Richard Rose, B.A. Marketing, 1989
Richard Rose came to SSU's School of Business after running his
own tofu business for six years. Although widely acknowledged for
popularizing tofu as a food suitable for American palates, he felt
empty. "There has to be a better way," he thought. After
receiving his BA, Richard decided that his ultimate goal was an
MBA. He did not necessarily want the MBA, but he was excited about
the knowledge that came with it, since he wanted to learn things
that would help him in his business ventures. He didn't understand
the technical side of business, though he now uses certain skills
and concepts he learned at SSU, and attributes it to his successes.
He believes that the most important lesson he learned at SSU was
to ". . . put my head down and do the work, day in and day
out, for years. For a local long haired beach bum musician entrepreneur,
few lessons will ever be more important, and few lessons will influence
me more," he says. Richard also believes that SSU represents
much of what he finds desirable in Sonoma County - and that these
qualities are embodied in SSU and himself: professional without
being heartless, shrewd without but not cynical, successful but
ethical, quirky but authentic, and aesthetic without being pompous.
Currently, Richard is the founder and president of Rella Good Cheese
Company. He is also founder, president, and "Chief Hemp Nut"
of HempNut Inc.,a food company specializing in researching, developing,
and marketing hempseed foods. In 1981 he opened and ran one of the
first 100% nondairy vegetarian restaurants, using only foods made
with tofu and other soy products, and graduated in 1989 with his
BA in marketing.
He is featured frequently in HempTimes magazine for his work in
the area of using hempseed for food. He has authored his own hemp
cookbooks, and is a member of the International Hemp Association,
the North American Industrial Hemp Council, and the Provender Alliance.
Rose is the Founder of the Hemp Food Association, the goal of which
is to help improve the quality of hemp foods being produced by others.
He is the chairman of the Food and Oil Council of the Hemp Industries
Association.
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