Arran Stephens, President and Founder

Born in 1944 the son of an organic berry farmer, Mr. Stephens was only 23 when he opened the first vegetarian restaurant on Canada’s west coast. He quickly followed this in 1971 with the region’s first natural supermarket, LifeStream®, founded with two partners. The LifeStream® store soon began repackaging bulk goods and creating products under its own brand name, spawning what would become a leading brand of packaged natural food products, sold throughout Canada and exported to the United States.  In 1981, the LifeStream® store and brand was sold. Mr. Stephen’s experience in retailing, manufacturing, and distribution lead to the founding of Nature’s Path® in 1985. Over time, Nature’s Path has become the best-selling brand of certified organic cereal in North America, a leader in its category. The brand is now international, and is sold in New Zealand, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

       As an artist, author, environmentalist, and founder of America’s largest certified organic cereal company, Arran is a voice of experience in the alternative food industry. His values — sustainability, community, and spirituality — have fuelled a pioneering career in business. Mr. Stephens has modeled both his personal and professional life after the words of farmer Rupert Stephens, his father — “Leave the earth better than you found it.” Arran's book Journey to the Luminous, first published in 1999, is available in it's online version at www.mothandtheflame.com

    He and his life-companion Ratana have four children, three grandchildren and, appropriately, a large organic garden. To learn more, go to Arran Stephen's home page

Ratana Stephens, Chief Operating Officer

With an MA in English Literature and a BA in Psychology, Ratana began her career in India as a college lecturer when she married Arran Stephens in 1969. After running the profitable Vancouver family restaurant for more than 20 years, Ratana retired to become the General Manager of Nature's Path Foods. Described as the "heart & soul of the company," Ratana also possesses profound business acumen and she is at the top of every development within the company.

Peter Tatto, Vice-President Operations

After working for more than 25 years as plant manager with Lucerne Foods, a division of Canada Safeway Ltd, Peter joined Nature's Path as Plant Manager in 1998 and was promoted to Operations Manager in 2000. He currently manages both plants in Delta and Blaine, covering all production, scheduling, purchasing, warehousing, logistics, QA, maintenance and safety for more than 60 products and over 100 staff.

Neil D Mandleman CA, Chief Financial Officer 

Neil joined our organization in August 2006. Neil brings to our organization a wealth of knowledge with regard to financial processes and procedures, in addition he has  experience with the private and public sectors as it relates to mergers and acquisitions and all other financial requirements.
Neil has for the last many years been with two large food manufacturing companies in the role of CFO and Director of Finance.