Interview by Sheldon Baker
Heather Granato is the founder of strategic business consultancy Nutrachievement, and a 30-year veteran of the global natural products industry, serving in senior leadership roles with the SupplySide, Vitafoods and Food ingredients events and media brands. She is an international moderator and presenter with multimedia publishing experience and has been recognized by FOLIO as a top media professional and top woman in media. Granato is the founding president of Women In Nutraceuticals (WIN), a global non-profit focused on gender equity. She is also on the board of directors for the Organic & Natural Health Association. In 2014, she received the Visionary Award and the 2018 Journalistic Excellence Award from the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) as well as the Ignition … Liftoff Award from the United Natural Products Alliance (UNPA) in 2023 and was honored with the CEO Merit Award for Content from Virgo in 2014. Granato graduated magna cum laude from the University of Richmond, Virginia in 1992 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism. (Adv Mind Body Med. 2024;39(2):28-31.)
Sheldon Baker is an InnoVision contributing editor. His freelance editorial content can also be found in several lifestyle publications, and as CEO of Baker Dillon Group LLC, he has created numerous brand marketing communications and public relations campaigns for health and wellness organizations. Contact him at [email protected].
Advances in Mind-Body Medince (Advances): Please provide an overview of Women In Nutraceuticals.
Heather Granato: The initial spark for Women In Nutraceuticals (WIN) happened at the end of 2021. During a roundtable at Vitafoods Europe around women in science in the nutraceutical industry, I was in conversation with Julia Wiebe of Finzelberg, and we discussed lack of research in female populations, as well as advancement opportunities. Shortly thereafter, I attended SupplySide West and was on a Nutrition Capital Network panel with (industry leaders) Jan Mills, Linda Doyle and Lauren Clardy talking about challenges for women getting funding for their businesses and what were we are seeing in terms of a lack of women entrepreneurs in the industry. For a long time, we’d all talked about it and wished there were more women in nutraceutical leadership.
At this point there seemed to be interest in more than just a conversation, and I reached out to some of my industry friends and colleagues. We had a couple of organizing meetings, and in March 2022 at the Natural Products Expo West trade show, we sat down and decided to organize as a nonprofit around this cause of gender equality and its ability to transform the industry, drive more innovation, make it even more inclusive, and bring great products to market. So, our coming out party was at SupplySide West in fall 2022. There were seven original board members and we’re now at nine with multiple committees.
Advances: What is the organization’s goal?
Ms. Granato: The goal and our vision is how do we achieve economic and social equality in the global nutraceutical industry. The way we do that is offering tools, networking, visibility, and mentoring, and creating an environment where women have an equal place in leadership and the evolution of the industry, and ultimately reap those professional and personal benefits. There’s a lot that that comes along with it, and I feel that was really what drove all of us to come together with the idea that we could collectively, men and women, form an organization that could elevate this dialogue and help drive the industry forward.
Advances: At the onset how many people came together to form the organization?
Ms. Granato: I think we had 10 or 12 folks who showed up for Zoom meetings and eventually had approximately 22 folks who continued to be involved. Gillian Fish from the 6 AM Agency in Australia, and Traci Kantowski and Michelle Martin, both with Cypress, have all came in and leaned into this topic. From the beginning, we had a collective vision on what we wanted to achieve and incorporate. I was fortunate to take on the role of president, Jan Mills serves as the vice president, Linda Doyle as our secretary, and Doug Reader as our treasurer.
I believe that speaks to the importance from the beginning of having men and women come together in our organization. It’s not a woman’s organization. It’s an industry organization that is designed to champion this cause because of the positive impact it has.
Advances: When it was decided that you were going launch WIN, were you approached to be president?
Ms. Granato: I guided a lot of our initial discussions. I was selected as the founding president when we initially said we need to have organization officers. But in addition to our founding officers, each of our at-large directors brings their unique insights. Julia brought in a European perspective, as well as the importance of her background in science and leadership, Karen Howard has deep experience in nonprofits, and Karen Todd is a terrific leader and champion.
Advances: What are the messages that you strive to convey to industry members? And who makes up the membership of WIN?
Ms. Granato: Our members have come together because they’re looking to make connections. They want to network and want to improve their own skills. Companies see the value in a more inclusive industry and how that drives innovation. That’s certainly a key message for us.
Going back to our goal, we look at how do we support women in the industry to unlock their personal and potential growth to achieve success in their career, however they define that. We want more women in senior leadership in the C-Suite. We want more funding for women-led businesses and more women in research, as well as research conducted in female populations. We do that in different ways, even as we’re educating the industry about the obstacles and the opportunities that it offers.
Advances: What would you say are the top three challenges facing women entrepreneurs?
Ms. Granato: Traditionally, it’s been challenging to access capital whether that’s from a lack of knowledge or opportunity. There’s a combination there, and I think that it will be an area our Entrepreneurship Committee will be looking to address.
Certainly, finding that go-to-market strategy and support. How do you develop a network? There’s the term, a good old boys network, but I don’t believe we need a good old girls network. What we need is an inclusive network that looks at great ideas, where we all become more aware of our own unconscious biases, and how those can hold people back. A third challenge for female entrepreneurs, I feel, is that there is something to be said about the job after the job, and a lot of women continue to balance more housework, and child and family responsibilities than their male counterparts. That’s something as a society we should find ways to value every aspect of, be it paid or unpaid.
Advances: I asked you the top three. But are there other challenges you think are out there and need to be addressed?
Ms. Granato: I think there are. Probably some of those largest buckets is just being a female entrepreneur in general. There’s certainly other things that come up. If you’re looking in academia, the issues of your research track, and the challenges that come up in terms of becoming first author on a paper. If you take a couple of years out, because you’re having children all of a sudden you’re far behind on the publication side, and it can be tough to make up that missing opportunity. I hope we can look at how we help women at that very first step when they’re coming into industry, when they’ve got a thought or an idea. We’re empowering them along that journey. That first step into management is critical.
Advances: Women constantly fight ageism, especially in the workplace. Do you feel that’s an issue in the nutraceutical industry.
Ms. Granato: I think ageism is an issue in every industry. Ageism, unfortunately, is an issue that we face as a society. I certainly see it from a different side now. I’m 54, but when I was that young 22-year-old, that had its own challenges. Nevertheless, I think there’s opportunity to be had. I believe that when you look at the preponderance of launches in the perimenopause and menopause space, those are GenX women who are demanding products from our industry. We are responsive to it because they are our primary shoppers and consumers. So, if we look at it less in terms of ageism and more as an opportunity, I feel there are ways that we can help bring people into the industry with volunteer opportunities to help build skills that can be leveraged into commercial opportunities. If you don’t necessarily know about the skills you’re going to need, regarding financial planning to launch a business, we have older folks who have done more of this who can serve as mentors along the way. As far as ageism goes, there’s lots of -isms in the world. At this point we’re really looking at that gender issue. But while we’re all getting older, hopefully, we’re getting wiser.
Advances: There are an increasingly amount of products for women that are being introduced. Today, the word menopause is not a dirty word like it used to be.
Ms. Granato: That’s right and I think that’s in every aspect of business. You’re hearing a lot more conversations about perimenopause and menopause and the impact in the workplace. That’s a very important and real conversation to be had.
Advances: According to an item in a recent WIN newsletter, the nutraceutical industry still lags behind with less than 25% of C-Suite roles held by women globally, and only 12.4% in STEM fields. What are your feelings about the barriers and opportunities and how do we improve on that?
Ms. Granato: That’s the one main reason we started our organization because we saw this gap. I think there are ways to educate companies and current leadership around unconscious biases, the opportunity to create programs, and mentorship sponsorship within their own organizations to identify folks with potential to bring into the pipeline. That broken rung is one of the biggest barriers, and we’re never going to see parity in the C-Suite unless we start addressing the broken rung at the first step into management when you only have approximately seven women to every 10 men who are promoted at that first step. If you don’t get the first step into management, you will never have the opportunities to follow on from there. That’s a critical area to help women feel prepared to put themselves out front for opportunities and for companies to hire and promote with equal opportunity. It’s been said that women are promoted based on achievements and men are promoted based on potential. If you see potential in someone, let’s shape that potential. And if it’s going to be on your achievements, let’s make sure we’re clear from the beginning on what those points are going to be along the way.
Advances: What is the specific role of the Entrepreneurship Committee going to play in the advancement of women in business?
Ms. Granato: This is something that’s really exciting. Jan Mills has championed this really critical issue and she’s serving as the board liaison. Each of our board members is liaison to one of our committees so we have committee chairs or co-chairs, and they work with a board liaison to help champion what the committee needs. This being a new committee we’re hopeful that we’ll have co-chairs announced or brought to the board for endorsement by 2025. The idea of the committee is to determine how to increase the amount of funding for and number of women-owned ventures. We’re looking at a structured development path for these women that addresses the different stages of growth and enhances their ability to get funding. For example, what are the skills that you need? How do you get coaching if you have a few people with similar places in their journey? Can we get them a coach who can help support their development? How do you help with the ask and understanding of how to ask for funds? The preparation that goes into it, practicing your pitch, and long-term having an investors club opportunity where we could have funding available that comes through for us. It’s new and it is going to take off very quickly. We had a lot of folks who raised their hand and said they’d be interested in serving as co-chairs, subcommittee chairs, and volunteering because there is this desire to see more entrepreneurial spirit and to foster that within the industry.
Advances: You mentioned European status. I think recently you started a group in India. How many countries is WIN in now?
Ms. Granato: We have membership around the globe including North America, the APAC region, Europe, and India. The WIN India group is our only structured one on the ground. I expect we will have more of those. We’re really taking our learnings from the development in India to guide us. The issues that we face here in the United States in the industry are different than businesses face in Europe and the APAC region. Compared to those in India, the finances and company structures are different. We need more women in leadership at the C-Suite level. It may well be that within India what we need to look at is how do we have access to mentorship. That isn’t something that people had thought about. The issues are different, depending on the geography. Gillian Fish is on our Advisory Council as well as serving as our global strategist. She is quite mindful of the importance of being culturally sensitive when we are speaking in different regions to be very sensitive to what the top issues are. When we had a panel discussion at Vitafoods Asia, there are local experts who could talk about this topic. Rajat Shah, our WIN lead in India, is working with the Vitafoods India team. We’ve also worked with Nutrify India to find how do we showcase the opportunities and provide the resources that are needed throughout India.
Advances: To be clear, WIN is not exclusive to women.
Ms. Granato: Correct, and I state it over and over again. This is not a women’s organization. It is an industry organization. Not only do we want, but we also welcome men. We need men to be involved in this. It’s critical. Men are currently in the leadership suite. Our mission and our objectives may be specific to the needs of women, but men are essential in achieving them, and they have to be active partners in this endeavor. Our statement of beliefs encapsulates this. When we’re all involved we end up with an industry that is more robust, innovative, more inclusive, and serves the needs of its consumers better.
Advances: If someone wants to join what does it cost? What do they need to do?
Ms. Granato: Individual memberships are $100(US) for a 12-month period, You can go to womeninnutraceuticals.org to get involved. There are resource tools and webinars. There are networking opportunities and both online networking and in-person access into the mentorship and entrepreneurial program. We’re working on a contract research organization directory on women researchers, and all of those are benefits of WIN membership. We also have corporate sponsors, and I believe we now have 25 different corporate sponsors at gold, silver, and platinum levels. I would be remiss not to mention our founding platinum sponsors, Artemis International and Informa.
Advances: If someone’s not in the industry, like a student who is pursuing a health science degree and wants to get into the nutraceutical industry, could they join.
Ms. Granato: We welcome them to join. We’re in process of coming up with a few new paths and outreach areas to help students access WIN and see the nutraceutical industry as a career opportunity for them.
Advances: When it comes to women in the workplace, is there a golden rule by which Heather abides by?
Ms. Granato: My Golden rule is to say yes to opportunities. I think too often we can second guess ourselves feeling we haven’t done that before or haven’t tried and need more experience. Just say yes if something comes up. The worst thing that could happen is you fail. You’ll pick yourself up and move forward. The best thing is you’ll succeed. Regardless of how it happens, you’re going to learn something and have an experience, as well as have an adventure. That’s where I think we hesitate. I’m not saying make silly decisions, rather make an informed decision. But say yes when you have things that come up. It can be tremendously rewarding and will take you places that you may never expected.
Advances: WIN certainly appears to be everywhere in the nutraceutical industry and grown tremendously over a two-year period.
Ms. Granato: I feel very good about what we’ve been able to achieve, and as we come up to board elections in the spring, I’m really hoping that we’ll have lots of people who are interested in volunteering to be on the board so we have a nice robust election and can continue to see development of the organization.
Advances: More growth appears to be coming in 2025.
Ms. Granato: We have updated our strategic objectives, and by the beginning of 2025 we’ll have our initiatives come together. We’ve charged our committees with taking a look at different initiatives and objectives and how we want to achieve those. A lot of that will also come back to being very specific about our metrics and what we have achieved, as well as what we are doing. We’ve hired a part-time executive director and had a pilot mentorship program that had 15 pairs. We’ll have a second group that’s launching early 2025. I think they’ve just finished their matches. We’ve gone to academic conferences and participated in industry events, so we’re getting grounded and creating exposure. We’re in a good place financially, and we are excited to have more people join because when more people get involved the greater our impact will be.