CanDoKid

Deb Luster, Co-Founder & President

CAN DO Kid supports Deb’s passion for creating CAN DO children! Deb, former president of Annie’s Homegrown, Inc., loves life and feels she’s struck a perfect balance between her roles of leading CAN DO Kid and being mom to three kids and the wife of a great, supportive husband. Deb’s main goal in life is to have her family and kids worldwide know they can do anything!  

Deb is on four PTA executive boards as well as the soccer board in her community, and likes the ocean and scuba diving with her hubby, Rob. She is also learning how to play the piano. Deb followed her dear sister and CAN DO Kid co-founder, Chris, to get her black belt in Tae Kwon Do.  Now Deb’s husband and two of three kids also have black belts and compete at state championships.

Deb’s Can-Do Hero
My can-do hero is my 12-year-old daughter, Emily, who greets the world with joy and compassion. She is never afraid to try something new, and becomes a master of her passion. Emily does Tae Kwon Do, soccer, swim team and basketball. She also plays the clarinet and piano, and is an outstanding student and a great cook.

Chris Elders, Co-Founder & Director of Sales

Although Chris enjoys seeing CAN DO Kid bars on as many store shelves as possible, her true passion lies in the faces of children everywhere adopting their new can-do attitudes!

Before becoming a mom herself, Chris began her career at Annie’s Homegrown, Inc. as Director of Communications where she helped the Annie’s team bring what was then an East Coast company to the West Coast. From there, she moved onto owning and running her own wholesale bread company, Marin Baking Company, where she gained experience in everything from managing a large commercial kitchen to selling into dozens of grocery stores and restaurants, to driving the delivery van! After surviving on “the crumbs,” she made a career switch to working in sales in Silicon Valley for a software company and then in global sales for Gartner Group, Inc.

Today, Chris shows her can-do attitude as a mom of two young and wonderful boys. She is a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and enjoys hiking, running and her moments of quiet meditation. 

Chris’ Can-Do Hero
It’s no contest … my sister Deborah for sure.  She is my best friend, my confidant, my inspiration and my support. I never dreamed I’d be so lucky to be in business with my favorite and most wonderful friend!

Rob Luster, Board Member

Rob is president and CEO of Luster National, Inc., a management consulting firm that supports government agencies by providing program, project and construction management services. Rob’s firm has more than 85 employees across the United States, and was established in 1990. Rob graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, and also has a MBA from Long Island University, New York. Rob is a Founding Trustee, University of California, Merced.

Rob’s Can-Do Hero
My can-do hero is, hands down, my mom! She is a role model for our entire family. She exudes confidence and the unyielding desire to do it right the first time. At the onset of WWII, my mom attempted to enlist in the U.S. Army. Due to a heart murmur, she was turned down. Not dismayed, she took the U.S. Navy welding test and aced the exam. For the remainder of the war, she worked on a 24/7 rotation building heavy cruisers for the U.S. Navy in San Francisco.

Matt Elders, Board Member

Matt has spent the majority of his career as a senior sales and marketing professional within the venture backed start-up world.  Matt has been fortunate to have spent time across a number of industries, specifically food, media, research and technology.  Most recently he was responsible for sales and business development at Beautifull, a San Francisco-based fresh-prepared food business built to offer real, good food to the masses and begin to provide a solution to the escalating healthcare issue facing America. Matt was raised in Fairfield County, Conn., and graduated from Colby College in Waterville, Maine.

Since the founding of Can Do Kid in 2005, Matt has been an active board member, offering ongoing insight across the business.

Matt’s Can-Do Hero
My father, Dave, is my can-do hero. Ever since my brother and I were born in the late 1960s, he has played an instrumental role in supporting and guiding us through life. He helped with homework, coached many of the athletic teams we played on and continues to play an incredibly important role in acting as a sounding board when life throws curve balls at us. He has also been extremely generous with his time. He was a founding member of Safe Rides, an organization created to minimize teenage drunk driving. He was involved in the creation and running of the “A Better Chance” program, an organization designed to offer underprivileged youth access to better education and learning programs.  Currently, he serves as the vice chairman of Kids in Crisis, Connecticut’s only facility for children newborn to age 17, which provides free, temporary shelter, therapeutic counseling, comprehensive medical care and specialized educational support for children struggling with a wide range of issues including abuse, neglect, abandonment, family health issues and family conflict.