David H. Murdock
The visionary behind NCRC, David H. Murdock, is chairman and sole owner of Dole Food Company, Inc., a Fortune 500 company, and the world’s largest producer of high-quality fresh fruit, vegetables and cut flowers. Mr. Murdock is also chairman and sole owner of Castle & Cooke, Inc., a company with business activities that include the development and ownership of real estate, leasing of transportation equipment and manufacturing of brick. His combined companies employ more than 68,000 people in over 90 countries and rank as one of the largest privately held entities in the United States.
Mr. Murdock has been a long-term advocate of healthy eating and physical activity. He organized the collaborative efforts of medical and nutrition experts at Mayo Clinic, University of California, Los Angeles and Dole Food Company, Inc. to write the Encyclopedia of Foods: A Guide to Healthy Nutrition. This 500-page book is the definitive guide to a healthier lifestyle through improved nutrition, exercise and disease prevention. Mr. Murdock established the Dole Nutrition Institute and its hallmark program called “Feed the World with Knowledge.” The Institute focuses on education and research regarding the potential of a plant-based diet to promote health and prevent disease. In July 2006, a wellness complex across the street from Dole worldwide headquarters opened in Westlake Village, California. The complex is a Four Seasons Hotel & Spa and houses the California WellBeing Institute, which includes a healthy lifestyle teaching center, medical facilities with complete diagnostic capabilities and a television production studio.
Mr. Murdock is active in civic affairs and very supportive of educational, medical and cultural programs, particularly within the communities in which he lives and works. One such program, which was completed in 2005, is Casa de Esperanza in Ventura County, California. It is a 45-unit transitional housing project for mentally disordered persons that Mr. Murdock donated to the County of Ventura upon completion. Most recently, Mr. Murdock established three endowed professorships at North Carolina State University in order to recruit high-caliber faculty involved in food and nutrition research.
Mr. Murdock has been a Regent’s Professor of Creativity in Business at UCLA’s Andersen Graduate School of Management. He is the recipient of an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from Pepperdine University and honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters degrees from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and Hawaii Loa College.
His hobbies include reading, the arts, poetry and horticulture. He is a breeder of more than 200 prized Arabian horses, has an orchid collection consisting of more than 16,500 plants, and is an avid art and antique furniture collector.
Mr. Murdock resides in California with residences in New York, Kannapolis, North Carolina and Lanai, Hawaii. He has a son who is also active with Castle & Cooke.