Club Meeting: 06/11/2025

About David M. Neuman

David Neuman began his Olive Oil career as a Comis Chef at the Four Seasons Hotel in Washington, D.C. in 1985.Years of employment followed in the Specialty and Natural Foods retail industry, where he cut his teeth on selling finer foods, which included managing world-class food retailers such as Sutton Place Gourmet (now Balducci’s) and Fresh Fields/Whole Foods Market in the Mid-Atlantic region. Food manufacturing was calling him in 1996 when he was recruited to be a sales manager for Nature’s Path Organic Foods, based in Vancouver, BC Canada. Within his first year he was promoted and ultimately became Executive VP, Sales and Marketing. Launching over 100 items into the hungry for healthy world- wide market, David had a hand in introducing unique foods to curious consumers such as organic functional breakfasts foods and some less functional such as the first Organic toaster-pastry, a/k/a Pop-Tart(R). He was involved in legalization of the term Organic, a member of the Whole Grain Council and a member of the Hemp Foods Alliance. These all helped him hone his skills for what was next.

For the next nine years, he was President and Partner of Lucini Italia®, growing the brand to be the premier quality Italian Olive Oil in America. Upon selling the business in late 2014, David opened Gaea® North America, a higher-end Extra Virgin Olive Oil brand, with the assistance of its parent company, Gaea Products S.A. in Greece. Beyond placing his Greek oils in the biggest and better retailers, he shared his knowledge pro-bono to thousands of both industry people and consumers via his Olive Oil 101 90-minute training class; a behind-the-scenes look and tasting of both excellent and defect oils. This included corporate training with chains such as Costco, Whole Foods, The Fresh Market, and many more. Totaling more than 3 billion media impressions and having worked as a food executive for 30 years, David decided it was time to go at it alone. READ MORE