Neil Golub, Executive Chairman of the Board of Price Chopper Supermarkets, is a career supermarket executive whose family pioneered supermarketing in 1932. Since his early exposure to the business, which included transporting of beef to the stores with his father and company co-founder, Bill Golub, he has since charted his own unique path, and worked in nearly every employment position. From bagger to store manager to zone manager to vice president, president, chief operating and executive officer and, ultimately, executive chairman of the board, Neil has grown up in the business. His career has influenced a lion’s share of the company’s growth, as well as the evolution of the industry itself.

A strong proponent of succession planning, he continues to guide the next generation of company leaders, defining a “family in business” as one that prioritizes family harmony and the health and growth of the business above the wealth and status of the family. 

Neil completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan and Michigan State University and has a master’s degree from Cornell University and an honorary doctorate in public service from Russell Sage College. He currently serves as a Life Trustee on the Board of Union College in Schenectady, NY and through his generosity, has a named student housing structure on campus. 

In addition to his reputation as a national leader in the retail food industry, Neil is recognized as a humanitarian and public servant in his community, throughout upstate New York and across the entire industry. He and his wife, Jane, are dedicated philanthropists focusing many of their financial contributions within the Healthcare industry.

For the past 34 years, Neil has served as a national vice president for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) and a co-anchor of the Jerry Lewis telethon in New York’s Capital Region. He has also served on the Ellis Hospital board of directors and foundation, chairing numerous successful capital campaigns. Additionally, he served as chairman for Bellevue Women’s Hospital for six years and worked tirelessly to ensure the incorporation of its unique services for women into Ellis Medicine, the community’s new consolidated health care system. Ellis Medicine now boasts a state-of-the-art Breast & Heart Health Center, underwritten by Neil and Jane. Neil’s advocacy for heart health extends from the Go Red for Women campaign to the rallying together of regional health institutions and the community in support of the American Heart Association’s mission and annual fundraising gala to the creation of the State’s only heart health assessment center, which has been lauded by the NYS Commissioner of Health for its purpose. 

The family’s philanthropy is extensive. From the United Way to the Special Olympics to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, the Golubs put the needs of the community first. In particular, Neil has dedicated the last 22 years to the Double H Ranch, a Serious Fun camp funded by Paul Newman for children and families dealing with life-threatening illnesses. Neil’s leadership and willingness to step in as chairman during a particularly trying time for the camp is often credited with resurrecting the camp and setting it on the path to its current success. 

Since the late 1980s, Neil and Jane have worked with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to help mitigate prejudice in schools nationwide through a program called “A World of Difference.” They were also the catalysts for a related anti-bullying campaign called “Be an Ally” and partnered with a CBS affiliate and ADL to bring heightened awareness of the issue to the community. In 1984 and 1986, Jane and Neil Golub, respectively, became the first couple ever to be honored with the ADL Americanism Award for Community Service.  

Neil has received many local and national honors, among them the Food Marketing Institute’s coveted Sidney R. Rabb Award, the highest attainable recognition from his peers for lifelong support and contributions to the supermarket industry, the New York State Gold Medal for Community Service, the ADL’s National Centennial Citizenship Award, and the University at Albany’s Citizen Laureate Award.

In 2012, Neil adopted The Schenectady Museum as it strategized for the future, reinventing itself as MiSci (The Museum of Innovation and Science). He also led the United Way of the Greater Capital Region’s efforts to overhaul and reinvigorate its community fundraising platform. 

Among Neil’s most notable civic accomplishments is the revitalization of downtown Schenectady. After decades of significant layoffs and the exodus of large companies that left his hometown struggling and depressed, Neil stepped forward to form and lead “Schenectady 2000,” a movement dedicated to the city’s rebirth. His vision sparked legislation that in 1998 created the Schenectady County Metroplex Development Authority, an economic development engine fueled by the dedication of one half of one percent of county sales tax. The resulting revenue stream, which amounts to approximately $10 million per year, provides the economic resources and strategic urban planning expertise that has given rise to the city’s renaissance and continues to spark development and job creation throughout the county. 

In 2010, Neil further demonstrated his commitment to Schenectady by relocating Price Chopper’s multimillion dollar headquarters to the new downtown area. The building is LEED Gold level certified and Neil has been lauded for “growing a green building on a brown field”. 

Price Chopper Supermarkets is one of the country’s leading and premiere food retailers, operating 135 stores in six states (New York, Vermont, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New Hampshire). The company and its executives don’t hesitate to make bold decisions in order to continue to meet customers’ needs and to evolve as a company. Neil was the driving force behind Market Bistro, the Golub Corporation’s concept store located in Latham, N.Y., launched in 2014, that offers a unique approach to providing today’s shoppers with access to more ready-to-eat meals, more than 15 quick-service dining options, and a full-service restaurant.  Many of the concepts introduced and tested at Market Bistro are being integrated into Price Chopper stores and into the stores being remodeled under the company’s new banner, Market 32.