Chief Executive Officer and Cofounder
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When
Fedele Bauccio cofounded Bon Appétit Management Company, he set out to
revolutionize the food service industry by bringing fresh,
made-from-scratch food to the contract market.
Fedele
began his career in food service as a dishwasher in 1960 with Saga Corporation's
Education Division, while a student at the University of Portland. In
1972, he transferred to Saga's Business Food Service Division, where he
held many positions including Divisional President, President of Saga's
Specialty Foodservices Group, and president of the Stuart Anderson’s
Black Angus Cattle Company restaurant chain.
After more than 25 years in
the industry, he knew institutional feeding was ready for something better. In
1987, Bon Appétit Management Company was born. For the first time, real
executive chefs were put in charge of the kitchens of colleges,
universities, corporations, and cultural centers. Fedele’s dream of a
company committed to culinary expertise was a reality — and customers
noticed, fueling quick growth for the small, San Francisco-based
company. Now headquartered in Palo Alto, CA, Bon Appétit serves more than 120 million meals a year at over 400
locations in 31 states.
In
1999, Fedele led his team to once again raise the bar for on-site food
service by making a commitment to socially responsible food sourcing,
starting with the launch of its Farm to Fork program. Today, Bon Appétit
spends tens of millions annually on food from small, owner-operated
farms within a 150-mile radius of each café, and uses only sustainable
seafood, turkey and chicken raised without antibiotics as a routine feed
additive, natural beef burgers, rBGH-free milk and yogurt, and
cage-free shell eggs. In 2007, the company debuted its Low Carbon Diet,
the first program to make the connection between food and climate
change, and in 2009 partnered with the Coalition of Immokalee Workers to
become the first food services company to implement a Code of Conduct
for how Florida tomato growers treat their workers. (See full list of milestones.)
From
2006-2008, Fedele served on the Pew Commission on Industrial Farm
Animal Production, a project of the Pew Charitable Trusts and the Johns
Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health that brought together leaders
in veterinary medicine, agriculture, public health, business,
government, rural advocacy, and animal welfare. Together they conducted a
fact-based and balanced examination of how farm animals are raised in
this country, and in April 2008 the commission issued a comprehensive
report of its findings as well as recommendations for the industry and
for policymakers. He is currently a board member of Compass Group North
America; Maria Maria, Inc. in San Francisco; and the President's
Advisory Council of the University of Portland.
Fedele's work has been honored by many nonprofit and
industry groups: among them, the James Beard Foundation recognized his contributions with one of its inaugural Leadership Awards, along with First Lady Michelle Obama and eight others, in 2011; Chefs Collaborative named him its Sustainability Pathfinder of 2011; the Natural Resources Defense Council chose him for its first Going Green Award, in 2009; and Seafood Choices Alliance named him a Seafood Champion of
2007. Bon Appétit has also received the 2008
Innovator of the Year from Nation's Restaurant News; the Golden Chain Award for Excellence from Nation's Restaurant News in 1998; and the 1992 "Ivy Award" from Restaurants & Institutions.
Fedele
graduated from the University of Portland with a master's degree in
business administration (1966) and a bachelor's degree in economics
(1964). He is a 1985 graduate of the Advanced Management Program of the
Harvard Graduate School of Business and was awarded an honorary
doctorate from the University of Portland in 2004 and from the
University of Redlands in 2010.
Fedele regularly contributes opinion pieces to national media outlets. Some samples:
-
"Safe" Food Isn't Our Real Problem," Huffington Post, June 17, 2011
-
“Climate Change: Let's Get to the Meat of the Matter,” Huffington Post, April 22, 2011
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"Why Farmworkers Deserve Same Rights As Any Other Workers," San Jose Mercury News, March 31, 2011
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“Over-Regulating Small Farms Doesn't Make Food Safer,” Huffington Post, January 6, 2011
-
“Planting Seeds of Change on Campus,” Huffington Post, August 4, 2010
- “After oil spill: taking stock of fish industry,” CNN, May 21, 2010