Yoke’s Picks Bole To Lead Food Chain Chief Financial Officer Gets Job Formerly Held By Founder

Charles Yoke is stepping down - again - as chief executive officer of the company he founded in 1964, making way for his chief financial officer to take over.

John Bole, 40, stepped into the role of CEO of Yoke’s Washington Foods Inc. Monday and will work closely with Yoke during the transitional period. Yoke will stay on as chairman of the board.

“I’m going to be monitoring very carefully the progress of the company,” Yoke said.

Yoke founded the company which runs the chain of eight employee-owned Yoke’s Pac ‘N Save supermarkets in Eastern Washington and North Idaho.

Yoke retired in 1990, when employees bought the company through an employee stock ownership plan. Though Yoke remained chairman of the board of trustees, Dennis Castoldi took over as CEO.

Yoke emerged from retirement in August 1996 when Castoldi resigned. Now Yoke is retiring again, handing the reins to Bole.

“I’ve found a person who I think will do very well,” Yoke said. “Really his strength is with his people skills.”

Bole has a diverse background. He’s a certified public accountant, a businessman and a lawyer. A graduate of the University of Southern California, he received an MBA from California State University/Long Beach and a law degree from Gonzaga Law School.

He became chief financial officer of Yoke’s in January 1997, after holding the same position at accounting firm Ernst and Young’s Seattle office and Seattle art supply wholesaler Daniel Smith Inc.

Yoke’s board of trustees selected Bole from among four candidates.

“He’s fantastic,” Caroline Geiger, Yoke’s director of human resources, said of Bole. “He is very well-received by our employees. He’s very forthright.”

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