Member Spotlight
NAME
GREG MOORE
TITLE
CEO, PRESIDENT
AND CO-OWNER
WHEN WAS YOUR COMPANY
FOUNDED AND HOW?
My mother, Lorraine Moore, a past
president of EDmarket, founded our
furniture division (previously called
Balt) in 1985. She purchased BestRite,
which was originally a division of
American Desk in the 1950s. In
1990, we incorporated Vanerum into
our MooreCo umbrella that today in-
cludes MooreCo Essentials, MooreCo
Contract, and Vanerum North
America.
HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN
THE EDUCATIONAL PRODUCTS
BUSINESS?
My mother began her work at Royal
Seating, and she used me as a model
for a new children’s chair, the Royal
Prema chair, when I was 5. Sadly, I
was not compensated for my work as a
child model, despite the embarrassing
sailor suit (pictured above). Later I
worked on the shop floor in produc-
tion and shipping, earning my stripes
of respect so to speak, and learning the
4 essentials | winter 2019
COMPANY
MOORECO
YEARS IN THE EDUCATION
BUSINESS
29
EDMARKET LEADERSHIP POSITION
CHAIR OF THE BOARD
business from the ground up. It was an
invaluable educational experience.
I have been involved with the compa-
ny “officially” since 1990 when I joined
BestRite after college. However, having
grown up in the business, it has felt as
if I have lived my whole life time within
the educational industry. My mother
brought her work home with her as
literally her best friends were from the
industry, so I grew up in education.
WHAT MAKES YOUR
COMPANY UNIQUE?
While I am proud of many things that
make our company successful, I am
proudest of our ability to continue the
innovative culture that my mother
founded the company upon years ago.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST
ABOUT THE EDUCATIONAL
PRODUCTS INDUSTRY?
I have always loved the people in our
industry, first and foremost. However,
what I love intrinsically about what
we do is we service children. We have
an ability in our industry to impact
the lives of children across America
through educational environments.
Having struggled myself in a non-pro-
gressive school setting as a student,
makes our mission in this industry very
personal for me.
WHAT ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
In terms of the association, I am incredi-
bly proud to have been part of the group
of industry leaders who created the
EDspaces event as it exists today. There
were a handful of us who really pressed
for this event to change into what it is
today, many of them friends of mine.
While it ranks as a primetime event in
its current form, there was a time where
making this event what it is today was
considered a high-risk investment.
As far as my career, I am most proud
of providing a very profitable exit to my
family from the family business, and
then years later buying out my private
equity partners. The ending of this
story has yet to be written and I still
have a tremendous amount of work to
do before all is said and done.