Nick Fitzpatrick joins Apeel Sciences as VP of supplier relations

Apeel Sciences has hired Nick Fitzpatrick as vice president of supplier relations, where he will be the liaison between the company and growers as the company expands its reach outside the U.S.

The former global commercial sales manager for T&G Global, Fitzpatrick is Apeel’s first hire in sales, according to a news release. He was at T&G, Auckland, New Zealand, for almost 11 years, starting as general manager of South America and then general manager of the Americas and grape category. He left T&G this year and was an industry consultant before joining Apeel.

He has a background in horticulture across a range of commodities and markets, and has a record of successful results to stakeholders, including growers, according to the release.

“Nick’s truly global view of the fresh produce supply chain, from growing, packing and shipping through to importing and sales execution, makes him the perfect fit to help our supplier-partners unlock the value of Apeel’s technology,” Gordon Robertson, chief revenue officer, said in the release.

“I see Apeel and its vision of a world that ‘Works with Nature’ as helping to solve many of the challenges facing the supply chain for fresh produce,” Fitzpatrick said in the release. “I’m so excited that my journey in fresh produce has brought me to a company that has sustainable agriculture at its core, not only from an environmental point of view, but also economically.”

The company’s shelf-life expanding technology has focused on avocados and citrus, and is now being used on asparagus, according to the release.