Whole Foods’ Co-CEO Walter Robb to Speak at Cal Poly Fundraiser Dinner
Annual event celebrates the food and farming of the Central Coast
SAN LUIS OBISPO – Walter Robb, co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, will be the guest speaker at Cal Poly’s fundraiser dinner, A Taste of the Future, on Friday, July 24, at Cal Poly’s University Union.
Cal Poly’s Center for Sustainability is host of the eighth annual Taste of the Future, which celebrates the food and farming of the Central Coast and features regional and Cal Poly sustainably raised foods and wine.
Robb has a long and varied entrepreneurial history in the natural foods industry. He opened his first natural foods store, Mountain Marketplace, in Weaverville, Calif., in 1976 and ran the store for 10 years. He then moved to the Bay Area to manage Berkeley Living Foods.
Robb joined Whole Foods Market in 1991, becoming president of the company’s Northern Pacific region, which grew from two to 17 stores in eight years. In 2010 was named co-CEO along with John Mackey. He is on the board of regents for the University of the Pacific and serves on the board of directors for both the Whole Planet Foundation and the Retail Industry Leaders Association. He also serves as Chairman of the Board for Whole Kids Foundation and Whole Cities Foundation. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University in 1976.
Tickets for the dinner, which starts at 6 p.m., are $100 per person. Registration details and more information about this year’s event can be found at: www.cfs.calpoly.edu/fundraisers_2015.html.
About Whole Foods Market
Whole Foods Market opened in 1980 with one small store in Austin, Texas. Today, it’s the world’s leader in natural and organic foods, with 421 stores in North America and the United Kingdom. It is known for offering the finest natural and organic foods available, maintaining the strictest quality standards in the industry, and having an unshakeable commitment to sustainable agriculture.
Contact: Hunter Francis
805-756-5086; cfs@calpoly.edu