Traditional Medicinals CEO Blair Kellison departs the company

Blair Kellison, CEO of Sebastopol-based Traditional Medicinals since 2008, has left his position, the Business Journal has learned.

An automatic reply to Kellison’s company e-mail address stated: “After 14 amazing and wonderful years I left Traditional Medicinals on March 31, 2022.  No good time or easy time to leave after 14 years but with Covid largely behind us and TM doing extremely well, now felt like the right time.  I am so grateful for these past 14 wonderful years of my career!”

It isn’t entirely clear what Kellison plans to do next. He is slated to speak at Marin Sonoma Impact Ventures’ inaugural in-person conference at Dominican University on May 17, according to Zachary Kushel, founder and managing partner of MSIV.

On Tuesday, the company confirmed Gary Gatton has taken over as CEO. He joined the company in 2013 as chief customer officer. Jamie Horst, chief purpose officer at Traditional Medicinals, stated Gatton was promoted to the CEO position effective April 1.

Before joining Traditional Medicinals, Gatton oversaw Kellogg’s global Walmart business, leading sales for Canada. He has also held several positions in sales for both Procter & Gamble and Pillsbury. Gatton has a bachelor’s degree in finance from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana, according to the Traditional Medicinals’ website.

The Business Journal profiled Kellison in its April 18 issue. He gave no indication during the interview that he had left his CEO post at Traditional Medicinals. On April 7, he was honored with a People+Community Award by the regional natural foods trade association, Naturally North Bay, formerly known as the Food Industry Group.

When Kellison joined the company, which sells nearly 60 varieties of medicinal herbal teas and products, he took over as the first non-founder CEO of the company, according to his LinkedIn bio.

“It has been my honor to take on this responsibility and to be the steward of the 34 years of hard work that came before me,” he wrote. “With the support of the co-founder, Drake Sadler, and our board, we greatly expanded the talent pool at the company, bringing in folks from larger CPG (consumer packaged goods) companies … Together, with our existing talent base, we've managed the company through the greatest growth period in its history.”

Here is Kellison’s take on the company in this 2018 video:

Kellison began his career as a CPA at Ernst & Young, where he worked for eight years before moving into the food and natural products space. Over the years, he has worked for Nestle, Petaluma-based Fantastic Foods and Tiburon-based Natural Snacks LLC. Kellison also served for five years as president of Alternative Medicine Magazine, according to his LinkedIn profile.

This story updates Gary Gatton’s start date as CEO. Please check back for further updates.