Daniel Grubbs is a Managing Director and Head of the Food and Beverage Practice at William Hood & Company. He brings more than two decades of experience operating, investing in, advising, and acquiring growth businesses across the consumer ecosystem. He combines institutional transaction expertise with hands-on operating leadership — a perspective that aligns closely with William Hood & Company’s advisory approach.

Prior to joining the firm, Mr. Grubbs served as Chief Venturing & Investment Officer at PepsiCo, where he founded and built PepsiCo Ventures, the company’s global corporate venture capital platform. Established in 2016, the group deployed capital across three funds into early- and growth-stage B2C and B2B companies spanning Consumer Goods, AgTech, and Wellness. Portfolio companies collectively generated more than $1.5 billion in aggregate revenue, with 12 achieving successful exits. In addition to capital deployment, Mr. Grubbs served in board and venture partner roles, working directly with founders and management teams on three-year strategic plans, AOP and P&L development, exit and liquidity planning, leadership development, innovation roadmaps, channel expansion, and capital allocation.

In parallel, Mr. Grubbs led M&A scouting and evaluation for PepsiCo’s North American targets under $300 million in net revenue. He evaluated more than 150 acquisition opportunities and played strategic leadership roles in transactions including Siete, Poppi, SodaStream, KeVita, and Bare. He also co-founded PepsiCo’s Greenhouse Accelerator, which has run over 20 cohorts with 200 companies around the globe and deployed close to $5 million in grants to early-stage consumer businesses

Earlier in his PepsiCo career, Mr. Grubbs led Strategy for the North American Nutrition Premium division — including Naked Juice, Izze, ONE, and KeVita — representing over $1 billion in net sales. He was responsible for portfolio strategy, growth terrain definition, innovation strategy, capital allocation, and capability development.

Prior to PepsiCo, Mr. Grubbs was a Principal in the consulting practice at Circana (formerly IRI), where he built and led a Growth Transformation practice spanning portfolio strategy, brand growth, innovation, and M&A advisory. His clients included AB InBev, Kraft, General Mills, Walmart, and Pfizer.

Mr. Grubbs holds both a BS and MBA from the University of Southern California.