Board of Directors

James D. White is a seasoned business leader with 30 years of industry knowledge, primarily within the consumer-packaged goods and retail sectors. Mr. White served for eight years, from 2008 to 2016, as the Chairman, President and CEO of Jamba Inc. During his tenure Mr. White led the successful turnaround and transformation of the company from a made-to-order smoothie shop to a global, healthy active lifestyle brand. Prior to Jamba Inc., from 2005 to 2008, Mr. White was Senior Vice President and General Manager of Safeway, Inc., a leading U.S. supermarket chain. From 1983 to 2005 Mr. White held management roles at Gillette, Nestle Purina and Coca-Cola. Additionally, Mr. White currently serves on the boards of Affirm Holdings, Inc., Simply Good Foods and Schnucks Supermarkets. He previously served on the boards of Adtalem Global Education, CallidusCloud, Daymon Worldwide, Hillshire Brands and Medallia. His non-profit board experience includes Directors Academy, where he is a founding member and currently Board Chair, Board member Chief Executives for Corporate Purpose (CECP) as well as former Board Chair for Fair Trade USA. Mr. White received a Bachelor of Science degree, with a major in marketing, from The University of Missouri and an MBA from Fontbonne University. He is also a graduate of the Cornell University Food Executive Program and was a Stanford University Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow in 2018.

Carla Vernón joined Honest as Chief Executive Officer in January 2023. As one of the first Afro-Latine CEOs of a U.S. publicly traded company, Vernón brings a new era of leadership that reflects the diversity of Honest’s consumers. In her role, Vernón will be laser focused on driving category growth, business innovation, and profitability to deliver the company’s core mission of inspiring everyone to love living consciously.

Prior to joining Honest, Vernón served as the Vice President of Consumables Categories at Amazon.com, Inc. where she had P&L responsibility for Household Essentials, Wellness, Beauty, Baby, Food and Beverage categories on Amazon.com as well as responsibility for technology development for those categories. Prior to joining Amazon, Vernón spent more than two decades in various P&L leadership roles at General Mills, Inc., most recently serving as the Operating Unit President of the Natural & Organic Division from July 2017 to April 2020. Vernón holds a B.A. degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton and a Master of Business Administration from Texas McCombs School of Business. Vernón serves on the Board of Trustees for Princeton University.

Jessica Alba is one of our founders and has served our board of directors since our founding in July 2011. She brings a wealth of knowledge on both the broader industry and the company to our business. Ms. Alba is a globally recognized and influential Mexican American business leader, entrepreneur, advocate, actress and New York Times bestselling author. Ms. Alba serves on the board of directors of Baby2Baby, a charitable organization that provides diapers, clothes and other basic necessities to children living in poverty.

Katie Bayne is the Founder of Bayne Advisors, a strategic consulting and advising firm. She is also a Senior Advisor at Guggenheim Securities. Ms. Bayne was a longtime senior executive at Coca-Cola with varying roles of increasing responsibility, and ultimately served as Chief Marketing Officer and then President, North America Brands. Ms. Bayne has nearly two decades of Board Service as an independent director of six public companies. In addition to serving on the board of Honest Company, Ms. Bayne is also an Independent Director at Acreage Holdings, LLC (multistate Cannabis) where she is an Audit Committee member and an Independent Director at Eargo (hearing health/medical devices) where she is on the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. Bayne has both a BA and an MBA from Duke University and is a member of the Board of Visitors at Duke’s Fuqua School of Business. Bayne is also a member of the Executive Board of Directors of the Cox School of Business, at Southern Methodist University where she lectures annually.

Susan Gentile joined Advent International Corp. as Managing Director on August 1, 2022. Her appointment as the firm’s Chief Financial Officer is effective October 1, 2022. Prior to joining Advent International Corp., Ms. Gentile was H.I.G. Capital’s Chief Financial & Administrative Officer where she was responsible for the firm’s accounting, tax, information technology, human resources, administration, and real estate operations worldwide. Ms. Gentile also previously worked with Oaktree Capital Group, LLC, where she served as the Chief Accounting Officer and a Managing Director for the last five years. Prior to Oaktree, she held senior-level accounting, internal controls, and financial reporting roles at The Clorox Company, Levi Strauss, Motorola, and Next Level Communications. Ms. Gentile began her career with Deloitte in the audit and assurance practice. Ms. Gentile received her B.S. and B.A. degrees in finance from Boston University and is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Mr. Hartung has served as Chief Financial Officer of Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc. (“Chipotle”) since 2002. Prior to joining Chipotle, Mr. Hartung worked for 18 years at McDonald’s Corp., where he held a variety of management positions, most recently as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of its Partner Brands Group. Mr. Hartung has a Bachelor of Science degree in accounting and economics as well as an M.B.A. from Illinois State University.

Alissa Hsu Lynch served as the Global Lead of MedTech Strategy and Solutions for Google Cloud from October 2020 to January 2023, where she worked with Fortune 500 customers to transform healthcare through technology. Previously, Ms. Lynch spent 20 years at Johnson & Johnson working in consumer marketing, strategy, and general management roles, and most recently, from September 2017 through August 2020 served as Vice President, Medical Devices. Before joining Johnson & Johnson Ms. Lynch was a professional modern dancer for six years. Ms. Lynch is a member of the Board of Trustees of American Ballet Theatre and is a Henry Crown Fellow of The Aspen Institute. Also, Ms. Lynch previously served as a board member of Pulmonx. She holds an NACD CERT certificate in Cybersecurity Oversight. Ms. Lynch holds an M.B.A in General Management from Columbia University and an A.B. in English from Princeton University.