David Gray - Board Member

David Gray serves as Chief Executive Officer of FedUp Foods, where he leads the company’s strategic direction, operational performance, customer partnerships, and long-term enterprise growth. FedUp Foods is the largest functional beverage business-to-business supplier to retailers in North America, serving one of the fastest-growing segments of the consumer packaged goods industry. Under David’s leadership, the company is advancing a strategic transformation from a primarily branded business model to a vertically integrated private label, performance-driven strategy centered on operational excellence, transparent metrics, responsible sourcing, and durable stakeholder value.

With more than 30 years of experience as a CEO, operating executive, and board member, David is a nationally recognized leader in mission-driven growth, governance, organizational transformation, and impact. He has served in a variety of executive and advisory roles across middle-market manufacturing, consumer packaged goods, private equity-backed businesses, and founder- and family office-backed companies. He is known for combining high emotional intelligence leadership with disciplined execution, helping organizations strengthen accountability, learning, data-informed decision-making, and profitable growth.

Prior to joining FedUp Foods, David served for 12 years as President and Chief Executive Officer of GreenSeed Contract Packaging, one of the leading external manufacturing partners to global consumer packaged goods and private label companies. During his tenure, he developed a differentiated growth strategy in the Natural Products channel, expanded strategic customer relationships, and built manufacturing capabilities through both internal development and external partnerships. His work helped position the company to meet the speed, quality, and innovation demands of leading global food and beverage CPG companies.

Earlier in his career, David spent 15 years in private equity environments, serving in strategic operating and executive leadership roles across portfolio global enterprise companies ranging from $500 million to $1 billion in revenue. These experiences shaped his approach to value creation, pairing financial discipline with practical operating insight, leadership development, scalable systems, and a strong belief that culture and performance must advance together.

David’s board and advisory assignments include work with companies across robotics, supply chain, international consumer packaged goods, snack foods, manufacturing, and mission-driven growth sectors. He has served on five boards, advising leadership teams and ownership groups on governance, risk management, strategic growth, succession planning, executive accountability, and value creation. He is especially focused on building governance processes that create clarity and trust, including strong committee structures, effective metrics, defined decision rights, transparent reporting, and disciplined oversight. David views risk not only as a constraint to be managed, but also as strategic optionality, helping companies protect the enterprise while prioritizing the right opportunities for growth.

Across companies and boards, David is recognized for developing people as intentionally as he develops businesses. His leadership philosophy emphasizes empathetic accountability, lifelong learning, collaboration, shared purpose, and measurable outcomes. He has helped build leadership teams and organizational cultures where people are aligned around values, performance, and long-term impact.

David holds a degree in Economics from Hope College and a Masters from the Yale School of Management. In addition, he has completed executive education and leadership development programs through IDEO and Georgia Tech, further strengthening his perspective on innovation, design thinking, strategy, and operational systems.

He has been recognized as a Top Impact CEO by Big Path Capital 4 years in a row and has received multiple industry awards for leadership. Grounded in his education in economics and shaped by a mother who raised him with Eastern philosophical principles, David brings a distinctive blend of analytical rigor and human-centered perspective to leadership. His people-first, mission-grounded approach aligns especially well with employee-owned organizations, where durable success is built through trust, shared responsibility, disciplined governance, and long-term thinking.

Beyond his professional work, David’s proudest achievement is raising his three children as a single father. He lives in Asheville and Wilmington, North Carolina.