Redefine Meat has reinvented meat and has already managed to win over celebrity chefs with New Meat, a plant-based meat product manufactured by 3D printing technology. In the founders’ home country of Israel, Redefine Meat is a household name. Now the company has set its sights on expanding into Europe, Asia and the Middle East. It is therefore looking for people who can bring along experience, skills and above all passion.

 

Meat lovers. That is what they are at Redefine Meat. ‘However, in our view, no animals should have to die and the climate should not have to suffer for the sake of a tasty piece of meat’, says Senior Vice President Edwin Bark.

Originally from Israel, in 2022 Redefine Meat wants to launch its conquest of Europe, Asia and the Middle East with a revolutionary product: New Meat, i.e. plant-based meat. Several celebrity chefs have already been won over by it, and in Israel, Redefine Meat is already a household name. Lots of restaurants there serve New Meat. Lamb steaks, beef bavette steaks, hamburgers, kebabs, sausages – ‘Meat Matrix Additive Manufacturing’ technology (which belongs to the 3D printing family) allows us to closely match not only the taste, texture and mouthfeel but also the preparation method of ‘what you’d traditionally describe as meat’, says Bark. As Bark describes it, New Meat is ‘precisely the same, entirely different.’

 

We are looking for people who can bring along experience, skills and above all passion. Because it’s going to be an adventure’

– Edwin Bark,

Senior Vice President at Redefine Meat

 

Three years of work

We didn’t so much create our product for vegetarians or flexitarians. ‘No one likes being labelled’, says Bark. ‘We actually want our product to blur the boundaries. Our founders – two Israelis with backgrounds in the tech industry, each highly experienced in 3D printing technology – set out with the belief that something had to change in the food system, but they both loved meat and had no intention of giving it up. So scientists, butchers, chefs, agronomists and technicians sat down together to study meat right down to the molecular level. After three years, their work resulted in a fantastic product that would not look out of place on any meat shelf next to the steaks. We don’t expect you to put a label on it, except one saying that it is plant-based, sustainable and good for you. And of course just as tasty as real meat.’

Bark heads the young company’s Europe, Middle East and Asia divisions (the EMEA region). Redefine Meat is converting a meat processing plant into a production facility for plant-based meat. ‘We could not bring the protein transition to life in a more symbolic way.’ Bark wants to use New-Meat to reach consumers both where they eat it and where they buy it, i.e. in restaurants and shops.

Marco Pierre White (London), Joachim Gerner (Berlin) and Ron Blaauw (Amsterdam) are all celebrity chefs who are already paving the way for consumers by putting Redefine Meat steaks on their menus. Although at the moment Europe is supplied from Israel, the production line in the Netherlands is set to go operational in 2022.

Search for colleagues

Meanwhile, Bark is busily looking for colleagues. At the end of 2021, the EMEA branch has ten employees; by the end of next year, it should have at least 65. Bureau Boeren Executive Search is helping Redefine Meat to put together a team for Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Senior partner Michael Boeren is helping Edwin Bark find the right people to fill a large number of positions, which is an adventure in itself.

Bark, who has previously held positions such as Director of Nestlé’s vegetable food division says, ‘From our firm base in Israel, we at Redefine Meat are now literally building something here from the ground up. Everything is new.

From finding a site for the production facility, talking to the bank, setting up systems, to – most importantly – finding the right people. Creating a structure and forming a team is great fun and hugely challenging. We are looking for people who can bring along experience, skills and above all passion because it’s going to be an adventure.’

Becoming the biggest

Bark explains that Redefine Meat is a Research & Development company founded upon an innovative, creative and entrepreneurial Israeli ecosystem. The company is now growing into a globally operating commercial company that aims to become the largest plant-based meat producer in the world. ‘And not so much because Redefine Meat wants to be the biggest in economic terms, but because that will enable it to have the biggest impact on our food system. Because our food system is out of balance and unsustainable. Soon, when the global population reaches ten billion, we won’t be able to feed everyone the way we do at the moment.’ So it is ‘ time to redefine’. Bark: ‘Why cause animal suffering and risk the emergence of zoonoses – infectious diseases that pass from animals to humans – due to irresponsibly intensive livestock farming practices? Why reduce biodiversity and wreck the climate if it is not necessary? For that reason alone, we can’t afford to waste any time in setting up a solid European organisation as well.’

Quickly but carefully

As already stated, Bureau Boeren is helping with that. Boeren: We fully understand the need for hiring staff quickly. So we will work speedily but always with the greatest care and due diligence. We want to find the best candidates for Redefine Meat and will not let anyone pass that we do not feel confident about. As to the people we are looking for: on the one hand we are searching for people with the required experience who may want to give back to society in the later years of their careers and with whom Redefine Meat’s message resonates. On the other hand, we want to attract adventurous twenty-somethings.

Bark insists on having a management team that reflects pluralism and diversity. ‘Age is no more a barrier than gender or background. We are looking for people who are open to a new challenge but who are people of the world, and feel connected to their own and other cultures and languages. We want people who are passionate about plant-based food and who complement the people we already have on board.

The future

Boeren of Bureau Boeren says that when it comes to a company like Redefine Meat, the executive search is a special one, one ‘of the future’. ‘I am glad when Edwin tells me that people are really the pillars on which a company like his is built, and that of course he prefers working with people who are fully aligned with the company’s vision; people who stand behind the company’s ambitions and goal, and are in it for the long run. They don’t go on about lease cars; they’d rather talk about eventually become co-owners in the company thanks to schemes such as the company’s share package.’

Bark notices that his story is proving popular. ‘People with a purpose and who put the conditions in which they work first are really out there. Employment contracts are generally about give and take; however, with us, it is not only about the employer taking and the employee giving or vice versa. You have to give your people a chance to grow, to allow them the opportunity to work on their personal development, and let them wander off the beaten track.’ Boeren witnessed first-hand how Redefine Meat includes its people in its story during an onboarding programme in Israel, part of which featured a ‘culinary safari’. ‘Every individual is considered to be part of the success. That immediately gives people a nice feeling. It’s not just about the sustainable goal; you want to belong from the outset.’

 

Author: Edward Swier | Photos: Rob Keeris, Redefine Meat