Town Hall Panel: What's New in Floriculture Breeding and Genetics

Northeast Greenhouse Conference and Expo will feature a Town Hall Panel: What’s New in Floriculture Breeding and Genetics on Wednesday November 8, 2023.
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Meet the panelists:

Jim Devereux, GreenFuse Botanicals, Chief Executive Officer
Jim Devereux has over 20 years’ experience in the horticultural market. With a history in commercial growing, sales, and breeding. Currently he is the Chief Executive Officer of Green Fuse® Botanicals, a California based breeding company specializing in innovation of vegetative annuals and perennials. Jim is a past president of All-American Selections and graduate of the University of Wyoming with degrees in botany and soil science. He currently resides in Fort Collins, Colorado where he enjoys camping and, of course, gardening.

Megan Bowman, Ph.D., Director of Research Operations, Ball Helix
Megan Bowman is the Director of Research Operations at Ball Horticultural Company in West Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1905, Ball Horticultural is a world leader in the research, breeding, production and marketing of ornamental crops. Ball Helix, Ball’s central R&D team, provides innovative product development and production support for Ball’s various business units through a global network of research laboratories specializing in plant pathology and diagnostics, molecular marker development, cell biology, tissue culture production, and bioengineering. As a member of the Ball Helix team, Megan leads research portfolio management, major infrastructure projects, laboratory safety, and global biotechnology regulatory and compliance. She has a PhD in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and worked for several years in computational biology and bioinformatics in both the agricultural and biomedical research sectors. She joined Ball in 2018 to lead bioinformatics and genomics prior to moving to operations in 2020. She is a trustee of the American Floral Endowment and serves as a committee member and mentor for ASHS.

Gary Sainsbury, Syngenta Flowers, Account Manager
Gary Sainsbury has worked in horticulture all over the world for over 30 years, getting his education in Commercial Horticulture Production before moving into Sales and Sales Management roles. His current role, with Syngenta Flowers, one of the largest breeders of floral crops in the world, started over 8 years ago. He primarily works with growers and broker companies to help them better understand Syngenta's portfolio and direction.

Stephanie Whitehouse, Dummen North America Product Manager
Stephanie Whitehouse is the Regional Product Manager for Decorative Annuals with Dümmen Orange, North America. Previously she was General Manager for Dickman Farms Greenhouse, an independent garden center in Central New York State. During her 5-years in garden retail, she increased profit margins and helped the company successfully navigate challenges during COVID-19. Prior to Dickman Farms, Stephanie worked for Peace Tree Farm, a Certified Organic wholesale greenhouse in Bucks County, PA, as the Sales & Marketing Director. During her 8-year tenure, Stephanie worked to increase company profitability, redefined product lines and offerings, improved broker, and customer relations, and was instrumental in the global commercial launch of Lavender Phenomenal®. During her time at Peace Tree Farm she was recognized as a member of GPN Magazine’s 40 Under 40 inaugural class in 2012. Stephanie is a graduate of Cornell University (Plant Sciences, BS 2006 and Weed Ecology, MS 2010). She has written numerous articles for trade magazines, and given presentations to state horticulture associations, AmericanHort, GrowerTalks Magazine, and The Seeley Conference. She previously served as member and then chair of the GenNext Committee of AmericanHort for 5 years, and currently serves on the Retail Committee. Stephanie is passionate about horticulture and consumer trends and aims to improve and beautify lifestyles with plants.

The conference schedule is online at https://www.negreenhouse.org/schedule.html

Registration is now open! https://www.negreenhouse.org/registration.html
Exhibit space and sponsorship opportunities are available! Visit the website for more information (https://www.negreenhouse.org/sponsor.html) or contact Cindy Sherwood at (802) 448-9063 or [email protected].

The biennial Northeast Greenhouse Conference & Expo is co-sponsored by New England Floriculture, Inc. - a group of grower representatives from the Northeast, augmented by University and Cooperative Extension staff in each state who specialize in greenhouse crops and management.