About Mission Driven Distributors /

Benjamin Warren – Chairman. Mr. Warren also currently serves as CEO of Mission Driven Meat and Seafood, a food procurement and logistics company. Mr. Warren has more than thirty-five years of experience in food processing technologies, manufacturing and distribution. As an innovator in the protein industry, Benjamin has built, managed and sold market leading businesses in the meat processing and natural/organic foods business. He was the President and CEO of International Trading Company (1979-1997) a $250 million national supplier of store brand processed meat products which was sold to Corporate Brand Foods America. He served as President and CEO of Corporate Brand Foods America, a $1.0 billion processed meat proteins company (1997 ~ 2000), helping to orchestrate its sale to IBP, Inc. (formerly NYSE, “IBP”) in 2000. He served as President of IBP’s Processed Foods Group (2000-2001).  As a co-sponsor, he has crafted and executed the vision, strategy and building of varied food platform entities including, Coleman Natural Foods, then the largest producer of natural chicken and meat protein in the U.S. with revenues of $575 million.  Coleman was sold to Perdue Farms.  Shareholder and Co-sponsor of Swift & Company(a $9.0B protein processor), which was acquired from ConAgra and sold to Brazil based JBS S.A. in 2008. Mr. Warren earned his B.A. Economics from Vassar College and an MBA from Columbia University.

Donald “Don” Jay Freedman is a native Houstonian and began his career in his family’s meat business. He served as Vice President of Freedman Packing, Inc., the last locally owned slaughter house in the Houston area (1972-1989). In 1981, Don founded and served as President of Freedman Distributors, the largest independent distributor of boxed meat in the southwest United States. Freedman Distributors was sold to The Grocers Supply Company in late 2009. In 1990, Don founded and served as President of Freedman Food Service. At the time of sale to Sysco in 2001 Freedman Food Service had five plants in Texas and was the largest independent supplier of portion control meats in the southwest United States. In 1993 Don founded and served as President of Comercial Norteamericana, a premium meat purveyor and distributor with eight locations in Mexico. Comercial Norteamericana was sold to Sigma Alimentos, a publicly held company in Mexico, in 2013. Don joined forces with Billy Rosenthal to form Standard Meat Company in 1994. In 2019, Don sold his interest to the Rosenthal family. In 1997, Don helped found and served as President of Northern Beef Industries. Northern Beef is a meat trading business doing domestic as well as international sales. In 2004, Don sold his interest to his partner, David Hausman. In 2003, Don, along with Billy Rosenthal and others, acquired CTI Foods. CTI Foods was sold to a new investor group in 2010. Donald retained an interest in the new partnership and served on the board of the acquiring company until its sale in 2013. Don also serves on the board of several non-profit organizations in the Houston area.

Sam Freedman – Mr. Freedman is also the Founder and President of Mission Driven Meat and Seafood, an affiliated procurement and logistics company (www.missiondrivenfoods.com). Leveraging his family’s four-generations of success in the industry, he founded Mission Driven Meat and Seafood (“MDF”) in 2019. Today MDF is a rapidly growing protein procurement and supply chain partner to many of the nation’s leading direct to consumer brands, selling more than 100M pounds of meat and seafood annually. Prior to founding MDF, Sam successfully founded several businesses in the sports marketing industry. A native Houstonian, Sam Freedman attended the University of Southern California, where he graduated in 2011 Cum Laude with a major in Business Administration and minors in Law and Public Policy. Outside of work, Sam enjoys spending time with family, friends, and, most of all, his wife and 3 young boys.