Brian Birtwistle

Brian Birtwistle is a former executive, holding senior positions at early-stage, rapid-growth technology companies over the last 25 years. Most recently, Brian was the SVP of Marketing at Ripple Labs. He’d previously served as Chief Product Officer for Indigo Agriculture, and Chief Operating Officer at Tilt, a social payments startup acquired by Airbnb.

Brian also led marketing at gaming giant Zynga in the years leading up to its IPO. Before that, he was CEO of WineAccess, pioneering the flash-sale model for high-value, small-production wines. He began his career in technology as an early employee and rising executive at Amazon, serving as General Manager for two of its retail businesses. Brian holds a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Brian was introduced to the issue of food insecurity 20 years ago while living in Seattle. Astonished and outraged by the scope of the problem, he joined Seattle’s Second Harvest chapter as its youngest board member and continued with the cause after moving to San Mateo County. He later joined Second Harvest of Silicon Valley’s Board in 2017, recently serving as Board Chair. He continues to believe that the magnitude of our local food insecurity problem – persisting at record levels even beyond the pandemic – requires the attention, resources and time of everyone in our community who can help.