Consumer >> CEO Interviews >> July 30, 2001
ROBERT P. STILLER is the President and CEO of Green Mountain Coffee
Roasters, Inc. a specialty coffee roaster based in Waterbury, Vermont.
Previous to his 20-year management of GMCR, Mr. Stiller co-founded
Robert Burton Associates, Ltd., in 1971, which introduced E-Z Wider
cigarette papers. During Mr. Stiller's tenure at Robert Burton
Associates, the 120-employee company was written up in The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes and other media across the
country for a variety of leading business practices and promotional
activities. When Robert Burton Associates was sold in 1980, the company
was selling 90 million E-Z Wider booklets per year (about enough 2-1/2
inch wide paper in one week's sales to stretch from New York City to
California) and had an estimated 25% of the cigarette paper market. He
hung the first Green Mountain Coffee Roasters shingle on a small caf in
Waitsfield, Vermont, in 1981. Today Green Mountain Coffee Roasters is
one of the nation's leading specialty coffee companies, with sales
revenue of more than $65 million, in fiscal year 2000, and annual growth
of 25%. Prior to starting up Robert Burton Associates and then Green
Mountain Coffee, Mr. Stiller was employed over a period of 10 years by
Stillman Manufacturing, a closely held family business that went public
in 1963 and was later acquired by Teledyne, Inc. He holds a BA from
Parsons College, Iowa, in Mathematics, Business Administration and
Accounting. He also spent three years at Syracuse University in
Industrial Engineering before transferring to Parsons in 1968. Profile
company?
Mr. Stiller: We started in 1981, so it's our 20th anniversary year this
year, which we are very excited about. We
