The Business of Building Lives: Founder John Pepper T’97 Sells Hanover Boloco to Conicia Jackson TEE’22

But last fall, the Main Street staple, co-founded by John Pepper D’91, T’97, was on the verge of shutting its doors for good. Luckily for the Upper Valley’s burrito enthusiasts, Conicia “CJ” Jackson, a 2022 graduate of Tuck Executive Education’s Building a Successful Diverse Business program, stepped in at just the right moment. 

She purchased the restaurant in February 2024, a move that keeps Boloco in the Tuck family and secures its future in Hanover. But more importantly to Pepper and Jackson, it also preserves the restaurant’s employee-first ethos. 

Finding Profit and Purpose

When Pepper drew up Boloco’s first business plan in his Tuck entrepreneurship class, his goal was simple: to make food he loved and make money doing it. At first, that was enough. But by the time the business had grown to three locations, “it felt thin,” he said.

Instead of focusing on his margins, Pepper started focusing on people. As the company grew, it raised employee wages and added benefits including health insurance, retirement accounts, professional development programs, and even English as a second language tutoring.

“I saw our mission as using our advantages to build a business that would build great lives for others,” said Pepper. 

Experienced restaurateurs were initially skeptical. But Pepper found support for his perspective within the Tuck community, notably from then-Board of Advisors member Sherri Oberg D’82 T’86.

“She gave me advice in 1999 that stuck with me,” he explained. “She told me to stick to my guns and said that if putting people first was part of my business model, returns would follow.”

Oberg was right. And despite some bumps in the road including a period of private equity ownership that nearly derailed the company—Pepper held fast to his values. In 2016, the company became one of only 12 restaurants in the United States to earn B Corporation status.

Connecting to a Larger Mission

Growing up in East St. Louis, Illinois, Jackson never imagined owning a burrito joint in small-town New Hampshire. The first in her family to attend college, she earned an MBA and worked in corporate finance in Chicago. In 2019, she moved to the Upper Valley to study at Vermont Law School in 2019. When her daughter’s burrito craving brought her to Boloco for the first time, the certification on the wall caught her eye.

“We had just covered B Corporations in one of my law school classes, and I knew I wanted to run a company with that model in the future,” she explained.

Jackson sees her JD as a stepping stone to her ultimate goal—helping to develop underserved and underinvested communities. Employee-focused businesses, she believes, can offer residents of places like East St. Louis new opportunities for economic mobility. Completing Tuck’s Building a Successful Diverse Business program further bolstered her confidence.

So when Jackson learned that Pepper was considering closing the Hanover Boloco, she reached out.

Passing the Baton

By 2023, Pepper was ready for a change. COVID-19 and rent increases had put increasing pressure on the chain, and in the wake of the pandemic, he decided to stop renewing the company’s leases and start winding down the business.

“It was time to take what I’d learned from several decades with Boloco and apply that to other things,” he said.

Jackson’s proposal to buy the restaurant, therefore, came at just the right time.

“CJ is such a community-oriented person,” he said. “She’s smart, she’s kind, she’s professional. This business has a strong foundation, so I ultimately agreed to sell it and keep a 30 percent stake.”

Today, Pepper is as busy as ever. He’s an active investor in purpose-driven companies, a labor activist, and is working with tech startup Toast to build a solution for small restaurants. Yet he remains committed to Boloco’s success—and Jackson’s.

“I look at John as a mentor,” said Jackson. “He’s been my biggest cheerleader.”

Pepper downplays his role but admits that one habit has proven hard to break.

“I love coming out at 5:30 in the morning once a week to do the leaf blowing on Main Street,” he said. “And I was there yesterday changing a lock. I find that kind of thing fun.”

Looking to the Future

In her first months running Boloco, Jackson has focused on building relationships with her team and the community. Sometimes, she said, that means covering a shift so an employee can care for their sick child.

“My employees are so important to me,” she said. “Providing a workplace where they are supported and able to thrive makes me excited to get up in the morning.” 

In the long term, Jackson hopes to bring Boloco’s magic and the Upper Valley’s community spirit to her hometown.

“My goal is to look at new, developing communities,” she said. “I’d like to see Boloco continue to be a change leader in the industry—not just building restaurants, but places where people can gather and grow.”

This story appears in print in the winter 2025 issue of Tuck Today magazine.