The Farbest Team

As President and Chairman at Farbest, Dan travels globally and maintains relationships with some of the largest food and nutritional ingredient suppliers in the world. His unique perspective on the globalization of the food supply chain and rapidly accelerating industry changes serves Farbest customers well, particularly in navigating market trends. Son of Farbest founder Michael Meloro, Dan joined Farbest in 1976 and continues his father’s legacy of honesty, integrity, and superior customer service. His prior roles include serving as an Officer of W.E. DuMore, Inc., Senior Vice President and Partner of Egg Corporation of America, and founded Nature's Hearth, Inc., a manufacturer of retail products for the natural foods market. He also served a three-year term on the Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Small Business Advisory Council.

A dairy protein and sweeteners specialist, Bob has more than 40 years of experience in the food, health, and nutrition industries. He previously held sales and marketing roles with Durkee Foods' Edible Oil Division and with Express Foods, where he was instrumental in developing market opportunities for caseinates and whey proteins. As Senior Vice President at Farbest, Bob closely follows the global market and provides valuable insight into trends, forecasting, and resourcing. Bob draws upon this in-depth industry knowledge to help our customers find the right products and solutions to achieve their goals.

Bob is a sports fan, an avid golfer, and enjoys spending time with friends and family.

Chip’s 50 years of experience in the food industry includes building multiple food plants for industrial ingredients, creating new products, and managing manufacturing operations. As Senior Vice President and a technical liaison for protein systems and manufacturing, Chip enjoys working with customers to solve technical challenges, develop custom packaging, and run their operations more efficiently. Prior to joining Farbest, Chip held manufacturing and operations roles for Southland Corporation (7-Eleven), Express Foods, and Inland Sugar Co.

Outside of work Chip enjoys riding his Quarter Horse in the mountains of Arizona.

Brent has more than 35 years of experience in specialty ingredient development, sales, and marketing. With his in-depth technical knowledge, Brent is a perfect fit for his role in expanding applications for various food ingredients, including nutritional applications for plant and dairy proteins. His vast experience with gum acacia extends to using fiber and high-potency gums in a variety of beverage applications. He also focuses on animal nutrition. For the last 13 years, Brent has worked with Farbest’s protein supply partners to develop pricing strategies and advise on new ingredients to bring to market.

As a resident of the Jersey Shore, Brent enjoys boating and saltwater fishing. He also serves on the parent advisory board of a local facility for children with special needs.

Pam has more than 30 years of experience in the food industry. Since joining Farbest 28 years ago, Pam has held roles in sales and purchasing. Currently Pam is VP of Custom Products where she oversees ingredient procurement, co-packing, supplier relations, and distribution logistics for Farbest’s line of custom products.

In her free time Pam enjoys oil painting and is a certified painting instructor.

With 30 years of experience in the food, supplement, and companion animal industries, Mike brings a strong focus in relationship building to his role at Farbest. He’s highly knowledgeable in product sourcing and is an expert at driving sales, building strong teams, and implementing strategy. Before joining the team, Mike worked mainly with food supplements, vitamins, minerals, emulsifiers, premixes, and specialty milk protein products.

When Mike’s not at work, he enjoys being with his family, spending time with his granddaughter, and pursuing nature photography. He’s especially proud of a photograph he took off the coast of Alaska of a baby humpback whale in breech.

With extensive experience in importing and product management in the footwear industry, Michele brings a strong customer focus to her new role at Farbest. Michele values commitment and creativity when it comes to developing new solutions on the job, and every action she takes is rooted in finding mutually successful solutions for everyone. She loves to learn and is excited to bring her skillset to Farbest's customers. Prior to her becoming a Product Manager, Michele served Farbest as a Supply Chain Supervisor.

When Michele’s not at work, she enjoys spending time with her family, reading, and biking. She's also an active volunteer in her local school system.

As product manager for dairy proteins and gums, Michael serves as an integral link between Farbest sales staff and suppliers. Having over a decade of customer service experience, he is responsible for providing product technical support, helping sales staff match products with customers’ needs, maintaining communication with suppliers, and managing product inventory. Michael also studies global economic trends and pricing patterns to develop pricing strategies.

When he’s not working Michael enjoys traveling, meeting new people, and trying new foods.

Ashley brings more than 10 years of experience working directly with Chinese manufacturers to her role at Farbest—and that makes her uniquely suited to ensuring our products are of the highest quality. Ashley’s an expert on high quality raw materials, best production practices, and market trend forecasting. This experience allows her to help our customers make the best purchasing decisions—and to foster mutually beneficial relationships between Farbest and the world’s top manufacturers.

When Ashley’s not at work, she enjoys hiking, swimming, and yoga. Her most recent hiking trip was to Arizona, where she visited the Grand Canyon.

Mark’s been a member of the Farbest team since 2002. Over the last 14 years, he’s grown with the company, starting out in customer service and climbing the ranks in numerous product and supplier management roles. Mark’s ability to pivot seamlessly when working with both customers and suppliers has made him a uniquely valuable team member at Farbest. Mark is also extremely service oriented and tech-savvy—two traits that have helped him to give Farbest a competitive advantage.

Outside of work, Mark enjoys spending time with family and friends, hiking, and kayaking. He is also an avid wildlife photographer.

Over the last 16 years, Frank has served as director of IT, marketing, documentation, quality, and customer service at Farbest. Today, Frank applies his nearly 40 years of analytical experience in his role as Director of Operations, managing all aspects of product fulfillment, from inventory planning and tracking to distribution. Prior to joining Farbest, Frank was an internal IT consultant at Castrol North America (BP) and an IT manager at Nestlé.

In his free time he enjoys playing baseball and softball and riding his road bike on a 46-mile converted railroad trail in upstate New York.

Teresa is well versed in Farbest history and company culture. For the last 23 years, Teresa worked as a receptionist and in the company’s customer service and HR departments. Over the last 10 years Teresa has managed the HR department where her responsibilities include onboarding new employees, health insurance benefits compliance, researching and enforcing labor regulations, and communicating with employees.

In her free time Teresa loves reading, cooking, and spending time with her family.

With 10 years of experience in quality assurance and compliance, Shakirul ensures that all of Farbest’s products are top notch. He started his career at Stryker Orthopaedics, where he conducted product surveillance, managed customer complaints, and improved procedures and processes. He then moved on to Vitamin Shoppe, where he registered products in international markets and made sure all partner-manufactured products met Vitamin Shoppe’s high standards. Shakirul is highly organized, driven, and brings a big picture mentality to Farbest’s quality team.

Shakirul enjoys hiking, woodworking, and spending time with his wife, their two children, and their yellow lab Charley.

Peggy brings a unique skillset to her role at Farbest. Before entering the customer service space, Peggy worked as a programmer and an information systems specialist. Thanks to that experience, Peggy’s an expert at navigating systems to find the answers customers need most. Her technical skills, keen attention to detail, and persistence to get to the bottom of every issue allow Peggy to provide the highest quality customer service.

When Peggy’s not at work, she enjoys long distance running and baking with her family. She’s especially proud to have run the New York City Marathon in 2014.