President & CEO
Jeff comes from a successful career in the food ingredients industry, and founded RFI in 1989 with a vision to establish a vertically integrated, global source of natural specialty ingredients and formulas for the food, functional food, and dietary supplement industries. He has led RFI to become one of the most diversified and quality-driven developers, manufacturers, and marketers of natural products. Jeff leads the executive team, provides vision, and is deeply involved with corporate, sales, business, and product development strategies.
Chief Operating Officer
Trisha has been with RFI for more than 20 years, and has occupied key roles in several important areas of the company. Trisha began her tenure at RFI as an office manager, and quickly moved up to managing RFI’s customer service and internal sales departments. Currently, Trisha focuses on working with key accounts, as well as assisting in the development of strategic supply partnerships. Her depth of relationships with customers and extensive knowledge of company operations and products make Trisha a very important member of RFI’s executive team.
Chief Innovation Officer
Paul has more than 30 years of experience developing, sourcing, and marketing natural products. He was the founder of Nat-Trop, a pioneer in the development of natural and nutritional ingredients from South America, which merged with RFI in 2002. Raised in Brazil, Paul has a multi-cultural background and brings with him many important relationships in sourcing and product development. Paul’s primary concentrations are product development, technical sales, strategic and sustainable sourcing, program support, managing strategic industry and association relationships, and business development.
VP of Quality & Applications
Pi-Yu has been with RFI since 2002. She holds a bachelor’s degree in food science and technology, as well as a master’s degree in food chemistry from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Pi-Yu has more than 15 years of global technical experience in the nutraceutical and food industries, and she has developed more than 50 major commercial products as a result. Her diverse technical skills include QA programs design, food and dietary supplement regulations and compliance, product formulation and application, and analytical method development. At RFI, she manages the technical department, which includes QA, QC, regulatory, applications, and technical service.
Vice President, Manufacturing
Marty has over 25 years of experience in the food, flavor, and nutritional supplement industries. He spent 13 years at Hauser, Inc., a research and development company focused on natural product extracts and purified plant compounds for the dietary supplement, pharmaceutical, and food industries. With extensive experience in operations, raw material procurement and sourcing, and research and development, Marty oversees the manufacturing operations for RFI.
QC/QA Manager
Peter has more than 10 years of experience in quality control, manufacturing, and regulated testing. Prior to RFI, he spent four years with Eurofins as a study director under FDA and EPA guidelines. As the head of the quality group for RFI, he is responsible for the quality and safety of the ingredients and finished products, and the general GMP compliance of the facility.
Regulatory Director
Part of the RFI team since 2008, Smita is a trained food scientist who holds a bachelor’s degree in dairy science and a master’s degree in food science from South Dakota State University. She is certified PCQI and HACCP, and is an SQF practitioner. She applies her expertise in regulatory compliance for the food and supplement industry, works closely with formulators for product scale-up, and reviews nutrition facts and supplement facts labels for regulatory compliance.