Industry vet named COO of The Cannery Row Company

Bret Thorn

Foodservice industry veteran William Grimm has been named chief operating officer of The Cannery Row Company, a property development firm that operates more than 30 restaurants on California's Monterey Peninsula, including fine-dining landmark The Sardine Factory.

Previously the company’s executive vice president of real estate leasing and acquisitions, Grimm joined Cannery Row in October 2001. Before that he was vice president of global development for Gloria Jean’s Coffee Inc. He also was vice president of franchise sales for worldwide development at California Pizza Kitchen Restaurants Inc., as well as national director of franchise sales for non-traditional development for Baskin-Robbins and Dunkin’ Donuts.

Grimm has served on the board of directors of Mission Community Hospital in Los Angeles, where he was briefly interim chief executive officer. He was the 2004 board chair of the Monterey Peninsula Chamber of Commerce, and was also chair of its government affairs committee.

Grimm has a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and pursued a master’s of business administration degree at Loyola University in Chicago.

The Cannery Row Company, founded in 1976, operates more than one million square feet of commercial, industrial and retail development property in the Monterey Peninsula area and in northern California.