Custom Ink CEO and leadership

Andrew Townend is an experienced CFO with global finance, strategy, and corporate development expertise. He is currently the CFO of Custom Ink, the digital D2C leader in custom gear for groups, companies, and communities. Custom Ink (HQ: Fairfax, Virginia) is backed by a prominent investor group led by Great Hill Partners, a leading growth-oriented private equity firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. Andrew is responsible for finance and legal.

Previously, Andrew was Group Chief Financial Officer at Real Pet Food Company. Backed by some of Asia's leading financial investors, Real Pet Food Company is a global leader in fresh and chilled pet food with premium brands in Australia, New Zealand, US, UK, Singapore, China. Andrew was responsible for finance, IT, and procurement.

Prior to this, Andrew was Chief Financial Officer of PepsiCo Australia & New Zealand, a unit of PepsiCo, Inc. (NASDAQ: PEP); CFO role encompassing The Smith's Snackfood Company, PepsiCo Beverages, and Bluebird Foods New Zealand. Andrew joined PepsiCo in 2011, and led Strategy & Business Development teams at Frito-Lay North America, a U.S. based $15B snack foods leader, and PepsiCo Europe Sub-Saharan Africa, a $11B snack foods, beverages, and nutrition portfolio.

Andrew was a Principal at Boston Consulting Group (BCG). At BCG, Andrew advised corporate and private equity clients in the Americas and Europe as a leader of the Corporate Development, Consumer, and Energy & Environment practices. While at BCG, he designed and launched with MIT, The Sustainability Initiative, and co-authored featured publications (“The Business of Sustainability”) for the MIT Sloan Management Review.

Andrew started his career at J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. working in the Global Mergers & Acquisitions group. His investment banking experience includes advisory work on sale, merger, acquisition, LBO, takeover defense, and convertible securities across diversified industries.

Andrew is a U.S. citizen, married to a New Zealander. He earned his MBA with Honors from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business with concentrations in Economics and Finance. He holds a BBA, summa cum laude in Honor Studies, from Texas Tech University with a major in Finance and minor in German. Andrew is a member of CPA Australia and CIMA, The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CGMA, ACMA).

I successfully drive explosive growth and deliver digital transformations sustainably. I navigate and respect cultural nuances and drive change from the inside. My track record includes transformation for 3 major well-intrenched national brands where I’ve taken each of their digital businesses to the $1B mark and beyond. My current tenure with Lowe’s included complete P&L ownership and every digital business function except software engineering. I had direct leadership over 240 individuals and functions such as Business Intelligence, Data Science, Personalization, User Experience & Design, Merchandising, Onsite Marketing, Search & Taxonomy, Testing & Optimization, Product Management, Product Content Development, and Digital Operations & Execution. I grew the Lowe’s Digital business multiple-fold in 7 years. I’m a customer advocate and a broadly experienced technologist (in that order). I’ve successfully led complex implementations including the launch of multiple apps, a complete website rearchitecture/redesign, a B2B website and more.

Erica Kelley is an Administrative Support Manager and EA to CEO at CustomInk. She attended Northern Virginia Community College.