Kristina Herrmann departs Amazon for startup life at Forage
Forage, which makes it easier for grocers to accept SNAP EBT (previously known as food stamps) payments online, has announced that Kristina Herrmann is joining the company in the new role of Chief Business Officer.
Herrmann was previously at Amazon, where she spent nearly 16 years, most recently building out and leading the e-commerce giant’s Underserved Populations team as its Founder and General Manager.
At Forage, which recently announced $22 million in funding from the likes of Nyca Partners, PayPal Ventures, and Instacart founder Apoorva Mehta, Herrmann reports to CEO Ofek Lavian and is responsible for leading the company’s commercial efforts including sales, partnerships, and legal.
"At Amazon, Kristina’s team was directly responsible for bringing online SNAP EBT to Amazon, Amazon Fresh, and Whole Foods, impacting the lives of millions of low-income Americans across the country,” says Lavian.
“She is an outstanding leader, with exceptionally rare expertise in EBT - and will bring credibility and a merchant-first perspective from one of the largest and most impactful companies on the planet.”
“More importantly, Kristina is a talented and compassionate leader who embodies the Forage core values and received overwhelmingly positive feedback from everyone that spoke with her as part of our vetting process.”
“For more than five years, I've worked to create better access for recipients of government benefits like SNAP to online grocery and other services,” says Herrmann.
“In doing so, I've recognised obvious gaps in how technology meets the needs of this customer segment. I am excited to join Forage and its strong leadership team as they change the landscape of online EBT redemption."
Whilst heading up the Underserved Populations team at Amazon - a cross-functional team of product, tech, UX, marketing and business development, Herrmann launched online SNAP purchasing on Amazon.com, including Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods Market, as part of the USDA's Online Purchasing Pilot.
In parallel, she led additional initiatives to improve underserved customers' access to the convenience of online shopping, including a discounts programme on everyday essentials available only to government benefit recipients, an online layaway programme with no fees or credit checks, and a grassroots initiative to improve food access within urban food deserts.
Before this, Herrmann served as the Technical Advisor to the then-SVP of Amazon's North America Retail organisation.
She originally joined Amazon in 2006 as an in-house attorney, where she led legal teams across various businesses for nearly 10 years. Prior to that, she was an attorney at Mayer Brown in Chicago.
“I am confident that Kristina will change the trajectory of this company, and I am incredibly proud and grateful to have the opportunity to work with and learn from her as we grow this company to the next stage,” Lavian concludes.
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