Master brand builder Gary Shansby, who helped establish such names as Famous Amos cookies, La Victoria Mexican Foods, and Voss Water, will speak on Thursday, Feb. 14 at 12:30 p.m. in the Executive Learning Classroom (S480).
The free event, part of the Dean’s Speaker Series, is open to the Haas community. Visit the Dean’s Speaker Series website as the date draws near to complete the required registration.
Shansby has more than 40 years of experience with consumer products companies, including his current focus on the high-end tequila market as the founder and chairman of San Francisco-based Partida Tequila.
He previously spent nearly 20 years at The Shansby Group, a pioneering consumer-focused private equity firm (now known as TSG Consumer Partners), which he co-founded. It was here that he helped build Famous Amos into a multimillion-dollar company and propelled other brands, such as Mauna Loa Macadamias, Terra Chips, and vitamin water, into prominence. All told, he has developed and marketed more than 50 household consumer brands over the course of his career.
Before founding The Shansby Group he was chairman of the board and CEO of Shaklee Corp., known for its nutritional products. During his tenure the company grew from a small business with less than $80 million in annual sales to a Fortune 500 multinational corporation with annual sales of more than $500 million.
Shansby also held senior positions at management consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, Clorox, and American Home Products (later Wyeth Corp.). He has served on the boards of the California Economic Development Corp., the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and the UC Berkeley Foundation. In 1981 he endowed the business school's J. Gary Shansby Chair in Marketing Strategy, which is currently held by Haas Professor J. Miguel Villas-Boas.