CEO of Sonoma County’s Traditional Medicinals shies away from honor. Others say his community leadership award is a ‘no brainer’

“I feel like getting a community award is not about me,” admits herbal tea company executive Blair Kellison. “But is about all of us. It’s like being a CEO where you are the tip of a spear, but a very long spear with a lot of people on it.”

Presented with Naturally North Bay’s People+Community Award on Thursday, Kellison is a somewhat reluctant recipient. But he acknowledges, “I think the awards you get from your peers are the most meaningful.”

Even though the 61-year-old CEO of Sebastopol’s Traditional Medicinals is humble and modest, he is also a go-getter, an innovator and a man with a vision that goes well beyond the confines of his company. Kellison is also about building community, which is in large part why he has earned this honor, according to the director of the regional natural food procedures’ group.

“Blair has contributed so much to our community with his leadership and passion for natural products. He has helped and mentored so many people,” said Carolyn Stark, executive director of the nonprofit. “His passion is for compassionate leadership. He is a real prince in our industry and is so beloved. To honor him with the first community award was a no brainer.”

Making a difference

A brand manager for Nestle Foods earlier on his in career, Kellison joined Traditional Medicinals as CEO in 2008.

The company's website says, “We’re the leading seller of wellness tea in the U.S. and the pioneer of the wellness tea category in the U.S. and Canada. Traditional Medicinals is an independent company that embraces sustainability, ingredient purity, and social and environmental activism.”

It is also B Corporation and California Certified Green Business and has seen the natural food industry continues to grow.

“I think we need to think bigger of ourselves,” Kellison said. “We are not the alternatives to Nestle and Coke, we are the future of the food industry and we should act that way and present ourselves that way.”

Expanding his vision

It wasn’t long after taking the helm of Traditional Medicinals that Kellison took a broader interest in Sonoma County which at the time in the depths of recession, with the housing market tanking in 2008 and the economy rapidly spiraling downward.

In 2011, the Santa Rosa Chamber of Commerce led the effort called BEST, or Building Economic Success Together. It asked Traditional Medicinals and other companies to chip in $5,000 for five consecutive years. Kellison did.

Stark came into the picture when she was hired as BEST’s executive director.

At the end of five years of BEST’s support, Kellison saw the need to keep the organization going, which eventually led to the creation of the nonprofit North Bay Food Industry Group.

Others being asked to contribute to launch the organization didn’t share Kellison’s vision. He remembers one CEO in the county asking what he was going to get for his ongoing financial contribution.

“Nothing” was Kellison’s answer.

But in reality, though, was the money was an investment in the overall future of the local natural food industry, and in the county itself.

“You only get what you give. I think there is a lot more truth to that than people realize,” Kellison said.

When he first brought the CEOs together to start what would become North Bay Food Industry Group he didn’t have an agenda for that initial meeting. He simply thought all of these leaders ought to get to know one another. Some had never met.

Kellison didn’t want Traditional Medicinals to operate in a silo, nor anyone else to either. He believes collaboration as an industry is the best approach.

“Cooperation trumps competition” is his motto.