GOODFOOD WORLD - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- CEO of Bob 's Red Mill, on Partnering With Growers
Gail began her business career managing Swiss Colony Restaurant and Cheese Shop, which generated nearly $1 million in sales annually. A move to Swiss Colony Catalog, as a designer of food products, gave her the opportunity to market seasonal and holiday food products through more than 20 million catalogs per year.
Leveraging her retail and direct marketing experience, Ms. Nickel-Kailing then acquired Houseworks, Madison WI, where she sold imported fabrics, home décor, and gifts.
It was her interest in mail, direct marketing, and distribution that lead to a position at the US Postal Service where she advised companies of all sizes on optimum methods of designing and preparing large quantities of correspondence, publications, and products to be carried through the postal system.
Because volume mailing required sophisticated computer technology, Ms. Nickel-Kailing joined software pioneer, Postalsoft. During her tenure, she progressed to Vice President of Corporate Planning. Postalsoft (later re-named FirstLogic and finally acquired by Business Objects/SAP) grew to more than $30 million in revenue and over 300 employees.
A move to ImageX.com (acquired by Kinkos/FedEx), an early ecommerce company, allowed Gail as Director of Strategic Marketing to participate in the development of complex online marketing, sales, and distribution of customized products. Explosive growth - from 70 to 700+ employees - an initial public offering (IPO) and secondary offering totaling more than $120 million and six acquisitions honed Ms. Nickel-Kailing's skills and encouraged her to open her own consulting business.
Business Strategies Etc. which Gail opened in 2001, specializes in strategic marketing and business planning, marketing communications and promotion, and technology implementation. Author of hundreds of articles which have appeared in numerous trade publications, she is also a public speaker and consultant. Gail's goal is to help keep small businesses IN business.
Gail mixes her food and retail experience with her business expertise at GoodFood World. She is not only co-publisher of the site, but she also operates a consulting service for small to medium-sized businesses.
Ken grew up on a model Rodale organic farm outside Minneapolis and found early employment as a produce manager in a local family-owned grocery store. Prior to college, he traveled extensively in the US, Europe, Eastern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East and worked on a ranch in New Mexico, a date plantation in Israel, and vineyards in France.
He served an American Institute of Architects (AIA) apprenticeship while jointly attending the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, where he received a special interdisciplinary degree: Botany and Environmental Systems Design. Ken is a graduate Landscape Architect and Environmental Planner (MS). His thesis "Multivariate Methods in Regional Landscape Assessment Utilizing Remote Sensing Data" won him a Special Merit for Research Excellence award from the American Society of Landscape Architects.
Continuing in his PhD program in the Institute for Environmental Studies, where he was employed as a research specialist, he focused on natural resource planning and management and environmental law. All of his graduate training is in the School of Agriculture at UW-Madison.
After leaving UW, he worked for the Bureau of Research, Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, until starting his own environmental consulting firm, Eco-Systems Design. ESD provided services to businesses and municipalities to meet regulatory requirements and apply ecosystem processes to better plan and manage working landscapes. The emphasis was on using the best technology to assess resource potentials and to draft conservation plans that satisfied community needs while improving business opportunities (particularly for family farmers).
Ken grew up on a model Rodale organic farm outside Minneapolis and brings his experience working in agriculture in the US, the Middle East, and Europe. Ken is co-publisher of GoodFood World and also reports on ecosystem-based farm, ranch, and landscape planning.