Joseph Miles Reiter (born circa 1950) is an American farmer and

entrepreneur Entrepreneurship is the creation or extraction of economic value in ways that generally entail beyond the minimal amount of risk (assumed by a traditional business), and potentially involving values besides simply economic ones. An entreprene ...

, and the former

CEO A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

Driscoll's Driscoll's, Inc. is a California-based seller of fresh strawberries and other berries. It is a fourth-generation family business that has been in the Reiter and Driscoll families since the late 1800s. In 2017, it controlled roughly one-third of ...

, Inc., the world's largest berry company.

Biography

Miles Reiter is the grandson of Joseph "Ed" Reiter, co-founder along with R.O. Driscoll of the

berry company, with a networth of 28 Billion dollars . The Reiter family owns around 70 percent of the company, which (aside from berry production) develops and licenses the fruits’ proprietary breeds. Following the family tradition, after graduation from

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, he became a strawberry farmer in around 1970 in the Pajaro Valley, and became the chairman of Driscoll's in 1998, becoming

in 2000. Reiter works at Driscoll's corporate office in

Watsonville Watsonville is a city in Santa Cruz County, California, in the Monterey Bay Area of the Central Coast of California. The population was 52,590 at the 2020 census. Predominantly Latino and Democratic, Watsonville is a self-designated sanctua ...

, California at the mouth of the Pajaro Valley. His daughter, Brie Reiter Smith, is following family tradition, farming blueberries in Chile, and his son is farming strawberries in Santa Maria, California. Under Reiter's stewardship, Driscoll's has become the largest berry supplier in the United States. He has served as chairman of the board of the California Strawberry Commission and of the Community Foundation of Santa Cruz County. He serves on the boards of the Produce Marketing Association (PMA) and has been a director of the Western Growers Association since November 2006. He served as a director of Produce Marketing Association from October 2008 to October 2011. In April 2015, Reiter announced that Kevin Murphy, the company's then president and COO, would assume the CEO role. J. Miles Reiter continues as chairman of the board. In November 2018, Reiter reassumed the position of CEO. In October 2023, Driscolls Board of Directors announced Soren Bjorn would elevate to the CEO position and succeed Reiter who is set to retire in January 2024.

Innovations and awards

Reiter worked to improve strawberry varieties, expanding on the original Sweet Briar strawberries variety. Additional innovations in the industry have resulted in year-round production of fruit, making a steady presence of fruit in the supermarkets. In 2007, Reiter put a

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified land conservation organization called a "land trust", or a governmental (muni ...

on 103 acres of farmland to help save the Pajaro Valley from citification.

Contributions

Reiter has spoken publicly about the need for groundwater reform in California agriculture. He has written an editorial statement published in 2015. In addition, Reiter plays an active role in support of CERES.

Biography

Innovations and awards

Contributions

References

Further reading