New Albany Chamber Membership Luncheon with Speaker Cheryl Krueger

Cheryl L. Krueger - An Entrepreneur's Road to Success

Cheryl Krueger, 62, is the Founder and former-President and Chief Executive Officer of Cheryl & Co., a cookie, gourmet dessert, and gift basket retailer.  She started the company in 1981 in Columbus Ohio with a single cookie store that grew into a $50 million corporation.  In March 2005, Cheryl & Co. was sold to 1-800 Flowers with Cheryl remaining as its CEO until March 2009 when she retired.  She recently founded KRUEGER+CO. Consulting, Inc. and serves as its CEO.  Its primary focus is to help companies develop creative marketing and sales strategies as well as evaluate and identify opportunities in product development pipelines, operations, logistics, and improve financial performance. 
 
Cheryl graduated from Bowling Green State University Summa Cum Laude in 1974 with a degree in Liberal Arts.  She began her career as a Buyer for Burdines Department Stores headquartered in Miami, Florida.  She also worked as a Vice President of Sales for Chaus, Inc. (a women’s clothing line) in New York City and at The Limited as a Merchandise Manager.  After founding Cheryl & Co. in 1981 with her college roommate Caryl Walker, Cheryl continued to work two jobs to fund the growth of her company until 1985 when Caryl was diagnosed with cancer and passed away in 1986. 
 
After joining Cheryl & Co. full time in 1986, she repositioned the company to include not only retail stores, but also developed a business gift division and became the first cookie company in the United States to start a catalog division in 1989.  In 1992, Cheryl & Co. created a foodservice division which started selling to the airlines.  The internet, which is the largest and fastest growing division, was launched in 1997. 
 
Cheryl & Co. products have been featured on Rachael Ray, Ellen DeGeneres, CNN, Dr. Phil, The Today Show, the Food Network, QVC, and numerous regional TV stations along with multiple radio and print features across the country. 
 
Cheryl currently serves as a Board member for Bob Evans Farms Inc., and is Chairperson of their Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee.  In 2012, Cheryl was appointed to The Ohio State University Board of Trustees. 
 
She also served on the Board of The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute Foundation as its Past President, was recently appointed to serve on The Ohio State University Medical Center Board, and was asked to serve as the Co-Chair for Project ONE, the upcoming capital campaign for the OSU Medical Center and James Cancer Hospital.  She also serves on The OSU Foundation Board.  She currently serves as Chairperson on the Marketing Committee for the Columbus Academy after serving 8 years as a member of its Board of Trustees as well as its President.  She was Chair for Columbus Academy’s last Capital Campaign.  She is a member of the World President’s Organization (WPO) and an Honorary Board Member for the Seal of Ohio Girl Scout Council.  Her past Board involvement includes the Columbus Chamber of Commerce, the Federal Reserve Board for District 4, The OSU 4-H Foundation Board, and The OSU Human Ecology Advisory Board. 
 
Cheryl is honored to have received awards from many prestigious organizations, from the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award to “Business Person of the Year” from The Ohio State University and the Business Integrity Award given by the Greater Columbus Better Business Bureau.  Following her induction into the Ohio Women’s Hall of Fame, she was selected as Female Entrepreneur of the Year for the United States by Working Woman Magazine.  She recently received the James Champion Award for her service to the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. 
 
She is extremely proud of the countless non-profit partnerships she has helped inspire including raising over $250,000 for the Tressel Family Fund, Cookies for A’s project, CHIPS Program – recognized by the state of Ohio as an outstanding example of private businesses partnering with public schools, student scholarship programs, military support programs, establishing relationships with the area food banks, and her trips to Appalachia each year with her church to help families in need.
 
As John Kasich (former Ohio Congressman, Fox News Show Host, and Governor Candidate for Ohio) was quoted in his book, Courage is Contagious:  “We need thousands more business owners with Cheryl Krueger’s courage, creativity, compassion, and sense of civic duty.” 

Cheryl L. Krueger
Awards & Accolades