Libby and Mike met in 1978 while studying in Grenoble , France . From there they moved to Boulder where Mike finished his undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado and Libby attended law school. Shortly after graduation they decided to start looking for a small business to invest in. The opportunity arose in early 1984 when Libby and Mike purchased a small convenience store located on University Hill which they renamed Stella's Market. To raise the $70,000 needed to buy the store, they borrowed money from their parents and maxed out their credit cards. Initially Libby and Mike worked all of the hours because they were so undercapitalized they didn't have the money to pay for employees. Thankfully, their future partner, Randy Clapp , agreed to work for free. The store soon became a huge success. In 1985 the trio purchased Lolita's Market followed shortly thereafter by the purchase of Delilah's Pretty Good Grocery. In 1986, buoyed by their success in the convenience store arena they opened a gourmet/natural foods/convenience store by the name of “French Market”. Trying to be all things to all people proved to be a disaster. In 1987, they found what they were looking for with the purchase of Crystal Market, a vegetarian natural foods store. The success of that store led them to convert French Market to a solely natural foods format and change the name to Wild Oats. The store staged a “dramatic turnaround” after its switch to a natural foods format and the partners realized they were on to something.

During the early days the partners each handled all aspects of running the stores but later Libby was in charge of all of the legal, financial, accounting and human resources functions for the company while Mike oversaw day to day store operations. They credit their success to hard work, being in “the right place at the right time” and, most importantly, to their passionate and dedicated staff.

By the end of 1993 Wild Oats had grown to almost $50 million in sales and was listed in Inc. Magazine's “500 Fastest Growing Private Companies in America ”. After the acquisition of Boulder based Alfalfa's Market in 1996, the company became the 2 nd largest natural foods store in the nation with a combined 30 stores. Interest quickly spread to Wall Street, and in 1996, Wild Oats became a public company. When Libby and Mike retired from Wild Oats in 2001 they had grown the company to over 100 stores and over $1 billion in annual revenues securing its position as one of the largest natural foods chains in the nation.

Their goal was to build a company that could be both socially responsible and profitable. When they were awarded the Rocky Mountain Region Entrepreneur of the Year Award in 1998 the company was recognized for its unique idea of “giving back to the community” through its 5% days, employee charity work benefit and its commitment to environmental and social causes. The company not only committed 7.5% of its pre-tax profits to such causes but was also committed to offering organic products whenever possible that were packaged using eco friendly recyclable materials and supporting companies that didn't participate in animal testing. Libby & Mike also created a non-profit foundation that operated Wellness Centers offering free or low cost holistic health care education and treatments.

From the purchase of Crystal Market to the transformation of the French Market, Libby Cook and Michael Gilliland were innovative and creative while navigating the large scale growth of their company. They were determined to balance their responsibilities to customers, community, employees and the bottom line and were models for other businesses in the area of “social responsibility”. They are truly examples of the best of Boulder 's entrepreneurs.