Zume Hires CPG and Supply Chain Veterans from PepsiCo, Estee Lauder, and Verizon to Meet Global Demand for Sustainable Packaging Solutions

Pamela Horine joins Zume as Vice President, Product Research & Compliance, and Kumar Selvam as Vice President, Supply Chain

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Zume, the sustainability solutions company creating economically viable substitutes for single-use plastics, today announced the hiring of two new executives focused on scaling up operations both internally and externally.

Pamela Horine joined Zume as Vice President, Product Research & Compliance, adding more than 25 years of expertise in defining, developing, implementing, and managing all aspects of quality assurance and compliance for global packing companies servicing major consumer products goods companies such as Unilever, Johnson and Johnson, Procter and Gamble and Kraft Heinz. Horine, who is Six-Sigma Black Belt certified, has specialized experience in the paper industry with documented success in leading multiple cross-functional teams, increasing sales with major consumer product goods customers, developing novel manufacturing processes for innovative products, and delivering significant cost savings.

Horine leverages expert technical knowledge, scientific acumen, superior operations management experience, and a dedication to customer satisfaction to understand the end-to-end company perspective, the impact of decisions, and the alignment of workflow against strategic goals. She also possesses expert knowledge of government regulations around drugs, medical devices, and food, as well as expertise in developing the related policies and procedures to ensure compliance. A graduate of the United States Naval Academy, Horine was a commissioned Marine and spent six years supporting Marine Corps aviation squadrons deployed across the globe.

"Helping brands move away from plastic is important to me, and having worked in the industry for 20+ years, I wholeheartedly know how big of an operational hurdle it can be. But when I saw Zume's factory and the infrastructure and technology they built, I was instantly blown away," says Pamela Horine, Vice President, Product Research & Compliance at Zume. "I wish Zume's technology existed decades ago as brands and our planet would be in a better place."

Kumar Selvam joins Zume as Vice President, Supply Chain and is responsible for leading the development and improvement of the company’s corporate supply chain with a particular focus on talent, processes, and systems. Selvam will concentrate on improving overall service levels with Zume’s customer base, and strengthening relationships with key supply partners.

Selvam has held several leadership positions across his 20-year career at PepsiCo, Estee Lauder, and Verizon. He also led several transformative supply chain and procurement projects during his career, including the successful integration of AOL and Yahoo at Verizon while leading Enterprise Procurement. Selvam's team also transitioned $200 million manufacturing operations from China to other Southeast Asian countries, realizing more than 30% cost of goods sold savings and improving lead times significantly during his time at RAB. He has a bachelors and masters degrees in Computer Information Systems from the University of Maryland as well as a Masters in Management from Harvard University. He is currently pursuing an advanced degree from MIT in Supply Chain Management.

"I am excited to bring my knowledge, experience, and collaborative spirit to Zume," says Kumar Selvam, Vice President, Supply Chain of Zume. "It's not every day that I am able to merge my passion for the environment with my skills in operations, and with Zume, I'm able to do both."

As a leader in advanced molded fiber technology, Zume offers brands a single tech stack of hardware, software and services to make it easy and possible to swap out plastic packaging with sustainable alternatives. Currently, single-use plastic is a $320B industry and until today, there’s been no economically viable substitute to move away from plastic.

“If you want to make a dent in single-use plastic, you have to look at the entire supply chain and that’s what we do at Zume,” says Alex Garden, Chairman and CEO of Zume. “Pam and Kumar are the exact leaders we need to serve our global customers and I couldn’t be more honored to work with them.”

This news comes on the heels of Zume expanding its molded fiber technology and sustainable manufacturing solutions across 21 countries through key partnerships with companies like Jefferson Energy Enterprise, Parason, Satia Industries and many others.

To see how Zume works, go to: youtube.com/watch?v=IBWuRU_OpOE

To partner with Zume, go to: zume.com/pages/brands

About Zume

Founded in 2015, Zume is actively reducing the world’s plastic waste with economically viable substitutes for plastic packaging. As creators of the world’s most advanced molded-fiber manufacturing system, Zume is a global provider of sustainability solutions and offers a vast range of sustainable manufactured solutions and services across the food, beverage, healthcare, and CPG categories. For more information, go to zume.com.

Maggie Philbin
VSC for Zume
zume@vsc.co