The CSUMB Alumni Owned Business directory highlights successful CSUMB alumni who are business owners and entrepreneurs.

Western Sky Produce is a sales and marketing company that sources and sells fresh produce to customers across the U.S.

It was started by friends and CSUMB alums Wyatt Meiggs (’08) and Phillip Giles (’14) two years ago in March 2020, right at the start of the pandemic shut-down.

That timing created issues with freight and trucking shortages. But ironically, the pandemic may have helped give their company a boost as traditional supply chains became strained and customers began looking elsewhere for produce.

“Retailers couldn’t get enough product,” Meiggs told Organic Produce Network last year.

They are focused on smaller chains, mostly in the Northeast, supplying both conventional and organic produce.

They describe themselves as produce brokers who oversee sales and day-to-day operations, handling certain accounts, managing several employees, and finances.

While at CSUMB, both Meiggs and Giles were leaders of an ag club known as FLOWA. And they still use lessons and skills they learned from their college years, including networking, work ethic, and the fundamentals of accounting.

“Our degrees have more meaning as CSUMB continues to grow and produce talented and successful leaders,” Meiggs said.

In the last year they have grown their business. They moved the company out of their houses and into an office in the hills of Ryan Ranch, appointed with landscape and agriculture paintings by Warren Chang and Andrea Johnson. They added four new employees including other CSUMB alumni.

“We have a great talent pool locally in CSUMB,” Meiggs continued. “Talent is extremely important to our organization. Without talent we would not be as successful as we are today.”

They chose their name, Western Sky Produce, as a metaphor gleaned from the local geography and the ag industry.

“For produce companies, the day starts at sunrise and ends at sundown,” Giles said. “The early morning sunrise represents a new day with new opportunities. The golden sunset is the reward you get after a hard days work. Getting to watch these every day is quite a treat.”

Visit the CSUMB Alumni Owned Business directory for more on CSUMB alumni who are business owners and entrepreneurs.

The CSUMB Alumni Work Here directory (coming soon) will demonstrate the prevalence of CSUMB grads in the tri-county workforce.