Ron joined the CA Grocers Association as President/CEO in 2008 and is enjoying his seventeenth year with the Association. CGA is California’s largest grocery association and serves 250 retail members and over 150 suppliers. CGA’s diverse membership includes national grocery chains, independent operators, convenience stores, grocery manufacturers, suppliers and now online retailers. Ron oversees the association’s strategic direction and staff which manages departments in government relations, communications, and business conferences. He is also president to the association’s Educational Foundation, which funds scholarships to member employees and their family members.
Some highlights of Ron’s tenure at CGA include: 2020-21 Governor Newsom appointee to two important task forces: (1) The Covid Task Force on Economic Recovery and (2) CA’s State Community Vaccine Task Force, Defeat of Prop. 37 (mandatory GMO labeling for grocery retail); Passage of SB 270 (Nation’s first statewide plastic bag ban); Merger of the CA Independent Grocers Association in with CGA (2014), Merger of Retail Marketing Services in with Shopping Cart Corp, CGA’s for profit company (2015); appointment to the CA State University Board of Governors (2016) and the purchase of the CGA headquarters in 2015.
Just earlier this year, he was named in “Top CEO’s” in the Sacramento Business Journal and recognized by his alma mater, CSU Sacramento, as Most Distinguished Alumni 2025. Prior to coming to CGA, he was chief lobbyist for the CA Credit Union League. He left that position after 12 years to join the CA Grocers Association. Prior to joining the League, Ron worked at Littler, Mendelson, Fastiff and Tichy, the largest employment law firm in the nation and at the Sacramento District Attorney’s Office.
Ron Fong is a native of Sacramento. His grandfather immigrated to California in the 1930’s and established the family’s first grocery store in Carmichael in 1941. The family grew the business over the next 50 years before selling the stores in the early ‘90s. Ron served as corporate president of the family business for five years before attending and graduating from law school. Ron holds a bachelor of arts degree in organizational psychology from California State University, Sacramento and a juris doctorate degree from New College School of Law in San Francisco. Ron is married to his wife of twenty-six years, Carol, who is a licensed clinical counselor. Together, they are parents to Jaden, a second-year teacher in the bay area and graduate of Stanford University and Santa Clara University.