Bruce Taylor
Taylor Farms, 150 Main St., Salinas, (877) 323-7374, taylorfarms.com
Bruce Taylor’s vision, as CEO of Taylor Farms, is not just about modernizing the agriculture business: It’s about the Salad Bowl of the World. The five-story Taylor Farms headquarters in Oldtown Salinas has been a major force in redeveloping and reenergizing the downtown. “The Taylor Building changed everything,” Dubber’s Old Town Bar and Grill owner Justin Saunders recently told the Weekly. “When Bruce and his team came down here, they brought with them a couple hundred employees and a bunch of great energy. That’s when you really started to see the transformation.” But Taylor’s commitment to giving back to the community also extends beyond that five-store hub: Taylor Farms is a major contributor to the Blue Zones Project, bringing the health initiative to Monterey County. They donated to the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System to fund its Gonzales clinic for easier access to health care. They donated to Hartnell College to build its STEM center to support careers in ag technology. In short: Taylor sees his business as part of an ecosystem, and he’s invested in its entirety.