Inside the career of Costco CEO Craig Jelinek, who's worked with the warehouse club almost since its birth (COST)
- Costco CEO Craig Jelinek has been with the company since 1984.
- He largely worked his way up through the retailer's operations division.
- Jelinek succeeded Costco co-founder Jim Sinegal as CEO in 2012.
Costco CEO Craig Jelinek has been with the warehouse chain since almost the beginning.
The first-ever club bearing the name Costco opened in 1983. Price Club, the company that it eventually merged with, opened in 1976. Jelinek joined Costco in 1984, just months after the first Costco opened. But even then, the longtime retail executive had decades of experience under his belt.
The Puget Sound Business Journal reported that, as of 2018, Jelinek's annual base salary was $800,000, while he also earned a $97,000 bonus, around $6.3 million in stock awards, and $214,000 in pension, retirement contributions, life insurance, and company car use.
Here's a look inside Jelinek's career:
Jelinek was born in 1952 and grew up in the Los Angeles area.
Source: Marquis Who's Who
Jelinek's dad helped build B-1 and B-70 bomber planes for a living. The CEO later told the Seattle Times that his father dissuaded him from going into the aircraft business.
Source: The Seattle Times
The reason? Sales "always depended on the Democrats or the Republicans," and shifted with every new political regime change, Jelinek told the Seattle Times.
Source: The Seattle Times
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