Operations & Merchandising Mentorship Session with Ron Vachris, COO at Costco

Ron began his career in 1982 with the Price Company in the Phoenix, Arizona market. Ron held several management positions in operations before being promoted to Warehouse Manager in Colorado in 1992.

After 7 years as a Warehouse Manager in both Colorado and Arizona, Ron was promoted to Vice President of Operations in the San Diego Region in 1999. In 2010, Ron moved to Washington where he was promoted to Senior Vice President of the Northwest Region.

August 2015, Ron started in the Real Estate department, working on International and Domestic New Markets and Expansion.

In July 2016, Ron became the Executive Vice President of merchandising for Costco Wholesale Corporation.

Mr. Cassell is an experienced corporate attorney who regularly represents private equity funds, public and private corporations, general and limited partnerships, limited liability companies and individuals.

Mr. Cassell has represented clients in connection with the acquisition and financing in such varied areas as cable television systems, sports publications, consumer product companies, and educational publishing operations, in addition to participants in divestitures of various businesses. He has worked with clients across a broad range of diverse industries including lending, health care, manufacturing, publishing, technology, marketing and media.

Stefan Kalb is the CEO and co-founder of Shelf Engine. Kalb co-founded Shelf Engine in 2016 to address the global food waste pandemic he experienced first-hand with grocers. Prior to Shelf Engine, Kalb spent 7 years as the CEO of Molly’s, a healthy grab-and-go food company he started in 2009. While Kalb grew the company to more than 400 regional retail locations, food waste was eating into Molly’s bottom line. Hungry for a solution, Stefan and Shelf Engine co-founder Bede Jordan developed a model to considerably improve perishable food forecasting. After successfully cutting Molly’s food waste in half, Kalb and Jordan quit their day jobs to launch Shelf Engine with a mission of transforming the food supply chain by helping grocery stores reduce waste and increase sales through intelligent forecasting and order automation. Today, Shelf Engine has more than 145 employees and manages orders for leading grocers at thousands of locations nationwide.

Michael is an innovative food entrepreneur and chef, dynamic in approach to food solutions, and is incredibly passionate about working with kids and millennials to fulfill a vision to drive healthy and sustainable change in the food industry.

Born and raised in Long Island, New York, Michael is a two-time alumnus of Johnson & Wales University (JWU), having completed degrees in Culinary Arts & Food Service Management and Entrepreneurship. Currently holding over 20 different food safety certifications, he has continued honing his expertise through education in food safety and regulatory compliance, food sustainability, commercial food brand development and marketing, and enterprise software solutions for commercial food organizations.

While completing his education at JWU, Michael founded Global Food Solutions, which develops food products and brands for the foodservice and school foodservice industries, and LineCor Distribution Solutions, which provides scalable third-party logistics and distribution services. Michael recently launched the LVYN Angel Fund, a private venture investing in social impact business models.

Michael's expertise in developing food products to meet and exceed rigorous United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulation standards have led him to work with some of North America's largest food manufacturers and agricultural providers. His work focuses on developing healthy, sustainable food products for the foodservice industry aimed at supporting local producers to maintain fresh, nutritious foods; while also remaining dedicated to community-building through local business and school support in regions his companies operate.

Through this work, Michael has developed and launched over seven category-specific brands and more than 400 products in the foodservice and school food service industries. Michael's companies products span the fresh, frozen, shelf-stable, and packaged goods categories. The result is feeding tens of millions of students in schools per year while also providing meals to those in need through government assistance programs, healthcare operations, and the United States Military.

Michael is an outspoken supporter of providing meals to school kids across the United States and is actively involved with various childhood hunger organizations, supporting No Kid Hungry and BESTRONG, a national nonprofit aimed at bullying resiliency.

Michael was named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Food and Drink category and was also one of thirty distinguished chefs and food experts invited to the National Peanut Council's Millennial Food Summit and the National Peanut Council's Harvest Summit. His company, Global Food Solutions, was also named to the Inc 5000 list for fastest-growing private companies in America.