People and Events

People

Mark Seguin to global ornamental marketing manager for Sakata’s vegetative portfolio.

Ron Cramer to senior global ornamentals advisor at Sakata. Ron Garofalo to senior sales manager; Flower Seeds– Nafta at Sakata. Brad Smith to retail category manager; Ornamentals – Nafta at Sakata.

The Botanical Research Institute of Texas (BRIT) announced that Megan Proska of Fort Worth, Texas, is the 2012 recipient of BRIT’s annual Ian Leese Fellowship in Horticulture. Proska will work and study at the renowned Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, UK, for a three-month period from July through September 2012. Megan will participate in Kew’s Voluntary Horticultural Internship Program where she will be assigned to Kew’s Great Glasshouses and Training Section.

Keith Ellefsen to president at The IFH Group, a manufacturer of custom-fabricated hydraulic oil reservoirs, fuel tanks, lubrication storage & handling systems.

Tonny Vangsgaard Gravesen, CEO at Container Centralen, has decided after 6 years, to pursue his next career steps outside of Container Centralen. The Board of Directors has asked Roel de Jong to take on the responsibilities of the daily management, while remaining commercially responsible as CSO.

Company news

Hillister Farms LLC has signed an agreement to purchase the operating assets of Timberline Nursery Inc. Hillister Farms will continue to operate the business under the Timberline name. Keith Formway will be the president and operating manager of Hillister Farms.

The Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture, part of the Texas A&M University System, has been presented the Program Partner of the Year Award by the Junior Master Gardener program for its work in Central America.

Illumitex Inc. has secured an additional $9.3 million of funding. Existing investors NEA, Morgan Creek Capital, Mousse Partners, Apex Venture Partners, DFJ Mercury and Syngenta Ventures participated in the round. The new round of funding will be used to develop Illumitex’s lighting fixture product lines, as well as provide ongoing support to the company’s development of proprietary precision beam packaged LEDs. The company also hired Chris Hammelef as CEO.

EVENTS

June

13, California Grown Show, Long Beach, CA

18-2, International Organic Fruit Symposium, Leavenworth, WA.

20, Trial Gardens at UGA Industry Open House, Athens, GA;
http://ugatrial.hort.uga.edu.

21, Darwin Perennials Day, West Chicago;
http://darwinperennials.com.

22, Dallas Arboretum Plant Trials Field Day (Industry Only), Dallas, TX.

25-28, Garden Centers of America Summer Tour, Detroit, MI.

July

4-10, Perennial Plant Symposium, Boston, MA;
www.perennialplant.org.

14-17, OFA Short Course, Columbus, OH

31-Aug. 2, PANTS, Oaks, PA;
www.pantshow.com.

August

11-15, International Society of Arboriculture annual conference Portland, OR;
www.isa-arbor.com.

16-19, Nursery/Landscape Expo, Portland, OR;
www.isa-arbor.com.

23-25, Farwest, Portland, OR;
www.farwestshow.com.