Remy Garson
Born on the Upper East Side of New York City, I am a New Yorker through and through. My father, Marc, born in Queens, was a superior athlete with a 40” vertical jump and an avid businessman and supply chain pioneer, establishing operations in Asia in the 1980s to import goods to the United States. My mother, Susan, was born in Brooklyn – an artist and performer, my mom was a familiar face in the city’s vibrant cabaret scene, dazzling audiences with her range of talent and producing the album “In this Life” in 1996. I have two younger twin brothers Darryn and Cole who will always be my best friends.
Born Entrepreneur
Every day I wake up inspired to live life and pursue my dreams. Always passionate for business, I founded by first company while attending the Horace Mann school in Riverdale, New York – an event promotion company that produced parties for high schoolers. At Cornell University, I launched my second business, Aurous Productions, producing 2 music festivals in Jersey City, New Jersey in 2006 – Liberty Jam and FreedomFest featuring Cheap Trick, George Clinton & The Parliament, Patti Smith and Los Lobos. I graduated from Cornell University in 2009.
The Road to Success is Paved with Failure
Always the entrepreneur, I jumped into my third business right out of college – an ambitious plan to develop 350-acres of land on a Native American reservation in California. Pursuing the dream brought me to Los Angeles where I lived for 3 years. Despite best efforts, the development project, named RISE, failed to come to fruition. I was both heartbroken and humbled by the experience, but I learned more in this failure than I ever did in success. From this, I grew to be a man and committed to work harder and smarter in the future. While I did not know it at the time, it was the blessing I needed most at that point in my life.
Love
In Brooklyn, on a warm summer night in June 2015, I met my future wife, Renata Black. I am forever grateful to her for the incredible impact she had on me and my family. Renata is my partner in every sense of the word. She is also my best friend, and we are each other’s teacher. I moved back to New York City to live with her in a small apartment on 15th Street and Fifth. Together, we launched her company EBY – a women’s empowerment brand that fuels microfinance, and revolutionized mine – a bold pivot of the family business I would soon take the lead on. Renata and I married on February 15, 2020 in a Cartagena, Colombia surrounded by family and friends.
Burning Man
Burning Man holds the most special of places in Renata and my hearts. As faithful “Burners”, we attend Burning Man every year and relish the moments to run free in the desert momentarily detached from the responsibilities of life to become our most inspired, creative and joyous selves. Over the years, we have developed a closeness with our community of friends and fellow Burners who transform the desert into an idyllic and ephemeral home flush with serendipity and harmony. Renata dazzles in magnificent outfits she designs herself and I drive us around the “Playa” in a custom-built trike art piece. In 2018, I proposed to Renata at Burning Man.
Metamorphosis
While the COVID19 pandemic transformed the world, so too did it set the stage for a personal and business transformation in my life. As the CEO of my family business, I seized on the opportunity to lead an aggressive pivot into medical and food service supplies to meet the desperate needs of the country. We leveraged our existing supply chain infrastructure to become the country’s leading importer of life-saving supplies, exponentially growing revenue and employee headcount in a single year. Today, Remcoda stands alone as the leading supply chain platform servicing the country’s most important food service and healthcare organizations with an extensive global sourcing operation, 8 domestic distribution centers, and an extensive product line found in thousands of businesses and retail doors across 5 continents. Remcoda is also leading the way on sustainability with its commitment to aid the country’s transition to 100% compostable and biodegradable disposables by the year 2030.
Philanthropy
Above all else, family and being a responsible citizen are my most important ideals. My greatest joy is working with my family every day, including my beautiful wife, Renata. My family is my source of inspiration. Renata and I hope to have a family of our own soon and we wish to help create a better world that our future children will proudly live in. Renata and I both serve the board of the 7Bar Foundation, committed to building a more equitable future through microfinance. By year’s end, Renata and my efforts will have empowered over 40,000 women and children out of poverty and into business via microfinance and entrepreneurship. While we are proud of this achievement, our work has just begun.
