Houlihan named executive director of WPVGA
Houlihan named executive director of WPVGA
Tamas Houlihan is now the execute director of the Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association. He succeeds Duane Maatz.
Although he officially took the post on Dec. 4, 2014, Houlihan isn’t exactly a stranger to the job in Antigo, WI. He had been the interim executive director since August. Furthermore, Houlihan told The Produce News that his recent appointment ended his third term as interim executive director. He also had that role in 2000 and 2008.
Houlihan has worked for the WPVGA for 27 years. His primary post has been serving as the managing editor of the association’s The Badger Common’Tater magazine and communications director for the group.
Now he is working with WPVGA’s hiring committee toward hiring a new managing editor and filling a newly created association post, director of environmental affairs. The association in the fall hired Jim Zdroik to be the Spudmobile coordinator. The Spudmobile is a promotional bus created in 2014 that is used at many regional promotions to educate the public about Wisconsin potatoes.
Beyond these staff changes, Houlihan said his primary responsibility is to broadly manage the association, which has 500 members and a $1.5 million budget.
Wisconsin potato growers pay a six-cent fee to the association for each hundredweight sold. The state produces on average about 25 million hundredweight of potatoes each year.
The budget is divided to serve four basic purposes: research, education, marketing and government affairs.
Two matters of particular concern to the WPVGA membership are related to irrigation water quantity and quality and to grower challenges with numerous permits to move farm equipment on public highways.
The water issues are very complex, Houlihan said. The crux of this challenge “is to try to maintain growers’ irrigation rights and allow farms to continue to manage their crop with irrigation.” Working with high-capacity wells will be a key to dealing with “new regulations that are coming down the pike.
“This is a big issue,” he said. “We absolutely need water and we feel we are very good managers of our water. Wisconsin’s potato growers know when and where to irrigate and we certainly don’t waste water.”
Permits, rules and regulations placed by various township and county governments cause growers many problems. WPVGA is trying to simplify such matters for its members.
Houlihan credits Dana Rady, WPVGA’s director of promotion and consumer education, with leading a “vibrant” promotion campaign.
