American Floral Endowment holds trustees board meeting
American Floral Endowment holds trustees board meeting
The American Floral Endowment board of trustees met in Orlando, FL, Jan. 19-20, to review strategic goals for the funding of education, research, scholarships, internships and marketing initiatives for the entire floriculture industry, including growers, wholesalers, retailers, suppliers, allied organizations and consumers. Terril A. Nell, newly elected research coordinator for the AFE, organized the University of Florida visit.
Established in 1961, the AFE is a nonprofit organization for funding floriculture and education programs in the U.S. — appropriating more than $14 million since its inception — in critical areas such as crop discovery, research, production protocols, genetics, breeding, care/handling, insect/disease control, trade data, education, scholarships and career development.
To date, the AFE’s corpus is valued at $13.5 million.
Led by 2015 Chairman-elect Gabriel Becerra from Golden Flowers in Miami, the AFE board of trustees includes industry leaders from all sectors of the floriculture industry:
Paul Bachman, Bachman’s Inc., Minneapolis.
Ken Altman, Altman Plants, Vista, CA.
Jim Daly, Floralife Inc., Walterboro, SC.
Charles Kremp, Kremp Florist, Philadelphia.
Dwight Larimer, Design Master Color Tool Inc., Boulder, CO.
Laura Drotleff, Meister Media Worldwide, Willoughby, OH.
PJ Ellison, Ellison’s Greenhouse, Brenham, TX.
Bill Fernandez, Continental Flowers, Miami.
Ramon Garcia, Pete Garcia Co., Atlanta.
Billy Hardin, Hardin Global LLC, Siler City, NC.
Kristi Huffman, The John Henry Company, Lansing, MI.
Eric Levy, Hillcrest Garden Inc., Paramus, NJ.
Marvin Miller, Ball Horticulture Co., West Chicago, IL.
Laura Shinall, Syndicate Sales Inc., Kokomo, IN.
Randy Tagawa, Tagawa Greenhouse, Brighton, CO.
Juan Carlos Gonzales Uribe, G.R. Chia, Colombia, S.A.
Ken Young, Phoenix Flower Shops, Phoenix, AZ.
Cindy Hanauer, Grand Central Floral LLC, Jacksonville, FL .
For more information on AFE, visit http://endowment.org, www.facebook.com/americanfloralendowment, www.twitter.com/floralendowment.
Cindy Hanauer is the founder of Grand Central Floral. She can be reached at [email protected] or Toll-free 1-844-MYFLORAL (693-5672,) ext. 700.