Ryan Pintado-Vertner

Founder & Principal, Smoketown

Ryan Pintado-Vertner is the Founder & Principal at Smoketown, a boutique consultancy that helps mission-driven brands and organizations maximize their growth while also maximizing their ability to change the world. Smoketown’s empathy-driven work includes: fractional marketing management; brand, impact and innovation strategy; and custom consumer research. Their clients include Once Upon A Farm, Revive Kombucha, No Evil Foods and Purely Elizabeth.

Ryan is a lifelong activist and fifth generation innovator whose great-great-grandfather, son of a freed slave, earned a patent in 1902. His career includes a decade in nonprofit leadership and over 13 years in the CPG industry, including senior responsibility for billion dollar brands like Clorox and Hillshire Farm. In addition, Ryan earned an MBA from the University of California’s Haas School of Business.

Beyond all that, he is a writer and podcaster (Brand New Blueprint by Smoketown), in addition to being a board member at Flock (a new regenerative food and agriculture VC fund and accelerator) and Naturally Chicago (a network of natural product companies in Chicagoland).