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Perry Odak began his career as an accounting associate at Armour Foods. Nine years later, after resigning from his post as senior vice president at Armour, he began working for a small start-up company, Jovan, Inc. After seven years, Odak and his partners sold Jovan, Inc. and he became president of the Consumer Product Group at Atari. From there he became a partner in Catalyst Technologies, where he restructured and started numerous holdings, including a company called ETAK, Inc., which in 1985 produced the first vehicle navigation system. In 1990 Odak became a consultant operating as a temporary CEO to help companies in trouble.

Over the next six years, he came to the rescue of a half dozen firms, where he engineered mergers, boosted sales, and, perhaps most important, won the hearts of employees whose jobs he saved. In 1997, when Ben & Jerry's lured him away from U.S. Repeating Arms, the gunmaker's workers petitioned its management to do whatever was necessary to convince him to stay.

Perry Odak left Ben & Jerry's in 2000 and was appointed as CEO and President of Wild Oats Markets, Inc., the second largest natural foods supermarket chain in North America.

Perry Odak is a graduate of Cornell University.