ESI leadership

The senior team stays in the work.

ESI connects strategic leadership, creative commercialization, operations and market access under one mandate—so clients gain senior capability now, not a hiring plan for later.

Ross J. Newman, Lauren Newman and Michael Murphy, ESI leadership — **ONE SYSTEM / SENIOR ACCOUNTABILITYDifferent disciplines. Shared decisions. Direct involvement.**

The principal team

Leadership built around the complete growth system.

Ross NewmanStrategy + operations
Michael MurphyCommercial + market
Lauren NewmanBrand + creative

One accountable team

The people framing the mandate stay accountable as decisions move through brand, product, operations, distribution and retail. ESI is designed to work as a peer to founders, executives, investors and boards.

Strategy + operations + integration

Ross J. Newman

President & Founder

Ross J. Newman is a multi-time founder and operator with more than 25 years of experience building, scaling and exiting consumer brands. He brings the perspective of someone who has carried a business from company formation through national distribution and liquidity events—not simply advised it from the outside.

His career spans food, beverage, technology and wellness, with deep experience in cannabis, hemp and functional consumer products, as well as modern tobacco and nicotine-adjacent categories. Working across both mainstream and highly regulated markets has sharpened his ability to align product strategy, regulatory requirements, distributor relationships and retail execution—turning category complexity into a commercially viable path to growth.

Ross’s work sits where commercial ambition meets operating reality. He has partnered closely with founders on distributor strategy, national sales-channel rollout, fulfillment and logistics design, compliance and go-to-market execution across direct-to-consumer and physical retail. His focus is the infrastructure required to support real demand: the ability to deliver, replenish and execute as the business grows.

As ESI’s President and Founder, Ross operates as an embedded strategic partner to leadership. He aligns operations, distribution and commercial strategy around enterprise value—building for scale and defensibility while preserving future options for investment, acquisition or exit. He is selective about the brands he works with, looking for clear product-market fit and a credible path to meaningful growth.

That founder’s discipline shapes ESI: build the foundation correctly, stay close to execution and make decisions with the next stage of the business in view.

Career span: 25+ years · Formation through exit
Operating focus: Distribution, infrastructure & enterprise value

Commercial development + market access

Michael Murphy

Commercial Development & Market Access

Michael Murphy brings more than 20 years of retail and convenience-industry experience, built from the store floor to enterprise leadership. His career spans hands-on store operations, multi-unit management and leadership roles overseeing organizations of more than 500 employees.

That progression gives Michael a view of growth from both sides of the buyer conversation. He understands what brands need to achieve—and what retailers need a product, category and operating team to deliver. He has partnered with and advised organizations including Altria, Coca-Cola and Pepsi, alongside national and regional chains and emerging brands across tobacco, alternative and convenience-driven categories.

Michael has guided brands from early commercialization through national rollout, distributor expansion and exit. His work aligns merchandising, pricing, promotions and sales execution across independent, regional and national store formats. The objective is not shelf placement alone, but sustained velocity: a retail strategy that performs after the initial order and can support a larger business.

At ESI, Michael leads commercial development and market access, bringing distributor and retailer relationships together with category judgment and practical execution. He helps brands build a credible path into the right channels, secure meaningful shelf presence and connect expansion to long-term enterprise value.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in Food Marketing and a master’s degree in Strategic Global Management, with concentrations in marketing, management and analytics. His category-development and in-store work earned recognition as a finalist for CSP’s Category Manager of the Year for the Back Bar.

Leadership scale: 20+ years · Organizations of 500+ employees
Industry recognition: CSP Category Manager of the Year · Back Bar finalist

Brand + packaging + retail experience

Lauren Newman

Executive Creative Director

Lauren Newman brings two decades of experience across luxury, fashion, retail, media and public relations to ESI’s creative leadership. Her career includes work within the executive offices of Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren, Foot Locker, Champs Sports, Glamour and Cece Feinberg Public Relations.

That background combines an exacting eye for how a brand presents itself with an understanding of the coordination required to bring it to market. Lauren connects brand direction, graphic and packaging design, merchandising, visual merchandising and campaign storytelling across physical retail and digital platforms.

As ESI’s Executive Creative Director, she leads the creative expression of a brand’s commercial strategy—from the package a buyer evaluates to the display a shopper encounters. Her responsibility extends through budgeting, vendor relationships, production coordination and rollout, keeping creative decisions connected to the business and the work required to deliver them.

Lauren also brings executive project-management and communications experience to the leadership team. She provides strategic and operational support to the President, coordinating high-level projects and executive priorities with precision and discretion. That combination of creative direction and operating discipline gives ESI a leader who can shape the idea and manage its execution.

Beyond ESI, Lauren serves on the board of the Arthritis Foundation, supporting corporate partnerships and fundraising through galas, community events, walks and runs.

Career foundation: 20 years · Luxury, fashion & retail
Creative ownership: Brand, packaging, merchandising & rollout

How the team works together

Consumer, operation and market—considered together.

Define the growth objective

Establish the business condition, the opportunity and the decisions that must stay connected.

Build the integrated system

Align what the consumer sees with what the operation can deliver and the channel will support.

Remain accountable through execution

Keep senior judgment close as partners, materials, production, distribution and market activity move.

Ross J. Newman, Michael Murphy and Lauren Newman reviewing packaging, merchandising and market presentation together — **THE WORKING MODELSenior expertise remains connected at the decision point.**

The broader operating team

The right expertise, assembled around the mandate.

ESI draws on experienced operators and correctly attributed specialist partners when a mandate requires additional depth. The client experiences one coordinated decision model, clear ownership and direct senior accountability.

Senior leadership + specialist depth

Product + commercialization

Product development, packaging, portfolio architecture, merchandising, buyer materials and launch systems.

Supply + operations

Sourcing, manufacturing, co-packing, costing, capacity, inventory, fulfillment and replenishment.

Distribution + growth

Channel strategy, market access, retail activation, operating cadence and strategic readiness.

A team now—not a hiring plan later

Bring senior capability into the business at the point of growth.

Your ambitionOur collective experience

A shared direction. A team to execute.

Tell us what the company is facing, what is changing and what leadership needs the next stage to accomplish.

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