Edward N Basha Jr

Chairman of the Board of Bashas' supermarket chain since 1968. Chief Executive Officer of Bashas' and an Arizona civic leader dedicated to multiple Arizona community projects. Edward Najeeb Basha Jr. was born in August 1937 in Chandler. He was the great-grandson of Lebanese immigrants who arrived in New York City in 1884 and migrated to Arizona in 1910. His grandfather opened a general store in Sonora near the mining town of Ray and later built a second store in Chandler where he moved his family in 1919. His father, Eddie Sr., and his uncle, Ike, learned the mercantile business at the Chandler store, but when it eventually failed, they struck out on their own. They opened the first store of what would become the Bashas’ supermarket chain in 1932. Basha graduated from Chandler High School, where he played football and other sports. He graduated from Stanford University in Palo Alto, Calif., in 1959 with a degree in history and then went to work for the family business.After his father died in 1968, Basha, then 31, took over the family business. Basha has six sons, two with Nadine and four with a former wife, Sherri.