St. Louis (Feb. 2, 2023) – RIBUS Inc. has appointed third-generation entrepreneur Alicia Peirce Kasch as vice president. This appointment coincides with RIBUS celebrating 30 years of business serving the food, beverage, pet and dietary supplement sectors with clean label ingredients to companies worldwide.
RIBUS was founded in 1992 by Kasch’s father, Steve Peirce, and her grandfather, Jim Peirce with food scientist Neal Hammond, as a functional ingredient manufacturing company. The company will remain a family-owned business for many years to come with Kasch’s appointment as vice president.
“It’s exciting that I can work alongside my daughter at RIBUS now, and I look forward to seeing what direction she’ll take the company in the future,” said Steve Peirce. “Alicia is very intuitive and intentional in her leadership, and I know this will serve the industry, our clients and team for many more decades to come.”
Kasch grew up working in, and around, the family business her entire life. She graduated cum laude from The Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri, where she earned her bachelor of journalism degree with a concentration in strategic communication. Kasch started her career in advertising for Anheuser-Busch, MillerCoors, The Monsanto Co., and then served as a digital project manager at Nestlé Purina PetCare Co., before returning to the family business and joining the RIBUS team full-time in 2017.
At RIBUS, Kasch started as the global account manager, focusing on the eight distributors that represented RIBUS around the world, then went on to manage the sales representatives in North America as well. With more than 200 representatives globally, and selling into 30 plus countries, Kasch is versed in managing multiple facets of the business. Under her leadership, RIBUS hit four consecutive record-breaking sales years and expanded into three new international markets. Kasch is also a member of Women in Nutraceuticals (WIN), a nonprofit organization that supports women in the nutraceutical industry to help increase the percentage of women holding leadership roles, funding for female-led businesses, and women’s participation in research.
“Continuing my family’s legacy is important to me and I’m grateful to be a part of a new generation of women-run businesses,” said Kasch. “Our commitment to adding women leadership at RIBUS is a priority. Currently our company is 60% women run.”
In the fall of 2022, RIBUS brought on Sara Shodd as the controller to be part of their executive leadership team. Shodd brings a background in manufacturing and public accounting and leads the finance and supply chain teams. She holds a master’s degree in accounting and managerial finance from Keller Graduate Management School of DeVry University.
RIBUS produces plant-based, non-GMO, natural, organic, vegan and gluten-free ingredients for the food, beverage, pet and dietary supplement companies. Its technology and patented ingredients are used by contract and branded manufacturers and formulators to help solve production issues while bringing clean label innovation to a wide variety of products. RIBUS, which stands for Rice Ingredient Business United States, is the Original Clean Label Ingredient Company® that supplies American-made natural and organic plant-based ingredients. Learn more at: https://ribus.com.
