About Us

Emprise Group, Inc. is a 100% employee-owned ESOP holding company focused on establishing a diversified portfolio of investments across a range of retail, industrial, consumer products and other industries.

Emprise, the unique combination of “employee” and “enterprise,” embodies our entrepreneurial spirit and ambitious goal to enable our operating companies to leverage their competencies and industry knowledge in order to accelerate growth and create meaningful value for our employee-owners.

What We Do

We continue to build off a legacy of innovation and entrepreneurialism that dates back to 1908. We are strongly convicted in the power of employee-ownership and, in August 2020, we established the Emprise Group Employee Stock Ownership Plan to reinforce and strengthen our ownership culture. Our future success is attributable to a talented group of more than 1,200 employee-owners operating within an organizational culture that encourages each of them to behave as the owners they are.

Through their participation in the Emprise Group Employee Stock Ownership Plan, we strive to provide an opportunity for all employee-owners to secure their future financial independence by offering them an ownership stake in our portfolio of businesses.

Our Executive Team

Rich Koulouris

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Greg Billhartz

President and Chief Strategy Officer

Darren Baker

President and Chief Operating Officer

Alice Clark

Chief Human Resources Officer

Scott Mekus

Chief Accounting and Integration Officer

Keith Grypp

Chief Legal Officer

Joe Meehan

Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

Cory Nardoni

Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer

Our Board

Rich Koulouris

Chairman

Harry Walsh

Scott Monette

David Wentzel

Benjamin Akande

Our companies provide a broad range of products and services

Dedicated to providing high-quality and innovative products that consumers desire at prices that are affordable for all.

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Dedicated to elevating brands to reach new heights, UpLift Brands creates postive growth through an ever-changing landscape.

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Dedicated to providing a broad range of high-quality dry bath and personal care products to retailers and consumers.

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Dedicated to providing a broad array of research & development, analytical and laboratory services to the personal care and household products industries.

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Rich Koulouris

Chief Executive Officer and Chairman

Rich Koulouris is the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer and has been with the company since March 2019. Rich has over 35 years of experience and brings a proven track record in branded and private label industry.

Rich previously served as Executive Vice President and CEO of Private Brands at Post Holdings, a consumer packaged goods holding company headquartered in St. Louis Missouri. At Post, rich worked on the successful integration of Malt-O-Meal. Prior to Post, Rich spent over 30 years at Ralston Purina / Ralcorp Holdings, a private-label manufacturer based in St Louis, Missouri. While at Ralcorp, he managed multiple business units, developing a winning growth strategy, and was instrumental in their merger and acquisition strategy as well as integration f those acquisition opportunities.

Rich received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Xavier University.

Greg Billhartz

President and Chief Strategy Officer

Gregory A. Billhartz joined Emprise Group, Inc. as President and Chief Strategy Officer in September 2020. Prior to joining Emprise, he served in a variety of legal, human resources, governance and compliance roles at Bunge Limited, a global food and agriculture company, including Vice President, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, Vice President-Legal, Human Resources and Communications, and Deputy General Counsel. He also serves as President and Director of Vivos Holdings, LLC, a consumer-packaged goods holding company focused on providing household and personal care products to retail and industrial customers and consumers.

Before joining Bunge, he was Executive Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and General Counsel of Maschoff Family Foods, a privately-owned food and agriculture company. He has also served as Corporate Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Ralcorp Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded private label food manufacturer, where he served as a member of the executive team and led the company’s legal, human resources and compliance functions.

He has extensive experience advising boards of directors and executive teams in connection with mergers, acquisitions and other strategic initiatives, corporate governance and human capital management, strategy development, and capital markets and financing activities. Earlier in his career, he worked in private legal practice and in public accounting.

Mr. Billhartz hold a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy degree from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and Juris Doctor degree from St. Louis University. Mr. Billhartz is a licensed attorney and certified public accountant.

Darren Baker

President and Chief Operating Officer

Darren Baker joined Vi-Jon in 2014 as Chief Operating Officer and was named President and Chief Operating Officer in 2020. Upon restructuring of the company in 2024, Darren currently holds the position of Chief Operating Officer of Emprise Group as well as President of Consumer Product Partners and President of Vi-Jon. Additionally, Darren serves on the Board of Directors for Vivos Holdings and Contract Manufacturing Services (CMS).

Prior to Vi-Jon, Darren served 25 years with Ralcorp Holdings in positions of increasing responsibility leading up to the Vice President Product Supply.

Darren received a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of Kentucky and a Master's Degree in Business Administration from Murray State University.

Alice Clark

Chief Human Resources Officer

Alice Robertson Clark is the Chief Human Resources Officer for Emprise Group and has over twenty-five years of diverse human resources experience in both corporate and manufacturing roles. As CHRO, Alice provides human resources strategy in support of the overall business plan and strategic direction of the organization.

Previously, Alice served as Senior Vice President for Wise Metals Group, a $2B manufacturing company based in Muscle Shoals, Alabama where she led the Company’s corporate strategy for labor, benefits, recruitment, leadership development, organizational development and training. Alice also served as Vice President of Human Resources for a Ralcorp Holdings, a private label manufacturer of foods based in St. Louis, Missouri.

Alice received a Bachelor’s of Business and a Master’s of Business Administration from the University of Mississippi. In addition, she has earned her SHRM-SCP and SPHR designation.

Scott Mekus

Chief Financial Officer

Scott Mekus joined Vi-Jon in May 2019 as the Chief Financial Officer. He brings more then 35 years of experience in accounting, financial planning, reporting and analysis for manufacturing organizations, internal controls and capital investment management in the private label package goods industry. “Scott leads the organization’s accounting and finance operations”.

Prior to Vi-Jon, Scott served as Vice President Finance for Treehouse foods, a leading manufacturer and distributor of private label that packaged foods and beverages with $6 billion in annual sales. Scott also served in Vice President Finance roles for Conagra foods and Ralcorp Holdings, building a strong background in financial modeling, process improvement, cost reduction initiatives, acquisitions, integrations and aligning performance targets with key strategic initiatives.

Scott received a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration – Accounting from Ohio State University and Master’s degree in Business Administration from Western Michigan University.

Keith Grypp

Chief Legal Officer

Keith Grypp, Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary, joined Emprise Group, Inc. in November 2017. He manages all legal issues for the Group. He has over 30 years of legal, business and financial experience in mergers and acquisitions, strategic transactions, public debt, credit facilities, regulatory (FDA, EPA, CPSC, SEC), licensing, intellectual property, product safety and labeling, compliance, contracts, risk management, litigation, governance and managing outside counsel.

Prior to joining Emprise Group, Keith was employed over 25 years with Kellwood Company, a private label and branded apparel manufacturing company headquartered in St. Louis, MO with international operations. He served as Kellwood’s Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary the last 10 years he was with Kellwood. During his tenure at Kellwood he held various management positions in the audit, finance, information technology and legal departments.

Keith is also a licensed CPA and earlier in his career he was employed with PwC and as an attorney with a law firm in the St. Louis region.

Keith received his Juris Doctorate degree and an Executive Masters in International Business from St. Louis University. He earned a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from the University of Illinois, Champaign Urbana.

Joe Meehan

Chief Sales and Marketing Officer

Joe Meehan joined Vi-Jon on June 15,2020 as Senior Vice President of Sales and shortly moved into the Chief Sales and Marketing Office role. Previously, Mr. Meehan was Vice President of Sales at 8^th Ave Food & Provisions, an unsecured subsidiary of Post Holdings, Inc.

He first joined Post Holdings as Vice President of Corporate Planning and was later appointed Vice President of Sales for their private brand division, Golden Boy Food. From March 1999 to January 2015, Mr. Meehan held various sales roles at Ralcorp Holdings, which eventually was sold to ConAgra Foods. Mr. Meehan began his career at Bake-Line Products in November 1990, which later merged with Keebler Foods.

Mr. Meehan holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration degree from Creighton University with a major in Marketing.