VANCOUVER, BC. — Melissa Lee has been named chief financial officer of Daiya Foods, a provider of plant-based foods, including cheeses, pizza and non-dairy frozen dessert.

Ms. Lee joins Daiya Foods from Walmart Inc., where she was vice president of corporate FP&A (financial planning and analysis). Prior to her time in the United States, Ms. Lee held progressively senior finance roles in merchandising, supply chain, store operations and e-commerce over her 10 years with Walmart Canada. Her early finance career started at Unilever Canada, where she held a range of business partnering and FP&A roles from 2002-10.

“The appointment of Melissa Lee to the position of chief financial officer comes at an exciting time for Daiya; we have just opened our new state-of-the-art plant-based food manufacturing and innovation facility, the largest and first of its kind in North America,” said Michael Watt, chief executive officer of Daiya Foods. “I look forward to working closely with Melissa as we accelerate Daiya’s leadership position in the plant-based movement.”

Ms. Lee received a bachelor’s degree in business communications from Queen’s University and a master’s degree in business administration from the Schulich School of Business. She also attended the Program for Leadership Development at Harvard Business School.