Last updated on August 16th, 2012 at 12:19 pm
Ric Jurgens, CEO of Iowa-based Hy-Vee until he retires June 1, spoke to The Shelby Report’s Geoff Welch at FMI 2012 The Food Retail Show on May 2.
Jurgens, who is past chair of the FMI board of directors, said response to the show has been phenomenal.
“As a board member, I’m extremely proud of the staff and the people who are exhibiting here and the speakers. It’s just a wonderful event,” he said. “As a CEO of a company that has over 100 people here, we’re just delighted with the benefit we’re receiving. A lot of new products, a lot of new ideas on the floor, great speakers so far and I’m sure it will just get better. We’re very excited about the FMI show this year.”
As for what he’ll do after he retires, Jurgens said for at least the first six months he will spend time with his grandchildren, his hobbies, and most importantly, with his wife, Carol.
“I’ve been married to Carol for 43 years and I’ve been with Hy-Vee for 43 years,” Jurgens said. “I’ve spent probably a disproportionate amount of time with Hy-Vee, so we’ll try to rectify that a little bit in the years to come.”
He also will continue to be involved with the Healthiest State Initiative in Iowa. The state is working to move from No. 16 on the Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index to No. 1 by 2016.
“We started it off with a statewide walk. Everybody on Oct. 7 at noon was encouraged to leave their place of business or their home or their school and walk,” Jurgens said.
He said more than 300,000 people registered for the event, but it was such a beautiful day that many more may have participated.
The initiative has drawn the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama.
“I think we have very good traction, and it’s evidenced in great part by the fact that when the First Lady decided to go on a tour of America for three days to celebrate the second anniversary of her ‘Let’s Move’ program, the first call she made was to Iowa, and the first visit she made was to Iowa,” Jurgens said. “We celebrated the anniversary of that initiative with 11,000 kids in Des Moines greeting the first lady, a lot of energy and a lot of excitement, so we’re very enthused about that.”
