Executives with award-winning Mediterra® announced that food industry veteran Michael O’Connor will join the team as National Sales Manager. 

“Since our launch less than four months ago, we have gained national distribution with major retailers and the demand for our bars is significant,” says Telemaque Lavidas, founder of Mediterra. “Having Mike join our team is a coup. He has the proven experience to take what we consider as the next generation of nutrition bars to the next level.”

With more than 20 years of experience in the consumer packaged goods and natural and organic product industries, O’Connor is considered one of the architects of the first national marketing model for natural and organic products. He has a proven track record of growing brands including Horizon Dairy, Silk Soy Milk, Kashi, and Cascadian Farms, among others.

Prior to joining Mediterra, O’Connor founded Next Level Solutions, a consulting and broker management company focused on preparing start-up natural and organic product companies to transition to higher markets. In addition, O’Connor was an executive vice president of Food Brokers, Inc., that later merged with of Natural Specialty Sales (NSSI), a national marketing representative for natural and organic products. NSSI bought and used the sales and marketing growth model pioneered and designed by Food Brokers, Inc. O’Connor has a B.S. in Business Administration from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

O’Connor joins a deeply experienced Mediterra team that includes Founder and Managing Director Telemaque Lavidas who was chief commercial officer at Lavipharm, a diversified healthcare company founded in 1911. The Mediterra team also includes former ZonePerfect Nutrition Company executives and longtime food and natural product veterans Paul Pruett who is CEO and Marty Hagge, who serves as senior vice president of Sales and Marketing, respectively.