Amai Proteins has named Doug Brown as its new chief executive officer, effective September 1, 2026, as the Israeli food-tech company moves to accelerate commercial adoption of its sweelin® sweet protein ingredient across food, beverage, and dietary supplement applications.
Brown, a U.S. national, arrives from Sirio Pharma and Best Formulations, where he served as Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Global Account Management. His prior roles include CCO at UK-based Clasado Biosciences and Head of Business Development for Nutritional Lipids at DSM Nutritional Products in Switzerland — a resume that spans scale-up environments and multinational ingredient suppliers on two continents.
The Ingredient Case
sweelin® is a monellin-based sweet protein derived through precision fermentation and inspired by the serendipity berry. At roughly 3,000 times the sweetness of sugar on a weight basis, the ingredient is positioned as a protein-based alternative to conventional high-intensity sweeteners, with formulation claims around clean taste, thermal stability, and compatibility with industrial food processing. Amai says manufacturers can achieve up to 70% sugar reduction without reformulating for taste or cost parity — a specification that speaks directly to operators and CPG manufacturers under pressure to cut added sugars from menu items and packaged formats.
Brown cited the GLP-1 drug era as a tailwind for the product, noting that sweelin® is "a perfect product at the right time" as appetite-suppressing medications reshape consumer dietary behavior and accelerate demand for lower-sugar, higher-protein formulations across the foodservice and retail supply chain.
Leadership Transition
Outgoing CEO Dr. Amir Guttman, credited with guiding the company through a strategic refocus, will transition to an Executive Board Member role. The move reflects a deliberate shift toward commercial execution over R&D-led leadership — a pattern common among ingredient startups that have cleared fermentation scale-up hurdles and are now competing for inclusion on approved supplier lists at major food manufacturers.
For foodservice operators and contract manufacturers evaluating next-generation sweetener platforms, sweelin®'s precision fermentation production pathway offers a potential supply chain alternative to synthetic sweeteners such as sucralose and acesulfame-K, as well as stevia extracts, which continue to face taste-profile objections in certain beverage and condiment applications. Whether Amai can deliver the cost competitiveness its materials claim at commercial volumes remains the operative question as Brown takes the helm.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
