Our Team

We’re here to build and strengthen the forest conservation economy. Every day, we’re working towards protecting and enriching forest biodiversity, building more equitable supply chains with our growing network of smallholder farmer producers, and bringing the rest of the world more incredible sources of exquisite forest-based products.

Ariana Day Yuen

Founder and CEO

Ariana started her career as a management consultant at Booz Allen Hamilton in their DC and New York City offices where she advised clients across the government, non-profit, and private sectors. She then joined TechnoServe as a Fellow in their Ethiopia office and joined them full-time thereafter supporting a range of projects with Nespresso, Mondelez, Gates Foundation, JDC, the Swedish Government, and Diageo to ultimately design and build more sustainable and equitable value chains and market systems. Her accumulated experiences, passion for sustainable and delicious food, and deepening sense of responsibility to tackle complex societal issues are what led to Forested Foods. Prior Forested Foods, Ariana co-founded Common Farms, an indoor farm in Hong Kong, as well a North Korean arts fundraising series.

Ariana grew up in Hong Kong before she moved to the United States to attend Syracuse University, where she triple-majored in Advertising Communications, Entrepreneurship, and Economics. She recently received her MBA from Yale’s School of Management, with a concentration of courses from Yale’s School of Forestry and Environmental Studies.

Netsanet Aragraw

General Manager - Ethiopia

Netsanet establishes and manages our relationships with the farming communities and stakeholders we work with. She was born and raised in Addis Ababa and graduated from Unity University majoring in Marketing Management. Netsanet is a serial entrepreneur. Prior Forested Foods, she launched ventures in the hospitality and education sectors. She helped build and establish a premium guesthouse in Addis Ababa, as well as co-founded and co-manages a primary school (Bete-Tibeb), which aims to promote and provide quality education to disadvantaged primary schoolers in the Azezo town of Gondar, Ethiopia. Her work with Forested Foods is the manifestation of her passion for forestry and conservation in Ethiopia.

Crisha Ari

USA GM and Business Development

Crisha is a seasoned and passionate hospitality and food professional. Her experiences extend from coffee trading, to restaurant design and launch, to creative research and development for commercial food goods. As a third culture kid - having grown up in Australia with Sri Lankan roots - she has always approached her studies and work with a global lens, with educational and culinary experiences across Brazil, Spain, Turkey, and Myanmar. Her enthusiasm for deepening relationships within communities (both forests and consumer markets), continuous learning of food supply chains and current agricultural issues are what led her to Forested Foods. Crisha received her Bachelors in Physiology and Communications at Monash University in Australia and was classically trained in commercial cookery and patisserie at the William Angliss Institute in Australia.

Justine Sequeira

Director, Conservation Finance

Justine supports our financial management, reporting, and fundraising functions. She previously worked in agribusiness investment in Uganda and Tanzania, where she held leadership roles at cereal, cocoa, cotton, and vanilla companies and a rural impact investment fund. Prior to working in the agricultural sector, she was a management consultant for global financial services institutions at Booz Allen Hamilton in New York. She is a member of the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability's Conservation Finance Working Group, which leads cross-industry research to increase investment in more biodiverse and resilient ecosystems. Justine holds an MPS in Global Development from Cornell University and a BBA in Finance from the College of William & Mary.

Abby Waldorf

Business Development & Regenerative Projects

Abby supports business development and leads regenerative programming. She has over 10 years of experience working across the retail, fashion, food, and agriculture industries. Her expertise lies in strategic innovation, supply chain management and regenerative agriculture.

Abby began her career in Sri Lanka and Ethiopia working for the CGIAR Program on Water, Land and Ecosystems, advancing knowledge on regenerative agriculture with smallholder farmers. Most recently, at Nike she led Sustainable Innovation Strategy, developing a hyper-collaborative approach to building and implementing the enterprise-wide sustainable innovation material strategy. Abby is the founder of Planet Positive Collab LLC, providing freelance consulting services for companies of all sizes interested in rebalancing social, economic, and environmental systems. Abby received her MBA from UCLA Anderson (founding team member of Anderson's Impact Investing Fund) and BA from the University of Pennsylvania in Environmental Studies and Economics.

Redet Derebew

Sales Coordinator

Minwuyelet Adam

Sr. Accountant

Betel Moltot

Intern, Administration and Business Operation

Addisu Desalegn

Data Innovation Coordinator

Addisu was born in Hagereselam, a town in the Sidama region of Ethiopia, and grew up in Hawassa. He then moved to Addis Ababa to attend Addis Ababa Science and Technology University (AASTU), where he earned his BSc in Food Science & Nutrition and is currently completing his Masters in the same field. At Forested Foods, Addisu is helping us establish our agroprocessing site and connects the dots along our supply chain - from field to processing and finally, product development. His passion for the natural and organic food production industry is driven by his mission to provide healthy and nutritious food products to people. Outside of work, he is an avid graffiti art enthusiast, plays soccer, and keeps a full social calendar.

Matthew Thornton

Product Manager

Matthew is our Product Manager for Forested, building a carbon and nature insetting platform and calculator to supply international companies with nature and carbon positive ingredients sourced throughout Africa. Matthew Thornton is also a coffee expert, an ecologist and a tech and Web3 advocate with a diverse background. He spent the last 12 years in East Africa, mainly Ethiopia, working on numerous projects ranging from wildlife conservation, agronomy, coffee sourcing, quality control, logistics and marketing with local, regional and global entities. Matthew is currently working on a digital ecosystem bringing smallholder coffee farmers to market in an efficient and scalable manner.

Balbaswork Tekewo,

Sr. Business Admin & Operations Coordinator

Chaneyalew Belay

Head Accountant

Kaleab Siyamregn

Production Associate Coordinator

Behailu Abebe

Security Guard