Leonard Caric

Len Caric along with his long-time business partner Jim Rudolph, purchased the George J. Howe Company in December 2021. The Howe Company sells candy, nuts and coffee throughout 14 states through grocery retailers and the hospitality industry. Len is CEO. Len lead the acquisition of two other companies into the George J. Howe Company, Mister Snacks and most recently the roasting plant of O’Neill Coffee. These are Len’s third, fourth and fifth businesses that he searched and acquired in his career. In addition, Len and Jim open Smashed Waffles, a retail fast casual restaurant in the Oakland section of Pittsburgh. The goal is to prove the concept and then to franchise.

Len led a group of investors in early 2014 to purchased Uncle Charley’s Sausage Company, a regional fresh sausage company located in Vandergrift, PA serving seven states. Len was President and Chief Executive Officer. Len successfully sold the business to a strategic buyer, Village Gourmet LLC, in September 2020.

Len was President of McKnight Cylinder in Ruffs Dale, PA. He, along with an investor group purchased the company in 1998 and sold the business to AmeriGas. In 2010, Len co-founded AmericanArk Films with Mark Fallon. Len is an Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurship at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business. Len was the Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of The Women and Girls’ Foundation and served on the Board of Directors of The Blackburn Center and the North American Meat Institute.

Len received a BA degree in accounting from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN and earned his Master in Industrial Administration degree with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from Carnegie Mellon University’s Graduate School of Industrial Administration now known as the Tepper School of Business.