Yerba Madre, the Oakland- and Los Angeles-based ready-to-drink yerba mate brand formerly known as Guayakí, named Steve Lesnard as chief executive officer effective July 20, replacing departing CEO Ben Mand, who will transition to an advisory role with the board.
Lesnard is not a parachute hire. He has served on Yerba Madre's board of directors and will take over a business that has already completed a significant operational overhaul — supply chain restructuring, a shift from self-distribution to regional distribution partnerships, and a full rebrand from Guayakí to Yerba Madre. The brand is present in more than 45,000 retail doors across the United States and Canada, positioning it as the dominant player in the domestic yerba mate segment.
The Executive's Résumé
Lesnard's career spans some of the more commercially ambitious brand-building exercises in consumer goods. At Nike, he was instrumental in shaping the Women's, Olympics, and Running categories, and played a role in bringing to market products including Nike+, the LunarGlide, Nike React, and the Vaporfly. He subsequently served as chief marketing officer and head of product creation at The North Face, chief brand officer at Sephora, and president at Godiva — a résumé that spans performance, prestige beauty, and premium food. Emily White, chairman of the board, described the appointment as a straightforward choice: "He has spent his career building brands people love — and scaling them while preserving their authenticity."
Sector Tailwinds
The timing reflects accelerating consumer demand for functional beverages, a segment that has drawn aggressive investment across the non-alcoholic beverage landscape. Yerba mate, long a niche category in North American retail, has gained shelf space as energy drink consumers look for alternatives with a cleaner ingredient profile. Yerba Madre sources regenerative, organic, shade-grown mate in direct partnership with 257 Indigenous and farmer families across Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay, and holds Regenerative Organic Certified Gold status — credentials that align with the broader sustainability push reshaping beverage sourcing and supply chains.
Mand's tenure established the structural groundwork: he overhauled co-manufacturing relationships, built regional distribution infrastructure, and shepherded the brand transition — moves that mirror the operational playbooks tracked in functional beverage M&A and distribution deals across the category. His departure appears to reflect a deliberate handoff from operational stabilization to growth acceleration rather than a performance dispute.
Board Additions
Alongside the CEO appointment, Yerba Madre added Scott Miller — co-founder and chief executive of YESLY Water and a veteran of Essentia, Keurig Dr Pepper, and Tampico — to its board of directors. Miller's distribution background signals that expanding points of presence remains a strategic priority as the company competes for shelf real estate against energy drink incumbents and a growing field of functional beverage entrants.
Lesnard framed the opportunity in terms of Yerba Madre's three-decade track record: "That is an extraordinary foundation to build from," he said, citing the brand's combination of sourcing integrity and ecosystem restoration commitments. For investors and retail partners, the more immediate question is whether his brand-building experience can translate consumer awareness into velocity gains at the shelf across a distribution network that now spans tens of thousands of locations in two countries.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
