Annie Chun is an American entrepreneur. She is the founder of Annie Chun's, an Asian food brand that sold to CJ Foods in 2009, and gimMe Seaweed.

Early life

Annie Chun was born and raised in central

Seoul Seoul, officially Seoul Special Metropolitan City, is the capital city, capital and largest city of South Korea. The broader Seoul Metropolitan Area, encompassing Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon, emerged as the world's List of cities b ...

. In the late 1970s, Chun immigrated to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

, where her family owned a Korean restaurant.

Career

In 1991, Chun began selling homemade Asian-inspired sauces at

farmers' markets A farmers' market (or farmers market according to the AP stylebook, also farmer's market in the Cambridge Dictionary) is a physical retail marketplace intended to sell foods directly by farmers to consumers. Farmers' markets may be indoors or ...

Marin County Marin County ( ) is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is ac ...

. In 1992, she founded Annie Chun's Gourmet Foods with Stephen "Steve" Broad, her husband. In 2005, CJ Foods, a subsidiary of

CJ CheilJedang CJ CheilJedang Corporation () is a South Korean international food company based in Seoul that manufactures food ingredients, ambient, frozen and chilled packaged food products, pharmaceuticals and biotechnology. Its brands include Beksul, , Go ...

, acquired a 70% stake in Annie Chun's for

US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...

6.1 million. Annie Chun's offers Asian-style food products, including noodles, soups, sauces and snacks. In 2009, Annie Chun's was sold to CJ Foods. In 2012, Chun and Broad founded gimMe Health Foods, best known for the gimMe Seaweed product. As of May 2024, it is the top-selling seaweed snack on

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

Personal life

With Steve Broad, Chun has two children: one son and one daughter.

Recognition

In 2024, Chun was included on '' Inc.'''s Female Founders 250 list.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chun, Annie Living people Year of birth missing (living people) 20th-century South Korean businesspeople 21st-century South Korean businesspeople 20th-century American businesspeople 21st-century American businesspeople 20th-century American businesswomen 21st-century American businesswomen South Korean women in business American women in business Businesspeople from Seoul South Korean emigrants to the United States Businesspeople from San Francisco