Gary Anderson
Gary was born in Brigham City, Utah, to DeLonne and Margaret Anderson. He graduated from Box Elder High School and received his degree in accounting from Utah State University. Gary married Marjorie Huggins and they have six children, one son-in-law and one grandson.
After graduating from USU in 1978, Gary naturally went into marketing working for the Pillsbury Company out of Salt Lake City and Denver. He worked as a territory and regional sales manager for many years until he went to work as an account executive for Scope Marketing and Sales, a regional food broker located in Salt Lake City. His primary responsibilities were working with marketing and merchandising directors from Smith’s and Albertson’s as well as independent grocery warehouses like Associated Foods and Fleming for new product development and schematic design. Because of his connections in the grocery business, in 1992, Gary was asked to become involved (part time) with a promising new product that was about to be launched, Stephen’s Gourmet Sipping Hot Cocoa. Part time quickly became full time and in September of 1992 Gary became president of Excellent Foods, Inc., a marketing company with the purpose of getting this remarkable cocoa into the market. It only took four years for Stephen’s to go (literally) from the basement to the number one cocoa in the intermountain region. A position it still maintains. In September of 1993, Excellent Foods purchased Excel Blending and Packaging, the powder facility where Stephen’s was manufactured. Excel’s customers were those who needed powder nutritional products developed and manufactured. Excellent Foods went from 5 employees to 60 and from sales of $280,000 to $3,000,000. Through aggressive, yet careful planning, Excellent Foods, Inc. grew to over $20,000,000 by 1998.
In 1999 Excellent Foods, Inc. merged with Modern Health Strategies to create Cornerstone Nutritional Labs, LLC located in Farmington. Modern Health’s expertise was in encapsulation and tabulating and with Excellent Foods powder capabilities they could offer customers a full range of products. Gary sold C.N. Labs in 2004 and Stephen’s Gourmet Kitchens in 2005.
Gary has extensive knowledge of retail management, new product development, and marketing. He also has significant experience in human resource management and compensation/benefits design. He recently served on the advisory board of Altius Health Care. He has been involved with SHRM and the American Marketing Association. Gary is also the managing partner for Cheever Capital, a venture capital group and Executive Producer of Watch This. His latest business adventure is selling gourmet coffee bars in Wal-Mart. Right now they are being sold in Texas and California.
Gary enjoys spending time with his family, golfing, traveling, and scuba diving. He spends time in church service, helps with the Autism Foundation of Utah, and would like to create a foundation for Cerebral Palsy. Gary and Margie have two handicapped sons, a 14 year old that is autistic and hearing impaired and an 8 year old with Cerebral Palsy. Gary and his family also sponsor the DeLonne Anderson Memorial Golf Tournament, which raises money for Utah State Athletics and Entrepreneur Day in the Jon M. Huntsman School of Business at USU, in which the first one was held in March 2006. Gary and his wife, Marjorie, a 1978 USU attender in HASS, reside in Farmington, Utah.