Melissa LaCasse

CEO & Co-Founder

“Manufacturing can be modern, it can be helpful to the  community around it, it can be authentic, it can be honest, and I also think it can be innovative.”  

From an early age, Melissa has been drawn to nature. She is happiest walking a wooded forest path or out on the open water.  Following college at the University of Wisconsin, Melissa became a commercial pilot and ended up in public media after the disruption to the aviation industry after 9/11. She stayed and eventually joined New York Public Radio working on syndication and business development and partnerships. 

Melissa moved to Maine in  2008 and co-founded Tanbark in 2021. She is happy to change the face of manufacturing by challenging  the status quo. She wants to arrest the plastic epidemic and believes in shared prosperity. Melissa reads cookbooks to relax and memoirs to explore how other people navigate the world.