2024 Grocery Industry Icons & Innovators

Neil currently serves as Chief Executive Officer for Good Food Holdings (GFH), which operates over 50 supermarkets on the West Coast of the United States under five different banners.  With stores from San Diego to Seattle, Good Food Holdings includes Bristol Farms and Lazy Acres in Southern California, New Leaf Community Markets in Santa Cruz, New Seasons Market in Portland and Metropolitan Markets in Seattle.  The company focuses its formats in the premium, fresh, natural and organic space. GFH is a subsidiary of Emart, a South Korean retail conglomerate. Neil’s relationship with Emart spans over a decade, and while working with Emart, he helped the company develop its private brand program, numerous new retail formats and worked on the US entry strategy.

Neil serves as CEO of Shafer Vineyards, a subsidiary of Starfield Properties and is a member of the Advisory Board.

Prior to joining Shafer and Good Food Holdings, Neil was Senior Partner of McMillanDoolittle, a Chicago based retail consultancy serving the retail industry. He has authored two books, Winning at Retail and Greentailing and Other Revolutions in Retail. Neil was named to Crain’s Chicago Business 40 under 40 list of prominent Chicago business leaders and was also named as one of the 40 Rising Stars in Retailing by Chain Store Age. Neil is an honors graduate of Columbia University and has attended Northwestern’s Kellogg MBA program.

Neil is a long-standing board member of Over The Rainbow in Chicago, a charity that provides housing for the physically disabled, as well as numerous advisory boards for start-up companies including Vroom Delivery, Cooler Screens and Forager.