The Man Who Built Dryer’s Grand Ice Cream
”You only get one trip around this track of life. There are no mulligans… let’s make it as good as it can be” – T. Gary Rogers
About Gary Rogers:
T. Gary Rogers is the former Chairman of Safeway Inc., which he was instrumental in selling to Albertson’s in early 2015 for $10.4 billion. Previously he was the chairman and chief executive officer of Dryer’s Grand Ice Cream, which he and his partner, William F. Cronk, built into the largest ice cream company in the United States and then sold to Nestle in 2006 for #3.2 billion. He has also been the chairman of Safeway, Levi Strauss, the San Francsico Federal Reserve Bank, and a director of a dozen other West Coast-based companies. He is a member of the Bay Area Business Hall of Fame.
Early in his career, Rogers worked for four years as an associate at the San Francisco office of McKinsey & Co.
Prior to acquiring Dryer’s in 1977, he and Cronk founded and ran a limited menu restaurant company, Vintage House Restaurants, which failed.
Rogers graduated from the University of California Berkeley in 1964 where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering. A member of the varsity crew, he was named All University Athlete in 1963 and rowed in the U.S. Olympic Trials in 1964. He has been inducted into the Cal Athletic Hall of Fame. He obtained his MBA at Harvard Business School in 1968, graduating as a Baker Scholar (top 5% of his class).
Bio courtesy of Gary Rogers.
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