Matt Gilstrap

About Matt Gilstrap

Commercial leader and platform builder in premium specialty food and consumer. I run businesses where execution discipline in commercial strategy, channel architecture, and operating systems translates directly into growth, margin, and category leadership. As Chief Commercial Officer at Forever Cheese, I lead the commercial organization, including Product, Marketing, and Sales, for a premium specialty food platform serving national grocery, club, and foodservice channels across three businesses. I’ve led commercial transformation across the business: winning marquee placements at Kroger, Wegmans, Albertsons, Whole Foods, Publix, and Fresh Market; Built a digital marketing program across retail media networks (Instacart, Whole Foods on Amazon, Kroger Precision Marketing, DoorDash) that doubled digital sales and became a competitive moat against larger brands. In parallel, I’ve modernized the operating architecture: SIOP, AI-based customer portals, stage-gate product development, AI-based product information systems, and dedicated digital/social marketing and foodservice teams. Earlier in my career, I was VP and General Manager at InVue, running a global P&L across enterprise retail and technology markets. Across my career, I’ve led both buy-side and sell-side M&A across roughly two dozen transactions, partnering with boards, owners, and strategic buyers through complex transitions. I served on the board of Hyperion Health, a Harvard and MIT-incubated AI and real-world evidence platform in digital health.I’m at my best in businesses that need to professionalize through strategic discipline, tightened linkage between commercial strategy and operational capacity, durable operating rhythms, and digital and channel architecture that makes growth repeatable instead of heroics.

Experience

1. Chief Commercial Officer

   Forever Cheese

   Jan 2024 — Present · New York, NY, US

   Forever Cheese is premium specialty food house of brands serving national grocery, club, foodservice, and omnichannel. I lead a 30-person commercial organization spanning Product, Marketing, and Sales, reporting to the CEO.• Delivering velocity growth on priority premium categories through SKU discipline, premium mission alignment, and high-propensity adjacency strategy• Driving digital unit growth with 60% of digital units from new-to-brand consumers; overhauled digital shelf content and search performance• Expanded national and club retailer footprint through fixed-weight innovation, premium snacking formats, and cross-category activation• Modernized the commercial operating architecture: SIOP, AI-based customer portals, AI-based product information system, stage-gate product development process• Built dedicated digital/social marketing, foodservice, and national/club retail teams from the ground up• Developed the Director- and VP-level bench now running these functions day to day• Partner closely with CEO, board, and ownership on strategic direction and long-term value creation

Education

• Clemson University

  BS, Biochemistry

• MIT Sloan School of Management

  MBA

Skills

• Marketing Strategy
• Direct Sales
• Structured Cabling
• Business Intelligence
• End of Row Network Design
• Account Management
• Managed Services
• Telecommunications
• Business Innovation
• IT Infrastructure Design
• Business Development
• Storage
• Unified Communications
• Optical Fiber
• Top of Rack Network Design
• Project Management
• Solution Selling
• Voice Over Ip (Voip)
• Product Innovation
• Disaster Recovery
• Av
• Management
• Fiber Optics
• Networking
• Strategic Planning
• Wireless
• Wireless Technologies
• Sales Management
• Network Design
• Cabling
• Cisco Technologies
• Leadership
• Voip
• Data Center
• Cisco Systems Products
• Data Analysis
• New Business Development
• Sales
• Helping Clients Succeed