REDWOOD CITY, CALIF. — Impossible Foods is adding two new leaders as it prepares to launch its first plant-based chicken nugget product and introduce new stock-keeping units (SKUs) in foodservice and retail.

David Borecky was promoted to chief financial officer at the Redwood City, Calif.-based company. He joins the leadership team alongside Leilani Gayles, who was named chief people officer.

Borecky joined Impossible Foods in 2019 as chief accounting officer and has led the company’s accounting, tax and financial operations for two years, during which time it secured a total of $700 million in new funding. He has served as interim CFO since January, following the departure of David Lee, who left Impossible Foods to take a new role as president at indoor farm builder AppHarvest.

Prior to joining Impossible Foods, Borecky was controller at Stripe, an e-commerce technology company, and held senior management positions in finance and corporate development at Square, a business software developer. He holds an honors degree in business from Wilfrid Laurier University and a master’s degree in business from York University. He is a Canadian Chartered Accountant, a United States Certified Public Accountant and serves as an audit chair and board member at agriculture biotechnology startup MustGrow Biologics.

Gayles joins Impossible Foods after a decade at the San Francisco Giants, where she led talent management, staffing, employee relations, compensation and performance management as senior vice president and chief people officer. Before that, she worked in the human resources field in various environments, ranging from hyper-growth startups to large technology companies. She holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in organizational behavior from the University of San Fransisco. She also is a senior fellow serving on the Silicon Valley chapter of the American Leadership Forum.

“Leilani and David are extraordinary leaders who share our vision of turning back the clock on climate change by transforming the global food system,” said Patrick Brown, MD, PhD, founder and chief executive officer of Impossible Foods.

The new leaders join Impossible Foods as it gears up for a period of category expansion. The company recently announced plans to launch its first plant-based chicken product, made from sunflower oil and texturized soy, in foodservice locations this fall, along with other new SKUs in both restaurants and grocery stores.