Daiya Foods welcomes Hajime Fujita as CEO

Daiya Foods appoints Hajime Fujita as CEO. Fujita, a former director at Daiya, will lead all global operations throughout North America and the brand’s continued international expansion.

Fujita brings with him over 17 years of global experience in business and financial planning throughout the U.S. and the Asia-Pacific region. He joins from Daiya’s parent company, Otsuka Pharmaceuticals, where he held the role of vice-president, business planning. Fujita was a key player in Otsuka’s acquisition of Daiya in 2017 before joining Daiya himself and serving as director, financial planning and analysis from 2018 to 2021. Following this, he assumed a seat on Daiya’s board as part of a vice-president role at Otsuka America. Amongst his key achievements at Daiya was playing a lead role in the development of Daiya’s manufacturing facility and office building in Burnaby, B.C.

Mr. Fujita comments, “There is enormous potential in the Daiya brand to push the highly competitive plant-based category to new heights, particularly through product innovation and bold marketing. I’m thrilled to be rejoining Daiya at such a dynamic period in the wider cultural conversation around plant-based eating and I look forward to working with our fantastic team in writing the next chapter of our amazing brand story.”

Alongside Fujita’s appointment, the Daiya board of directors made two changes to the leadership team. Chief marketing officer Melanie Domer will assume a new role as chief commercial officer, overseeing marketing and sales while John Kelly, VP, consumer marketing, assumes the role of chief marketing officer.