In April 2022, Peter McGuinness finished a revolutionary turn at the helm of Chobani, during which he helped the immigrant-founded business recapture the U.S. Greek yogurt market, and then set his sights on transforming a true cornerstone of American eating. As president and CEO of Impossible Foods, the creator of the aptly named Impossible Burger, McGuinness leads the strongest contender to take “plant-based meat” from a niche in coastal grocery stores to a staple of Midwestern cookouts. The former advertising executive leans toward seduction—not scolding—in his efforts to build an irresistible product and shape a narrative that includes those carnivores who currently support a $1.4 trillion global animal meat industry. “You can’t vilify the people you want as consumers,” says McGuinness, who practices a kind of Jedi magic around product terms and categories. Impossible doesn’t make veggie burgers, the thinking goes; it makes plant-based meat burgers that look, smell, and taste like the “legacy” burgers you grew up with. Impossible has become a case study in food disruption—which may be why it’s often called a “tech” company, a label McGuinness rejects. “We’re not a tech company or activist company,” he says. “We’re a food company.”
On paying your dues:
“During college, I got an internship with the global ad agency McCann Erickson in the accounts payable department, and for two years I did nothing but track and pay invoices. When I finished college, I came back to human resources to apply for a creative job, and they said, ‘You need an MBA.’ As a consolation prize, they put me in local broadcast and media, in the bowels of the building—a dead-end job. My dad, a tough Irish guy from the Bronx, told me to take it. He said, ‘You should define the job, not vice versa.’ I took the job, got into the McCann training program, worked with a creative team, brought in a campaign that won a competition, became an assistant account executive, and kept getting promoted until I was the youngest president in the company’s history. Today, I do a lot of public speaking at colleges, and I’m often asked what I look for in people. I have to say, it’s not really education. I look more at work experience, character, grit, street smarts, common sense. The most important things you learn through participation.”
On staying curious:
“When the ad agency I ran was pitching Chobani, I met the founder, Hamdi Ulukaya, and we really got along. We created their brand identity, logo, did other things on the branding side, and Hamdi and I kept in touch. After a few years, everyone had caught up with Chobani—Dannon, General Mills, everyone was making ‘Greek yogurt’—and the company was in a bit of a decline. I saw how I might help, and, after two and a half decades of being CEO of ad agencies, I became chief marketing and brand officer of Chobani. Some considered this a demotion, but to me it was just another ill-defined role it was up to me to define. I created a demand department, helped scale operations, expanded into oat milk and other categories, and led all marketing and advertising, and we got stronger and better. Curiosity helps you grow well past what’s technically your job, and it prepares you for the next one, whether you realize it or not.”
On the politics of meat:
“People have such personal feelings about food—more than cars, even. The plant-based meat industry in America was launched, packaged, and positioned a little politically, and it turned a lot of regular people off. It’s clear that the world is moving away from animal-based products. Electric cars, recycling, using less water and electricity, all those things are great, but when the vast majority of usable land on earth goes to animal agriculture, food is the real opportunity to save the planet. At the same time, I’m not a crusader. I’m a flexitarian—not vegan or vegetarian, just conscious of what I eat. This means I’m basically the target audience. You reach people like me through making products more available, more accessible, and better tasting. If you’re gonna ask them to give up one of the five or six burgers they have a month, you better have an alternative for them to try, and you have to overcome a lot of preconceptions, many fed by the extremely powerful, well-funded and -coordinated animal industry. People say that plant-based meat is fake, or that it’s made in China, or that it’s somehow unpatriotic. We have to go on the offensive, refute some of these myths, and make food that is accessible, available, affordable, and delicious. It’s hard to do all this, but it’s not impossible—pun intended. All of it’s infinitely doable.”
