Kevin Fiori is leaving his position as senior vice president of sales and marketing at Sunkist Growers in Valencia, CA, to assume a position with Passion Growers, a leading floral company headquartered in Miami. John Striff, current senior vice president and chief operating officer, will oversee the organization’s sales and marketing departments following Fiori's departure in June.Kevin Fiori

“We are so appreciative of the outstanding work that Kevin has done during his time at Sunkist,” Russ Hanlin, Sunkist president and chief executive officer, said in a press release . “While he will be greatly missed, we are fortunate to have a talented executive like John Striff to assume this role. John has been instrumental to many important initiatives throughout the cooperative and we are excited for him to bring his leadership and experience to another area of our organization.”

Striff has worked in the Sunkist system since 2003, first at Sunkist-affiliated cooperative Fruit Growers Supply Company and then at Sunkist Growers. He served as chief financial officer for both organizations, and was promoted to senior vice president and chief operating officer in 2015.

“It is with mixed emotions that I announce my decision to leave Sunkist Growers," said Fiori. "I joined Sunkist because I was drawn to the collaborative culture that makes the cooperative so special within our industry. I feel fortunate to have worked at Sunkist for the past seven-and-a-half years. We accomplished many great things together. I have no doubt that Sunkist will do very well under the leadership of Russ Hanlin with the incredible, talented and dedicated people they have throughout the organization.”

“Working with Sunkist for over seven years, Kevin has done outstanding work on behalf of the cooperative,” said Hanlin.” However, the opportunity for him and his wife to be close to his two boys and three grandchildren was impossible to resist. We will miss him greatly, both personally and professionally.”

Fiori continued, “I’ve been offered an amazing opportunity to work with Jaime and Cheryl Peisach and the entire team at Passion Growers. I have a tremendous amount of respect for and look forward to working with Jaime Peisach, Cheryl Peisach, Sam Ferrara, Ben Pauley, Eugenia Barth, Moises Croitoru and others at Passion, many of whom I’ve worked with in the past. As a company, Passion values people, is dedicated to impeccable customer service, and invests in infrastructure to produce the highest quality flowers available. Another benefit of this opportunity is that it allows me to relocate closer to my children and grandchildren, which makes this move perfect for me — both personally and professionally.”

“We are thrilled that Kevin Fiori is joining our team,” said Jaime Peisach, owner of Passion Growers. “We’ve known Kevin for over 15 years and we know he shares our core values. Our culture is built on teamwork, integrity and a system-wide dedication to customer satisfaction. The past working relationships and mutual respect between Kevin, Sam, Ben, Eugenia, Moises and other members of Passion makes this a great fit. The ultimate objective of this move is to expand our individualized products and services to our valued customers. We are committed to earning our customers’ business everyday by providing the highest quality flowers and best customer service available in the industry.”