From Visionary to Steward: A Founder’s Story
The Pacific Northwest’s sultan of sweet, Thom King took an unconventional path into the food industry. Despite earning a master’s degree in food science, he started his career in media and marketing, eventually rising to Regional VP of Sales at Clear Channel before launching his own firm. As he helped brands reach and influence consumers, he became increasingly fascinated by how products connect with people. Layer on his background in science, he was even more interested in the needs that drive those products to exist in the first place.
In 1999, he founded Steviva, influenced by his passion for clean, healthy food. At the time, consumers wanted healthier products, but formulators struggled to create low-sugar options that worked. Reducing sugar seems simple, but there’s more to this ingredient than its taste – it contributes to texture, shelf life, and functionality – properties that need to be considered when swapping in a substitute. Ingredients like stevia were gaining in popularity, but manufacturers had little guidance on how to use them successfully.
King turned that challenge into an opportunity. When he started Steviva, he wanted to help food and beverage manufacturers solve formulation problems, not just sell them an ingredient. As its portfolio expanded, Steviva evolved into Icon Foods, offering over 100 ingredient solutions spanning high-intensity sweeteners, rare sugars, fibers, polyols, sweetening systems, and functional inclusions. These offerings help customers develop beverages, snacks, desserts, supplements, and functional foods that meet consumer demand.
Considering a company that is growing more than 30% year over year, expanding margins, reducing debt, launching innovative ingredient platforms, and building for long-term success, most wouldn’t guess how close King came to losing it all.
How Icon Foods Reclaimed Its Future
After decades of building Icon Foods, King was burned out. He decided to step back to focus on innovation, strategy, and the parts of the business he enjoyed most. He selected a new CEO to run operations, but he underestimated the toll that creating so much distance between himself and the company’s leadership would take.
The warning signs were there, but King will admit that he either missed them or convinced himself they’d resolve. Unfortunately, they didn’t. Operational discipline eroded, financial controls weakened, and by late 2025, Icon Foods had accumulated roughly $2.5 million in debt through a factoring arrangement that had become increasingly difficult to sustain. It was one of the most difficult periods in the company’s history, and was largely of his own making.
“As a founder, it's tempting to blame circumstances or individuals, but I don't believe that's where the lesson is. Leadership ultimately means ownership. I failed to put the safeguards in place that would have protected the company, our employees, and our customers,” reflects Thom. “Great leaders empower people, but they also establish clear metrics, accountability systems, and visibility into the health of the organization.”
The decision to part ways with the CEO was one of the hardest leadership decisions King has ever made. Confronting the situation head-on meant initiating a complete organizational reset. He led efforts to rebuild the company’s financial infrastructure, restructure leadership, strengthen operational controls, and reestablish accountability throughout the organization. It was during this work that Icon Foods partnered with Turning Point Strategic Advisors.
"At a time when many advisory firms would have focused solely on spreadsheets and forecasts, Turning Point helped us rebuild the foundation of the business," King said. "Their team worked alongside us to create financial transparency, establish meaningful reporting, improve forecasting accuracy, strengthen cash management practices, and perhaps most importantly, they helped us separate emotion from execution.”
In less than a year, Icon Foods has paid down high-interest obligations, dramatically improved cash flow management, expanded gross margins, and increased profitability. Their team is aligned, the culture is healthier, and the operational discipline is stronger than it has been in years.
Stepping away from Icon Foods taught Thom King that leadership is as much about stewardship as it is about vision. Returning forced him to confront what was happening in the business and in himself. He realized a company is not a machine you build then walk away from, but a living system of people, trust, culture, and accountability. He also learned that burnout can cloud judgment.
Today, as Founder and Chief Innovation Officer of Icon Foods, King spends much of his time working directly with formulators, customers, and ingredient technologies. The mission remains much the same as when he started: helping food companies create healthier, better-tasting products that succeed in the marketplace. But the man behind the mission has evolved. To Thom, leadership no longer means having all the answers. If you ask him what leadership means to him today, he’ll tell you he’s less interested in being the smartest person in the room and more interested in building the right room. He'll also tell you that good leadership means staying close to the work. The best thing a founder can do is remain the kind of person willing to roll up their sleeves next to everyone else.
