Greg Ubert Named Finalist for CEO of the Year

Crimson Cup Founder and President Greg Ubert has been named a finalist for CEO of the Year in Columbus CEO magazine’s eighth annual CEO of the Year Awards. Greg was recognized as a finalist for the best CEO of a small, for-profit enterprise. Awards were presented to winners and finalists on December 12 at the Ohio Statehouse Atrium in Columbus.

“As a local business owner for the past 27 years, I feel humbled to receive this recognition,” Greg said. “I am honored that my fellow central Ohio business leaders chose me as a finalist for this award.”

Columbus CEO and Capital University have partnered since 2011 to examine current business climates in central Ohio. The Capital University School of Management and Leadership sent the 2018 Central Ohio CEO Survey to nearly 4,000 local organizational leaders, asking about their economic outlook, perceptions of the area and leadership trends.  The surveys also invited votes for the best large and small for-profit and nonprofit CEOs in the region.

Today, Crimson Cup is a leading coffee roaster, recognized by specialty coffee’s flagship publication Roast magazine as the 2016 Macro Roaster of the Year. Its coffees regularly win taste tests, high rankings from independent coffee reviewers, and trophies in competitions including the Good Food Awards, the Golden Bean North America roasting awards and America’s Best Espresso competitions.

The coffee roasting and training business has grown from Greg’s start with a tiny coffee roaster in a one-room office. With little business experience – and none in the coffee industry – he learned coffee roasting from the grounds up, without any formal training. From the start, his vision focused on providing the best-tasting coffee and coffeehouse products to customers while creating a supply chain of mutual benefit with growers and suppliers.

After he saw that some coffee house customers were struggling, he studied their operations and developed a service platform called “7 Steps to Coffee Shop Startup Success.” The program offered a unique proposition: Crimson Cup would teach entrepreneurs how to open coffee houses and help them stay in business. In 2003, he published 7 Steps for Success: A Common-Sense Guide to Succeed in Specialty Coffee. This book and Crimson Cup’s coffee shop franchise alternative program have put more than 300 independent coffee businesses in 30 states, Guam and Bangladesh on the road to success.

Engaged in the central Ohio community, Greg sits on the Board of Directors for the Columbus Chamber of Commerce and Cancer Support Community Central Ohio.