Tran has led the packaged food company's venture capital arm since 2022 but is now leaving to support his wife's startup.
Johnny Tran is stepping down from his position as managing director of 301 Inc, the investment arm of US packaged foods company General Mills, to support his wife in setting up a startup.
“I am moving on to try to make her vision a reality,” Tran said in a LinkedIn post announcing his departure, which will come at the end of this month.
Tran has been at General Mills for more than 10 years, starting in brand marketing before transitioning to the venture capital arm five years ago. He took over as managing director of the 301 unit in June 2022.
General Mills owns a number of packaged food brands including Betty Crocker, Pillsbury, Old El Paso, Häagen-Dazs and several breakfast cereals. The 301 venturing arm invests in areas such as digital commerce, emerging food brands and new packaging technologies.
301 has invested, for example, in PitPat, a UK startup making an activity tracker for dogs, cat food company Smalls, and sports nutrition brand Ghost.
Maija Palmer
Maija Palmer is editor of Global Venturing and puts together the weekly email newsletter (sign up here for free).
