Greg Robeson
Oregon Bounty Manager
Greg Robeson was born for this job. A fifth-generation Oregonian who grew up in Central Oregon, food was always part of his recreation, whether hunting for wild asparagus, baking with his mom, or cooking family meals to avoid doing farm chores (yep, that’s right, Greg used to live on a pig farm). In college, full menus from the makeshift kitchen in his dorm room became somewhat of a post-midnight legend.
In the mid-1980s, Greg’s work in public relations and marketing and penchant for volunteering introduced him to the pioneers of the Oregon wine industry and the leaders of Portland’s culinary evolution. At the time, the concept of fresh-from-the-farm cooking (led by another guy named Greg – Higgins) was just being planted. Working with some of Portland’s top chefs as clients and through volunteer projects, Greg watched and learned. It helped hone his passion for food with some actual cooking skills. Today, he cooks nightly for his wife Kelli and two year-old son Milo (who already has his own chef jacket and toque).
Of all the pro bono work he’s done, Greg’s proudest moment was convincing Alice Waters to come to Portland for a fundraiser to build a vegetable garden at an inner northeast Portland school.
In addition to the Oregon Bounty project, which consumes half of his year, Greg is president of Robeson Communications, a firm providing a full range of advertising and marketing services to clients in the Pacific Northwest. His culinary clients have included Archery Summit Winery, Carlton Farms, Domaine Serene Winery, Henry Weinhard’s, Oregon Dungeness Crab Commission, and Seafood Oregon.
If he can be allowed to brag a bit, in 2006 Greg’s work on behalf of Oregon Bounty was recognized with PRSA’s highest national honor, the Silver Anvil. Then again, he’d just as soon be thinking about what to make for dinner tonight.
