Biography

Garry O. Ridge
President and CEO
WD-40 Company
San Diego, California

Garry's Passion

Garry's passion about learning is driven from his personal experience of working in an environment where learning was not encouraged or sought out. As Garry recalls, "I knew we as a team could be better, but when looking into the eyes of my employees, I didn't see the hunger. I took a hard line approach and starting asking tough questions, such as, 'what kind of environment would help feed your hunger?' My employees were direct and honest, 'give me an environment where I can learn, be challenged, and rewarded for taking a risk.' So, I did just that, I set out to create a learning environment.

Today, Garry has the desire to continue with his learnings by sharing them with others. Garry says, "change is difficult, and as I was going through this transitional period, it would have been helpful to have a big brother/sister who could have provided additional insights. Today, knowing others will want to create a learning environment, I would like help and support this by sharing my learnings.