Russell McCall

When Russell McCall was 16 he went to work for a cheese shop in Greenwich, Conn., not far from his family’s home in Westport. He ended up staying for eight years, learning the business well enough to open his own 1,000-square-foot cheese shop in Atlanta, Ga., with some money borrowed from his grandmother. It was 1967 and he was in graduate school at Emory University but not overly consumed by his studies. After receiving his MBA, he would return to quiz his professors from time to time when business ebbed or he needed to make strategic decisions.

“They were wonderful to me,” he recalls.

Their valuable advice helped him to expand to five stores in Atlanta. A few years later he sold all the stores and in 1975 went into the wholesale business. At first the company was called Atlanta Foods International, specializing in fine European cheese and anything that went with it—crackers, olives, olive oil, pasta. From supplying little shops, he advanced to stocking the cheese department for grocery store chains.

To reflect the company’s reach beyond Atlanta, he changed the name to Gourmet Foods International. Saying he’s “sort of retired,” he still owns the business but trusts his team to manage it.

A few decades ago, McCall got a wine license and also started a wholesale wine company. He no longer owns it, but he’s still in the wine business, with a winery on the North Fork of Long Island. Called McCall Wines, it produces about 5,000 cases a year, including unoaked chardonnay, pinot noir, and cabernet franc.

“You can tell I like starting things,” he says.