Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Perfect Day
Ryan Pandya is the Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Perfect Day, a food company on a mission to create delicious animal-free dairy products, while leaving a kinder, greener footprint on the planet. Ryan studied Chemical & Biological Engineering at Tufts University, where he contributed to seminal research on tissue engineered meat at the Kaplan Lab before graduating and going on to work at MassBiologics, a small biopharmaceutical company in Boston, MA. He realized that the same technology used in the pharmaceutical industry could solve other world issues, including one that was particularly personal to him – the need for better dairy alternatives.
Having become vegetarian as a teenager, by college Ryan realized that his motivations forgiving up meat – concern about the impact of his diet on animal welfare and the environment – were cause for giving up all animal products. He was dismayed to find, however, that the transition to a vegan diet was really hard for one main reason: his love of dairy. An unfortunate incident with a bagel and a sad soy “cream cheese” substitute led him to search for a better way to make the dairy foods he loved without cows.
While digging into how to create animal-free dairy, Ryan was connected to Perumal Gandhi – who, on the other side of the world, was driven to solve the very same problem. Together, Ryan and Perumal set out to create a company to revolutionize the dairy industry, and thus Perfect Day was born. Today they lead a diverse team of chefs, food developers, scientists, engineers, and storytellers who are working in harmony to make their dream of animal-free dairy a reality.
Perfect Day is now pioneering a new and more sustainable era in dairy by using fermentation to create dairy products from the very same proteins (casein and whey) found in cow’s milk, but made without the cow. Named one of Forbes’ 30 Under 30 in 2019, Ryan is committed to making delicious, nutritious food that does less damage to our planet.