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Our Company
Our administrative offices and our production facility are now located in Gridley, California-in northern California's agricultural valley. We are housed in a beautiful 54,000 square foot building that is dedicated gluten-free, certified organic and kosher. Mary's Gone Crackers has assembled a terrific team of people committed to getting our fabulous crackers onto store shelves and into your kitchens!
Please contact us with your comments or suggestions.
Board of Directors
Mary Waldner
Chairman & Founder
As founder of Mary’s Gone Crackers, Mary Waldner leads both product development and brand strategy for the company. Mary is responsible for the development of all of the company’s products, and has been a Director since the company was incorporated in 2004. .
Inspired by her own struggles with Celiac Disease, Waldner created Mary’s Gone Crackers after finding a shortage of nutritious, gluten-free options that tasted good. Her handcrafted recipe became a hit not only with Celiac sufferers, but with consumers eager for delicious snacks they could feel good about eating. Mary’s Gone Crackers Original was awarded the Sofi Gold for the most outstanding cracker at the New York Fancy Food Show in 2008.
Waldner is a member of the Organic Trade Association and the Celiac Sprue Association.
Prior to co-founding Mary’s Gone Crackers, Waldner practiced as a psychotherapist for 26 years; she holds a master’s degree in clinical psychology and is a licensed marriage and family therapist. Mary Waldner is married to Dale Rodrigues with whom she created Mary’s Gone Crackers. She resides in Paradise, CA.
Dale Rodrigues
CEO, President, & Founder
As co-founder of Mary’s Gone Crackers, Dale Rodrigues is the CEO and President. Dale is responsible for building the MGC team and leading the company in its accelerated growth while concurrently establishing Mary’s as one of the premier emerging brands in the natural foods industry and the category leader. Dale has been a Director of Mary’s since the company was incorporated in 2004.
Mr. Rodrigues has been an entrepreneur most of his working life, starting with his father’s modest redwood fence company; where he learned all of his carpentry skills and grew the business four-fold in three years, moving on to form his own custom redwood deck company when his father retired. Using the skills he developed while marketing his own business, Mr. Rodrigues created a data base marketing company which provided building permit data to suppliers and sub-contractors in the construction industry. He sold the business in 1996. As a licensed general contractor, he worked as a project manager for other high-end residential contractors, successfully managing their most complicated projects.
In 2003 Mr. Rodrigues left the construction industry to devote his full time efforts and talents to the successful funding and launch of the Mary’s Gone Crackers brand.
Mr. Rodrigues received his AA degree from Chabot Community College and attended University of California at Berkeley and worked towards a degree in Creative Writing.
Mr. Rodrigues is married to Mary Waldner, with whom he created Mary’s Gone Crackers. He resides in Paradise, CA.
Michael Potter
Director
Michael Potter serves as Director of Paradigm Ventures an international venture capital firm focused on high technology ventures. Prior to Paradigm Ventures, Potter was Vice Chairman, founder and President of Esprit Telecom plc., a pan-European competitive telecommunications services provider. During his 8 years at Esprit, he grew the company to 1,000 employees in over 9 European countries and a market capitalization of a billion US dollars. He was formerly an international telecommunications analyst at the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, D.C. Potter was also Vice Chairman of the founding Board of the European Competitive Telecommunications Association (ECTA). He is a director Global Connect. His articles on high technology business and policy have been widely published.
Michael received his MS degree from the London School of Economics and his BA from California State University at Sacramento, and a certificate in Space Studies from the International Space University. www.paradigmventures.com
David Robinov
Director
David Robinov brings to Mary’s Gone Crackers' Board of Directors extensive global experience in the natural and organic foods industries. In 2001, he co-founded Organic Brands, LLC. and developed the very successful brand, Mediterranean Organic. The company acquired the North American licensing rights for Rapunzel brands, one of Europe’s most successful organic companies. Two years later, Organic Brands was sold to United Natural Foods, the leading distributor of Natural Products in the U.S. After selling Organic Brands, Robinov moved to Rome, Italy where he sourced artisanal products throughout Europe. Now, having returned to his home in New York City, he continues to expand his interests in those European manufacturers. In addition, he is working with his peers to start an angel investment group that focuses on the Natural and Organic Industries.
Previously, Robinov co-founded a chain of six Natural Markets in the New York area, of which he sold his interest in to Mrs. Greens. Simultaneously, Robinov created the Chinese herbal-based soft drink, China Cola, which became one of the top selling new age soft drinks in the Natural Products Marketplace and was acquired by Reeds, INC., producers of Ginger Beer and Virgil's Root Beer, where he also once served as director. He began his career as the Connecticut and New York Sales representative for Erewhon Natural Foods, the largest Natural Foods Distributor in the U.S.
Bryan Meehan
Director
Bryan Meehan is successful entrepreneur and investor in the natural products industry. Mr. Meehan was CEO of Fresh & Wild, the leading retailer of organic and natural foods in the U.K. The company was founded in 1999 and acquired in 2004 by Whole Foods Markets. Previously, he was Managing Director of Roundstone Investments, a private investment fund. Prior to that, Mr. Meehan was a Senior Manager in Sales and Marketing at Guinness (now Diageo). He currently serves on the Board of TBE Southern, a property investment company, and Nude Skincare. Mr. Meehan also represents Greenmont I on the Boards of OZOcar and Little Dish. He holds a B.A. degree in Economics from Trinity College Dublin and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.
Advisory Council
Richard Antonelli
Having served as executive vice president, chief operating officer and president of distribution for United Natural Foods, Inc. (UNFI), Richard Antonelli brings expert specialty foods insight to his position serving on the advisory council for Mary's Gone Crackers.
Antonelli has served in a variety of roles within UNFI, the nation's leading wholesale distributor to the natural and organic foods industry, since its inception in 1996. Prior to working with UNFI, he served as director of sales for the company's predecessor, Cornucopia Natural Foods. Antonelli also honed his entrepreneurial skills on the manufacturing side of the natural foods industry as co-founder and president of Fairfield Farm Kitchens.
Andrew Aussie
Andrew Aussie brings to Mary’s Gone Crackers an extensive background in consumer product marketing, brand development and strategy. Over the course of his career, Aussie has launched over 150 products, a multitude of advertising campaigns and a variety of brand architecture, positioning and brand strategy initiatives to drive growth and excite consumers. In 2006, Aussie created Honest Foods, a natural foods brand sold nationally. In addition, he provides strategic direction to a number of companies in the natural and nutrition spaces, including Mary’s Gone Crackers, Fuze (a Coca-Cola brand), Annie’s Homegrown, Coromega Omega-3, and Pinkberry Yogurt.
Prior to starting Honest Foods, Andrew served as senior vice president of marketing at Kashi Company, a Kellogg Company, for over 11 years. Prior to Kashi, Aussie also served in brand marketing at Procter & Gamble and in business development at Saturn, a division of General Motors. Aussie earned a Master of Science degree in business administration from the Anderson School at UCLA in 1993 and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and psychology from University of Michigan in 1989.
Mary Mulry PhD
Mary C. Mulry Ph.D. is President of FoodWise, Inc., a natural, organic and specialty foods technical consultancy. Dr. Mulry has more than 25 years’ experience in product development, nutrition, product innovation and strategy, and quality systems. Her unique background has encompassed the entire food supply chain from ingredients to retailing. She has worked on projects involving conventional food, natural and organic foods, functional foods and dietary supplements for companies ranging in size from start-ups to multi-national consumer packaged goods’ companies.
Before consulting, she served as Product Development Director for Central Market and Healthy Living for H-E-B, a conventional regional grocery retailer. Prior to her employment at H-E-B, she was Senior Director of Research, Development and Quality at Wild Oats Markets where she developed private label natural and organic items, administered the standards for products to be carried at Wild Oats’ stores and was the internal technical consultant.
In addition, she has also held management positions at Celestial Seasonings, Kraft Foods and the Kellogg Company. Dr. Mulry earned her Ph.D. in Food Science and Human Nutrition from the University of Florida and holds a B.S. degree in Food Science with Honors from the University of Wisconsin. She currently serves on the Board of Directors of the OASIS (Organic and Sustainable Industry Standards) trade association for organic personal care products. She also serves on the Science and Technical Advisory Council (STAC) of the Organic Center and volunteers for the Boulder Innovation Center and the Colorado Small Business Development Center (SBDC) in Boulder, CO. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Organic Trade Association (OTA) and Past President of the Board of the Directors of the Organic Materials Research Institute (OMRI).
Peter Thom
Peter has over 20 years of investment banking experience in both the United States and Europe, specializing in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, public and private debt and equity capital raising and strategic advisory services. Over the last 10 years, he has provided a wide range of investment banking services to both public and privately owned corporations in the food, drug, convenience store and Hardline retail sectors as well as the food wholesale and distribution industry. In particular, he has worked extensively within the rapidly growing natural and organic food and beverage industry providing entrepreneurs and corporations with strategic and financial advice, executing both debt and equity capital raises and completing merger and acquisition transactions on their behalf.
Peter founding Kernick Advisory Group in 2003, prior to which he was a Principal and Partner at The Food Partners, and prior, served as a Director in Salomon Smith Barney's Global Consumer and Retail Investment Banking Group, as head of Supermarket/Drug and Hardline Retail. Prior to Salomon Smith Barney, he served in a number of different capacities at J.P. Morgan in the United States and Europe including Head of the European Real Estate Advisory Group and as a member of the Global Consumer Group.
Peter completed his undergraduate and postgraduate education in the United Kingdom and holds a B.A. in Economics from Leeds University and earned his MBA from Manchester Business School.
Mary's Story
In 1994, I discovered that my lifelong battle with digestive pain and fatigue had been caused by an inability to digest gluten--a protein found in wheat, barley, rye and most oats. Once I eliminated those grains from my diet, the symptoms I had struggled with disappeared. (My son was found to have the same intolerance). As excited as I was to have found the source of my pain, I was also faced with the difficulty of finding things to eat in a culture that bases much of its food on the grains I couldn't eat. Having been a creative baker my whole life, I started experimenting in my kitchen. I knew I could live without bread, but the thought of not having my brownies was intolerable. I played with the alternative flours--rice, corn, garbanzo bean, tapioca, potato starch and potato flour, and others--until I was able to reproduce my brownies to my satisfaction. Pancakes, waffles, muffins, cookies and other essentials soon followed. I got better and better at blending the different flours into something that resembled the texture and consistency of wheat flour and produced different, but delicious results.
Going out in the world was a different matter. While my friends sat in restaurants filling up with warm sour dough bread slathered with sweet butter, I sat hungry. When I went to parties with tables full of cheeses and dips, there wasn't a cracker or bread stick that I could eat. I got an idea for a base for baked goods using brown rice. I played with it in my head for months and then started working with it in my kitchen. I tried it in a variety of forms before I hit on the cracker. That took many tries as well before I eventually developed the recipe for my unique rice cracker--brown rice, quinoa, flax seeds, sesame seeds, salt and wheat free tamari. I made them in small batches for myself, took them in little bags when I went to restaurants and parties, and felt less deprived. Then I watched as others started eating them. Everyone, from finicky teens to young children, to adults with a range of palates, loved them. I had to make more, so that when I went out, there was enough for everyone, not just me.
Soon I was making ovens full, buying sealable bags and giving them away. I took them with me everywhere and never brought any back home. They tasted great and stayed fresh for a long time. And there was nothing like them on the market. In 2000, I decided that these crackers needed to be mass produced. I think it was after I had taken a big batch with me on a trip to the Caribbean. My friend told me not to bother because everything gets stale and soggy in the warm, humid tropical air. I brought them anyway, hoping that they would withstand the environment and they did! One night while I was there we invited a few people from my friend's new neighborhood to have hors d'oeuvres and wine and I put out my crackers. Once again I watched as a room full of adults (from all over the world) tasted my crackers for the first time. A quizzical look would cross their faces as they took their first bite, and then they would look at the cracker and say, "wow, these crackers are delicious, where did you get them?."
We now have nationwide distribution and are reaching new fans every day. (We are also distributed in Canada under the name "Mary's Organic Crackers.") I am VERY happy not to be making them in my kitchen anymore! I'm looking forward to bringing you my other delicious, organic, gluten-free baked goods also developed in my home kitchen.
Contact Us
Mary's Gone Crackers
P.O. Box 965
Gridley, CA 95948
Toll free: 888-258-1250
Phone 530-846-5100
Fax 530-846-5500
Copyright © 2009 Mary's Gone Crackers, Inc. All rights Reserved. MARY'S GONE CRACKERS, CONSCIOUS EATING, STICKS & TWIGS, PEACE, LOVE & CRUNCH are registered trademarks of Mary's Gone Crackers, Inc. in the United States, other countries or both. The marquee trade dress is a trademark of Mary's Gone Crackers, Inc.