The 6 guest NEXTY Awards judges for Spark Change

The NEXTY Awards is an awards program that recognizes the pinnacle of excellence in the natural products industry, elevating impactful brands and products that inspire a healthy, sustainable future for people and planet. 

Winning a NEXTY can have a profound impact on a brand, offering newfound exposure to investors, retailers, distributors, media, influencers and more. The finalists and winners are chosen in a thorough two-tier judging process held in the New Hope Network office in Boulder, Colorado. 

In the preliminary judging round, the internal New Hope Network content, marketing, standards and NEXT Data and Insights teams come together to whittle down hundreds of nominees to approximately 75 finalists. For the final judging round, New Hope Network invites a panel of industry experts to help the internal team select a single winner in each of the 23 categories. The finalists and winners are evaluated through deep discussion and debate on several criteria. These include written answers to what the company and product's Innovation, Inspiration and Integrity is, the product's taste, ease of use, social and sustainability missions, divsersity and inclusion practices, environmentally responsible packaging, labelling, brand storytelling, clean ingredients, nutritional quality and more. 

While typically celebrated through Natural Products Expos, the highly coveted awards will be celebrated through Spark Change this fall. Spark Change is New Hope Network's digital product discovery, education and connection platform. The selected NEXTY finalists will be unveiled in the Spark Change Kick-Off event on Wednesday, August 26, and the NEXTY winners will be announced in the Spark Change Closing Celebration on November 9-10.

Interested in nominating? For the Spark Change NEXTY Awards, any CPG brand in the natural products industry can nominate. The deadline to nominate is August 5 and the product delivery deadline is August 14. You can nominate here.

To help the New Hope Network team select the NEXTY Awards winners, an elite group of six industry experts will weigh in with unique perspectives on which brands deserve a coveted NEXTY. With a wealth of experience in supply chain, investment, retail, nutrition, branding, sourcing and more, this year's judging panel uplifts the excellence of the NEXTY Awards.

Click through this gallery to meet the guest judges and learn more about the expertise they’ll bring to the Spark Change NEXTY Awards judging panel!