy category and deliver meaningful positive impact to our planet and humanity. It is both an honor and a great responsibility for me to be appointed chairman of the board."

Remilk uses a yeast-based precision fermentation process to produce animal-free milk proteins that contain no lactose, cholesterol or growth hormones.