Teel Back in the Family Fold

Elliot Zwiebach

THE DECISION BY MICHAEL J. TEEL to return to Raley's was an easy one — and a fast one.

He was asked shortly after New Year's Day if he was willing to take the job as president and chief executive officer, and he was named just a few days later, he told SN.

“Like any decision of that importance, I didn't take it lightly, but it required a major change in my lifestyle at a time it was already going to change with my upcoming marriage, which is set for February.

“So I took the offer very seriously.”

Teel, 58, had resigned from the board of directors and stopped attending meetings when he left Raley's in 2002 and but began attending them again in 2004, “and when the board asked, I said I was eager to serve the family once again.

“My parents [Jim and Joyce Raley Teel] are co-chairs of the board and one of my sisters is vice chair, so this opportunity to rejoin the company felt like the best way to keep Raley's family-owned and -operated.”

The chain's seven-member board — which includes three family members and four outsiders — “discussed whether or not to ask me, and there were some concerns along with the positives,” he said.

“For example, when I left eight years ago, I was younger and less concerned with family issues. But the biggest concern was that, as a family, now that they finally had their son and brother back, they didn't want to lose me.

“Three years before I left, we had formed a family assembly and an ownership council that enabled us to talk to each other about our fears and concerns, and it was bumpy at first, and it put stress on the ability to nurture family relationships.

“When I left in 2002, the company was in a good place financially, but I had issues in my marriage and felt it was in the best interests of the family for me to step aside to preserve my marriage, and the family willingly gave me the time and room and bandwidth to do what I had to do.

“My wife Tina and I were able to reconnect and reestablish our relationship and got everything headed in the right direction, but she died of cancer in November 2008.”

By the time he was asked to rejoin the company earlier this month, “I had grown up,” Teel said.

“I understand better now how to interface with my siblings who are also shareholders. I realize more than before that we are in this together and we've got to figure out how to work together and to move forward and to be successful as a family and a business.”

The seven-member board is about to be expanded to 11 members, with five family members and six outsiders, Teel said.

“Right now my parents have all the voting shares,” Teel said, “but the bigger board will include a succession plan, with me and three of my four sisters on the board along with our parents, who share a single vote,” he noted.

One of the new outside members will be Dan Kourkoumelis, former president and CEO of Quality Food Centers, Bellevue, Wash.

Why expand? “We've gotten to a place where the shareholders, my siblings, wanted to contribute to the leadership of the company in a positive way and have a say in what happens,” he explained.

The changes will take place at the next board meeting in February, he noted.

Working for his parents was not always easy for Teel during his first tenure at Raley's, he recalled, but that situation has improved.

“I've always been in awe of my father, who worked in operations, while Chuck Collings took care of financial matters and Frank McMinn dealt with merchandising and advertising. Together they worked with my grandfather, Tom Raley, to turn this company into a strong regional chain.

“And now that I'm back in a position of leadership, I intend to make better use of my father's counsel.

“And my mother has a great intuitive sense, and while it's always been easier for me to deal with my father about the business, it's always been easier for me to talk to my mother about other things.”

Within the family, Jim and Joyce Teel are G-2s — second-generation Raley family members, while Michael Teel and his sisters are G-3s, and their children, all 26 of them, are G-4s.

Only a handful of the G-4s are old enough to work, including Michael Teel's daughter, Jennifer Teel Walter, who is currently working as the chain's marketing manager.