01/22/2026
Farmer Brian is moving up in the blueberry world! Help us celebrate him and all his achievements by wishing him a Great tenure as the new CEO of MBG Marketing (the Michigan Blueberry Growers Association). We are all so very proud of him!
“My goal for MBG is Growth: Growth the right way. We grow through success. We grow through quality. We grow through growers making money. We grow through happy, successful employees."
This month, we are putting the spotlight on our new CEO, Brian Bocock. If you've been around MBG or Naturipe, you've probably seen him at some point. Brian truly worked his way up, starting back in his high school days sweeping the floors of the coolers at the Grand Junction warehouse in 1983.
After high school, Brian went to Georgia to work in operations with another familiar name, Derrin Wheeler. Brian worked for MBG through college, obtaining a bachelor's degree in business administration and economics from Louisiana Tech University, and he has been working for or around MBG ever since. Brian has been here for some of MBG's biggest changes like expansion into other states and partnerships with Naturipe, Hortifrut, and Munger Brothers, as well as helping with management decisions for the company for the last 37 years. Now as CEO, he is taking everything he has learned throughout his career and is applying it to his new position as CEO of MBG.
As CEO, Brian says his primary goal now is really motivating the team, working with them to make sure we have open communication in the workplace and with growers, and making sure work satisfaction is as high as it can be. "It's an open door policy, means if my door is open, I literally mean you can walk in and have a conversation with me. I will set my things down because there's nothing more important to me at that moment than an employee walking in here and having a conversation with me. And I mean that."
Brian knows that "the berry industry is changing at rocket speed." And he believes we can keep up. "I think we've got an A1 team in Berry Blue, and we've got to give them the time to get the right varieties that are going to change the world. I mean literally change the world for our growers, MBG, Naturipe Farms, our customers, and ultimately for our consumers. If we can get that accomplished in the next two to eight years, that's the game, that's a hundred percent the game."
Brian also hopes that MBG can preserve people's ability to provide and get started in this industry in the future like his family did. "One thing is I hope we don't lose is the family farm over the next 10 years. I hope we can still provide a platform where the family farm is still very viable 10, 15, 20, 30 years from now. I wouldn't be involved in this thing at all if my Dad didn't start with a 5-acre blueberry farm. It changed my life and I hope there will be opportunities for small family farms to continue changing their kids’ lives."
We thank Brian for taking on the role of CEO last November. We know that with Brian leading, we won't be growing because of risky bets, but because of a belief in strong fundamentals, patient steps, investments in ourselves and employees, and solid foundational bricks that build toward growth.
