On The Move

Jennifer Zurko

Hortica
Hortica Insurance & Employee Benefits announced the appointment of Ron Long as a senior account executive serving Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Western Massachusetts, working out of Hortica’s New England sales office in Charlton, Massachusetts. Ron has been in the insurance industry for 22 years, including a previous stint with Hortica from 1992 to 2000.

Pleasant View Gardens
Pleasant View Gardens expanded its sales team with the addition of two Territory Account Managers, Heather Callahan and Paul Hartnett.

Heather has widespread industry experience as a grower, retailer and broker, including time in sales with Maryland Plants and W.H. Milikowski Inc., and as a grower/retailer with Vinny’s Home & Garden and Floral Plant Growers. Heather’s territory for Pleasant View includes West Virginia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Georgia and Colorado.

Paul has extensive experience in the green industry in retail and wholesale sales, as well as in broker sales and sales management. He has served as a sales rep for Syngenta and McHutchison, handled sales and store service plans for Hines Horticulture, and worked in store and department management for Home Depot. Paul will cover New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and Washington D.C.

Sakata
Sakata has recently added new positions to its sales and marketing team in the Trans-Atlantic ornamentals market of Europe and the U.S. Peter van Noort has assumed the role of Trans-Atlantic Product Manager for cut flowers and is based in The Netherlands, adding his solid experience in the global cut flower business, including the key markets of Europe and Africa.

Bob Leek joined the Sakata ornamentals team as the European Pot Plant Product Manager. His experience includes breeding, seed production, QA processes and inventory control at Royal Sluis; and Trial Officer, European Product Manager and Global Business Manager for Syngenta. Bob works from the Dutch Sakata office in Hoofddorp.

John Hewett has been appointed as the Retail Category Manager (Ornamentals) for the U.S. market. He has held national account responsibility for Walmart, Kmart, The Home Depot, Lowes, Sherwin Williams, and various hardware co-ops.

Sun Gro Horticulture
Sun Gro Horticulture announced that Scott Pace has joined the Southeast regional team as a Retail Specialist. In this position, Scott will be responsible for developing and implementing the retail strategy and marketing efforts within the territory, as well as retail product development and private label program expansion and promotion. He will also work with the district managers within the Southeast region to assist with their retail selling efforts, focusing on key IGC accounts.

Syngenta
Syngenta announced several key appointments for its Turf & Landscape/Consumer Business.

Scott Valentine is now head of marketing services of the company’s Turf & Landscape /Consumer business, a division of Syngenta Lawn and Garden. His responsibilities will include growing the marketing services function and continued oversight of the marketing services team.

Shawn Potter is appointed head of marketing Turf & Landscape/Consumer and will lead the brand manager and market manager teams. Shawn comes to Turf & Landscape/Consumer from Syngenta Crop Protection Herbicide Brand Management, where he was responsible for cereal herbicides.

Howard Jaekle is appointed as market manager Home Care & Consumer, a division of Syngenta Lawn and Garden. Howard has held several previous positions, including sales representative, programs manager and sales training manager. His most recent position was district manager of Turf & Ornamental.

Additionally, Dave Ravel, former key account manager of Turf & Landscape/Consumer, has been appointed head of Key Account Management for Turf & Landscape/Consumer. He will work with a seasoned team of key account managers and rounds out the TLC Regional Leadership Team. GT