For interview requests, please contact Rouxbe media relations at pr@rouxbe.com. Thanks!
Spokespeople & Experts
Joe Girard
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
As CEO, Joe drives the strategic vision for the company, generates required resources, and helps attract the right people all with the goal of finding disruptive solutions to teaching the world how to cook better.
With 27 years of experience as a culinary professional and entrepreneur, Joe has developed expertise in operations, strategy and leadership for large-scale catering, culinary instruction, restaurants and hospitality, and transportation. He has founded and run three successful businesses over the past 25 years, leveraging both his talent for HR, strategic execution and technology, and his incredible passion for food, decision trees and design.
Prior to founding Rouxbe, Joe and Rouxbe co-founder Dawn Thomas owned and operated a specialized mobile film catering operation that they built from the ground up, serving more than 250,000 cast and crew members. In addition, Joe built an alternative-transportation consulting firm that provided strategic planning for bicycle commuting in urban areas.
Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder
As CEO, Joe drives the strategic vision for the company, generates required resources, and helps attract the right people all with the goal of finding disruptive solutions to teaching the world how to cook better.
With 27 years of experience as a culinary professional and entrepreneur, Joe has developed expertise in operations, strategy and leadership for large-scale catering, culinary instruction, restaurants and hospitality, and transportation. He has founded and run three successful businesses over the past 25 years, leveraging both his talent for HR, strategic execution and technology, and his incredible passion for food, decision trees and design.
Prior to founding Rouxbe, Joe and Rouxbe co-founder Dawn Thomas owned and operated a specialized mobile film catering operation that they built from the ground up, serving more than 250,000 cast and crew members. In addition, Joe built an alternative-transportation consulting firm that provided strategic planning for bicycle commuting in urban areas.
Dawn Thomas
Co-Founder and Head of Media Production
Dawn is a co-founder of Rouxbe, the online cooking school she created with Joe Girard, and a content guru with more than 25 years of professional food and beverage experience. She is passionate about understanding food: where it comes from, how it is grown and treated and, most importantly, how it affects our bodies and minds.
At Rouxbe, Dawn leads the production and instructional teams. She is also the friendly voice whose narrative brings Rouxbe’s instructional videos to life.
Dawn has also held positions as a cook in top restaurants and hotels such as the Fairmont. Prior to co-founding Rouxbe, she co-owned and operated a successful film catering company, where she planned menus and cooked for more than 225,000 cast and crew. Dawn graduated with honors at the top of her class from the Pacific Culinary Institute in Vancouver, where she later became a culinary instructor.
Co-Founder and Head of Media Production
Dawn is a co-founder of Rouxbe, the online cooking school she created with Joe Girard, and a content guru with more than 25 years of professional food and beverage experience. She is passionate about understanding food: where it comes from, how it is grown and treated and, most importantly, how it affects our bodies and minds.
At Rouxbe, Dawn leads the production and instructional teams. She is also the friendly voice whose narrative brings Rouxbe’s instructional videos to life.
Dawn has also held positions as a cook in top restaurants and hotels such as the Fairmont. Prior to co-founding Rouxbe, she co-owned and operated a successful film catering company, where she planned menus and cooked for more than 225,000 cast and crew. Dawn graduated with honors at the top of her class from the Pacific Culinary Institute in Vancouver, where she later became a culinary instructor.
Ken Rubin
Chief Culinary Officer
Ken is the Chief Culinary Officer of Rouxbe and oversees Rouxbe’s cooking course curriculum development and recruitment, He is a nationally recognized chef, educator, food anthropologist and with over 25 years of broad culinary industry experience - starting as a teenager peeling vegetables and eventually working as a chef, food critic, consultant, and culinary educator.
He is also Chair of the James Beard Foundation’s Broadcast Media Awards Committee which oversees the national recognition for television, film, radio, and online food media content. Ken previously served as a Board Director for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) before joining as Trustee and Chair of The Culinary Trust, IACP’s philanthropic foundation founded by Julia Child.
Ken held top-level teaching and executive leadership positions at well-respected culinary academies and training organizations including Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America, Chefs.com, the Art Institute of Portland, and the Natural Epicurean Academy. His lifelong interest in food and cooking also led him to the study of food anthropology. His undergraduate and graduate studies in anthropology focused specifically on food, cooking, and eating—ranging from developing ‘sense-based’ ethnographic research methods to exploring and documenting the foods and culinary traditions in communities around the world. Ken is a regular speaker and presenter at culinary and medical conferences.
He received his BA from Colorado College and an MA in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his family enjoy cooking and eating in Portland, Oregon.
Chief Culinary Officer
Ken is the Chief Culinary Officer of Rouxbe and oversees Rouxbe’s cooking course curriculum development and recruitment, He is a nationally recognized chef, educator, food anthropologist and with over 25 years of broad culinary industry experience - starting as a teenager peeling vegetables and eventually working as a chef, food critic, consultant, and culinary educator.
He is also Chair of the James Beard Foundation’s Broadcast Media Awards Committee which oversees the national recognition for television, film, radio, and online food media content. Ken previously served as a Board Director for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) before joining as Trustee and Chair of The Culinary Trust, IACP’s philanthropic foundation founded by Julia Child.
Ken held top-level teaching and executive leadership positions at well-respected culinary academies and training organizations including Le Cordon Bleu Schools North America, Chefs.com, the Art Institute of Portland, and the Natural Epicurean Academy. His lifelong interest in food and cooking also led him to the study of food anthropology. His undergraduate and graduate studies in anthropology focused specifically on food, cooking, and eating—ranging from developing ‘sense-based’ ethnographic research methods to exploring and documenting the foods and culinary traditions in communities around the world. Ken is a regular speaker and presenter at culinary and medical conferences.
He received his BA from Colorado College and an MA in anthropology from the University of Texas at Austin. He and his family enjoy cooking and eating in Portland, Oregon.