Ethan Brown ’94 is the founder, president and CEO of Beyond Meat

Ethan Brown is disrupting the food industry. In 2009, Brown founded Beyond Meat, a company singularly focused on providing plant-based options that taste like actual beef, pork and poultry in order to positively affect the planet, the environment, the climate and our own personal health by reducing our reliance on animal proteins.

So far, Beyond Meat has been an enormous success: The company’s valuation stands at about $8.75 billion.

Brown, one of the newest members of the Connecticut College Board of Trustees, majored in government and history while competing on the men’s basketball team and serving as publisher of the Connecticut College Review. He went on to earn a master of business administration degree at Columbia and a master of public policy degree at the University of Maryland.

“This combination of history, policy, business, journalism and competitive sports would prove to be a formidable foundation for his future career,” President Katherine Bergeron wrote in a letter announcing Brown’s selection as the keynote speaker at the College’s 103rd Commencement, held on May 23, 2021.

“So much of what I work on today I was able to explore here, given the school’s unwavering belief in a broad and deep liberal arts education,” Brown said during his keynote address.