Revolution Foods co-founders Kristin Groos Richmond and Kirsten Saenz Tobey, both MBA 06, will be presented with the Haas School's 2013 Leading Through Innovation Award at the annual Haas Gala on Friday, Nov. 15.
Before the gala, Tobey, chief impact officer of Revolution Foods, will speak to the Haas community at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 14, in the Wells Fargo Room. The event is sponsored by the Dean's Speaker Series; details on how to register for Tobey's talk will be available on the Dean's Speaker Series website as the date approaches.
The annual Leading Through Innovation Award was established to celebrate Haas alumni who embody the school’s emphasis on innovative leadership and serve as exemplars to others in the Berkeley-Haas community.
Richmond and Tobey will be recognized for their bold mission to transform the way students eat. From their modest beginnings working through the night to bring healthy meals to local school children, Richmond and Tobey have led Revolution Foods through exponential growth to serve a million meals a week in nearly 1,000 schools across the country.
In September, Richmond and Tobey made Fortune's "40 Under 40" list of "young hotshots who are rocking businesses." CNN Money put Revolution Foods on its 2012 list of 100 fastest-growing inner-city companies, Inc. magazine named it the sixth fastest-growing food and beverage company, and Fast Company included it on a list of most-innovative food companies.
Revolution Foods was truly born at Haas, where Richmond and Tobey met. They learned about term sheets from a New Venture Finance class and defined their product and aligned their values with it in a New Product Development course. In 2007, the pair won the grand prize in the school’s Global Social Venture Competition. And their first funding from Bay Area Equity Fund also came through Haas connections.
Looking ahead, Revolution Foods is now moving into a new market with a high-quality packaged meal competing against Kraft Food’s Lunchables in supermarket aisles.
To attend the 12th Annual Haas Gala, RSVP by Nov. 1 at the Gala website.