Lorri A. Koster, chairman, chief executive officer and a primary shareholder of Mann Packing Co., a Salinas, CA-based grower, shipper and processor of fresh vegetables, received the 2014 Ag Leader of the Year award May 8, at the 10th annual Valley of the World Awards presented by The National Steinbeck Center.

The Ag Leader Award honors an individual whose work has broken new ground and/or who has added significantly to the industry while making a difference in the community in which they live.Lorri A. Koster

Koster was raised in the agricultural industry and is the third generation in her family to work in produce, starting her full-time career at Mann in 1990. Today Mann Packing is certified as a women's business enterprise through the Women's Business Enterprise National Council, the nation's largest third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women in the United States. The company is celebrating its 75th anniversary this year.

Koster participates on numerous committees for the Produce Marketing Association, the United Fresh Produce Association, Western Growers Association and the Grower Shipper Association of Central California. She was a member of both the board and executive committee of the Produce for Better Health Foundation. She is also a past board member of PMA's Foundation for Industry Talent and remains active in its fundraising efforts via the Joe Nucci Memorial Golf Tournament.

In 2000, Koster was president of the board of directors of the International Fresh Cut Produce Association, being the first woman to chair an American produce trade association. She is a past chairman of the Grower Shipper Association of Central California, where she became the second woman to hold the position and represented the first father-daughter and third-generation chairmanship, as her father was at the helm of the association in 1983 and her great uncle, Art Sbrana, in 1936.

Currently Koster serves as a board alternate for the California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement and on the board and nutrition council of the United Fresh Produce Association.

Koster is a graduate of Leadership Salinas Valley and was named Outstanding Young Farmer by the Salinas Jaycees in 1994 and Outstanding Young Citizen in 2005. In 2006 she was named an Outstanding Young Californian by the California Junior Chamber of Commerce and Ag Woman of the Year by Salinas-based non-profit Ag Against Hunger. She is a trustee at the Panetta Institute for Public Policy and serves on the board of Monterey County's Hospice Foundation. She is also a member of the business advisory council for Rancho Cielo Youth Campus, which helps troubled teens.

Koster, who earned a bachelor of arts degree from California State University-Chico, is a sports enthusiast and "Forty Niner Faithful" who lives in Salinas with her husband and their two boys.