The story of Ron Vachris is an aspirational one.
After starting his career in the 1980s as a forklift driver, he worked his way up to become Costco’s CEO and president, guiding the wholesaler through unprecedented growth.
When Vachris took over as CEO in January 2024, he became only the third person to hold the title in Costco’s 40-year history.
Founder Jim Sinegal ran the company from its start in 1983 to 2011 before passing the baton to Craig Jelinek, who was CEO from 2012 to January 1, 2024.
Under Vachris’ leadership, Costco has continued to grow — it reported a record $254 billion in revenue in 2024 — but it’s made recent headlines for other reasons, too. As diversity, equity, and inclusion programs come under attack from the Trump administration, Costco has refused to change its established DEI policies.
Here’s a look back at the CEO’s career trajectory.
Vachris declined a request for comment from Business Insider.
Ron Vachris moved to Arizona as a teen after his father, a utility lineman, relocated the family from New York.
Ron Vachris was born in Staten Island, New York, but moved to Arizona with his family as a teenager, South Sound Business reported.
Today, the CEO lives in Sammamish, Washington, a city on the outskirts of Seattle, where Costco was founded.
Vachris is a father to three adult kids — two sons and a daughter — with his wife, Kim. He also has one granddaughter, whom he has pictures of all over his cubicle.
His free time is family time, he told South Sound Business.
“I’m pretty transparent,” Vachris said. “It’s about my family and my career.”
In 1982, Vachris got a job with Costco’s predecessor while attending community college.
Vachris joined Costco’s predecessor, Price Club, as a part-time forklift driver during his winter break in 1982. He was studying business at Glendale Community College in Arizona at the time.
Price Club, which was founded in 1976 by Sol Price, was a wholesale supplier for small businesses. Customers paid a membership fee to access bargain prices, a strategy that remained when Price Club and Costco — then a fast-growing wholesale retailer that Sinegal founded in 1983 — joined forces and began operating as PriceCostco in 1993.
After getting the job, Vachris decided to build a career at the retailer.
He thought, “I’m learning more here in real life than I am at school about business,” he told South Sound Business in 2024.
He spent 28 years in warehouse management positions.
Over the next 28 years with the company, Vachris wore a lot of hats.
Growing within the company in the Arizona and Colorado regions and then rising to regional management roles in the Northeast, Vachris specialized in merchandising and operations, according to Costco’s website.
He worked in multiple different executive roles under then-CEO Craig Jelinek.
Jelinek joined Costco in 1984, when he got his start in operations. He was named executive vice president of merchandising in 2004, helped the store expand in Nevada and California, and oversaw areas of the company like e-commerce, food, and pharmacy.
He took over as CEO in 2012 and in less than two years, Costco’s share price had gone up by 30%.
During this time, Vachris served as the company’s senior vice president, general manager of the northwest region between 2010 and 2015, senior vice president of real estate development between 2015 and 2016, and executive vice president of merchandising from 2016 to January 2022.
In February 2022, Vachris was appointed president and chief operating officer.
The move signaled the company’s plans for succession.
From February 2022 until the end of Jelinek’s tenure as CEO in 2023, Vachris worked hand-in-hand with Jelinek in his role as president “and for many years before that,” Costco said in a statement.
The statement, released in October 2023, announced Vachris would take over Jelinek as CEO at the start of 2024. It added that Vachris’ ascension to the role was “the culmination of the long-standing succession plan” executed by Jelinek.
“I have total confidence in Ron and feel that we are fortunate as a Company to have an executive of his caliber to succeed me,” Jelinek wrote in the same statement.
Vachris took over as CEO on January 1, 2024.
Vachris became CEO of the company when Jelinek stepped down on January 1, 2024, just over two months after his succession plan was publicly announced.
Per SEC filings, during his last year in the role, Jelinek earned a total compensation of $16.8 million, Business Insider reported at the time. This was an increase from a compensation package of $9.9 million in 2022 and $8.8 million in 2021.
Jelinek’s pay was about 336 times what the median employee at Costco made in 2023, a lower CEO-to-worker compensation ratio than Walmart (933-to-1) and Target (680-to-1) that year.
In his first year as CEO, Vachris earned $12.2 million and the company continued to grow.
In 2024, Vachris received a compensation package of $12.2 million, according to a proxy statement the company filed with the SEC. It was a decrease from his predecessor’s and less than the average compensation for S&P 500 CEOs in 2023, which was $15.5 million.
Vachris’ pay ratio was 262 times what the median worker at Costco made that same year. The average S&P 500 CEO pay ratio in 2024 was 312 times the median employee.
In the 2024 fiscal year, Costco reported $254 billion in revenue compared to $242 billion in 2023 and $227 billion in 2022.
As customers’ concerns about grocery price hikes continue, the bulk-buying experience has remained popular and the company continues to grow — in 2024, sales per warehouse went up by 3% on average. The company has steadily opened around 30 new warehouses a year and plans to open 29 more during the 2025 fiscal year, Vachris said in December.
During Vachris’ tenure as CEO, Costco negotiated with unionized workers and raised wages.
On January 31, the company announced it would raise hourly pay for most workers to more than $30, with an extra $1 raise coming in each of the following two years. The raise came after union members voted to approve a nationwide Costco strike ahead of the January 31 contract expiration deadline.
During a quarterly earnings call in December, Vachris said the company was focused on reaching an agreement with the Costco union through a “fair and timely process.”
“We’re going to do everything we can to take care of those employees as we do all of our employees,” Vachris said, referring to the 18,000 Teamsters-affiliated workers.
Costco has recently come under fire for its commitment to DEI initiatives.
After returning to the White House in January, President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending DEI programs in the federal government, which prompted some companies to pull back on their DEI efforts, as well.
In January 2025, Costco shareholders overwhelmingly rejected a proposal by the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think-tank and Costco shareholder, suggesting that the company prepare a report outlining the potential risks of its diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
“We have always been purposefully nonpolitical, and a welcoming workforce has been integral to the company’s culture and values since its founding,” board chairman Tony James said.
Days after shareholders shut down the anti-DEI proposal, a group of 19 attorneys general led by Iowa’s Brenna Bird and Kansas’ Kris Kobach filed a letter to Vachris urging Costco to end its DEI practices, which it called “divisive and discriminatory.”
The attorneys general also gave the company a 30-day deadline to either announce the end of DEI initiatives or explain why not.
In response, Vachris said, “The overwhelming support of our shareholders’ vote really puts an answer to that question.”
As the February 28 deadline approaches, business leaders and consumers will be watching Vachris and the company’s response to the letter as companies continue to consider Costco’s example of standing with DEI.
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