Former McDonald’s CEO Don Thompson Named Footprint Chairman of the Board

Footprint, a plant-based fiber technology company specializing in materials science engineering, today announced that Board Director Don Thompson will succeed Kevin Easler as Chairman of the Board. Easler will remain a member of Footprint’s Board of Directors.

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Don Thompson, Chairman of the Board, Footprint (Photo: Business Wire)

Thompson is the Founder and CEO of Cleveland Avenue, a venture capital firm that invests in food and beverage brands, and technologies that positively disrupt large and growing markets.  Thompson also serves on the boards of Royal Caribbean and The Northern Trust Company, and is a former director of McDonald’s Corporation, Exelon Corporation and Beyond Meat.  He also served on the advisory board of DocuSign.

“I’m very pleased that Don Thompson, a deep operational business leader with vast industry experience, will step into the Board Chair role as we scale toward our next phase of growth.  Don has been a great partner to me and our entire Footprint team,” Footprint CEO Troy Swope said.

“Cleveland Avenue invested in Footprint due to its tremendous potential to deliver innovative plant-based fiber technology solutions,” Don Thompson said. “Troy and the entire team are focused on eliminating single-use plastics for consumers and companies that are committed to advancing environmental sustainability.  I look forward to continuing to work with the team at this exciting stage.”

About the changes, Swope added, “I am sincerely grateful to Kevin Easler for his leadership.  From the very beginning, he was one of the original luminaries who believed in Footprint’s vision to replace plastic packaging in the consumer marketplace. Kevin has been a tremendous leader during our early growth and he will continue to add great value as a Board Director moving forward.”

“From day one Footprint has been dedicated to inventing and manufacturing breakthrough new materials to replace single-use plastics. While there’s much more to do, it is exciting to see those dreams become a reality on store shelves today. As the company continues to evolve from an entrepreneurial start-up into a global, disruptive technology company, now is an opportune time for board leadership to evolve as well,” Kevin Easler said.

“While I will continue to serve as a Board member, Don’s leadership and experience are unquestionably world-class. I am confident that with Don leading the board, and the continued vision and leadership of Troy and Yoke, the company is in great hands.”

About Footprint

Footprint provides sustainable solutions that eliminate single-use and short-term use plastics. Footprint uses materials science and process engineering to design, develop and manufacture plant-based biodegradable, compostable, and recyclable products that are on par with plastic’s cost and performance. These solutions, digestible by the earth, keep harmful chemicals away from consumers and have directly already led to a redirection of 61 million pounds of plastic waste from the environment. Footprint is rapidly expanding into new categories with differentiated solutions for customers and has 2,430 U.S and foreign issued and pending patent claims. Customers include Conagra, Sweetgreen, Beyond Meat, Tyson Foods, McDonald’s as well as national and international retail chains.

Footprint was founded in 2014 by former Intel engineers, Troy Swope and Yoke Chung. The company employs more than 1,500 employees, with operations in the U.S., Mexicali, Europe, and Asia. Footprint was named to the 2020 Fortune “Change the World” list in 2020, is a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Innovators Community and was named a CNBC Disruptor 50 company in 2021.

For more information on Footprint’s sustainable solutions visit www.footprintus.com.

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