Meet the New Advisory Board of Greenhouse Grower Magazine

With an updated direction for Greenhouse Grower magazine comes a need for counsel on how to move forward in a way that will benefit the entire controlled-environment industry. To make that happen, we’ve asked for guidance from experts — including growers, advisors, and suppliers — from the ornamental, greenhouse vegetable, and cannabis/hemp markets.

Learn all about their backgrounds and expertise in the profiles below. We thank these illustrious industry experts for their help and guidance, and we look forward to bringing their experience and advice to your operation.

Marshall Dirks (Proven Winners)

As Director of Marketing and Public Relations for Proven Winners, Dirks combines his 25+ years of horticulture experience and marketing skills to create awareness of the Proven Winners brand, including developing and maintaining a consistent, recognizable image for Proven Winners. Dirks manages Proven Winners’ consumer advertising, trade collateral and marketing materials, and consumer and industry websites in addition to social media platforms and Proven Winners’ national public relations efforts.

Prior to joining Proven Winners in February 2000, Dirks worked as Product Manager for seven years at Ball Seed Company where he handled multiple lines of vegetative product, including Proven Winners. He gained hands-on nursery experience by working as a greenhouse/nursery assistant while pursuing a B.S. degree in management from Northern Illinois University.

Dirks is well known throughout the floriculture industry as an expert on trends. In his role at Proven Winners, he is constantly watching trends in his efforts to solve problems for and keep focus on the consumer.

The Proven Winners brand is comprised of two leading U.S. plant propagators: Four Star Greenhouse in Carleton, MI, and Pleasant View Gardens in Loudon, NH. These companies founded Proven Winners in 1992 and together with two licensees in Canada – Nordic Nurseries and Ed Sobkowich Greenhouses — produce superior liners under the Proven Winners name. Liners are then sold to wholesale growers to finish and sell to retailer garden centers across North America.

Proven Winners has formed partnerships with strong companies such as Spring Meadow Nursery (which acts as the brand manager for Proven Winners ColorChoice Flowering Shrubs), Walters Gardens (Proven Winners Perennials), and Classic Caladiums (Proven Winners Heart to Heart caladiums), broadening their collection of plants to include a vast array of plants for home gardeners and professionals to enjoy. Proven Winners is now a global brand and can be found in many countries throughout the world.

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Viraj Puri (Gotham Greens)

Viraj Puri co-founded Gotham Greens, a leafy greens producer with greenhouses in five states. In 2009, after leading start-up enterprises in the U.S., India, and Malawi, Puri focused on sustainable agriculture, green building, renewable energy, and environmental design. He has been awarded fellowships from TED, Wild Gift, and the Environmental Leadership Program and has been recognized by Crain’s New York Business as 40 under 40. His work has been published in several books and journals, including “Innovation on Tap,” “100% Renewable: Energy Autonomy in Action,” and the “UN Academic Journal.” Viraj is a LEED Accredited Professional and earned his B.S. from Colgate University.

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Brian Stephens (BrightFarms)

Brian Stephens grew up in New York and served as an officer in the Navy. While in California, he worked with Target on the warehouse side, which is where he got his start in management. The job involved leadership positions in warehousing and management. Brian also worked on government contracting. When the contract ran out, he found an opportunity with BrightFarms. The farm was looking for a General Manager (GM); Brian managed the Virginia greenhouse for a year. This was his introduction to the industry. Then, a GM transitioned out of BrightFarms’ Chicago facility, and Stephens went there for three months to help transition a new GM. Next, he moved to Ohio to see the greenhouse built from the ground up. This is the third greenhouse he has worked on at BrightFarms.

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Alicia Suits (Sakata Seed America)

Alicia Suits is Senior Marketing Manager for Sakata Seed America. She has held sales and marketing roles spanning industries ranging from tech to fresh produce to the seed industry. Over Suits’ tenure, she has led successful marketing campaigns for companies including Coca-Cola and Nordstrom. In 2017, she was recognized as one of the 40 industry professionals under 40 who are helping to determine the future of the horticulture industry. Suits has held instrumental roles in award-winning campaigns in the horticulture and agriculture industries, including a MarCom Platinum Award for SunPatiens impatiens and a Marketing Excellence Award for the Infinite Gold cantaloupe launch. She currently manages all North America marketing operations for Sakata Seed.

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Leigh Coulter (GGS Structures Inc.)

Leigh Coulter is the President of GGS Structures Inc., a leading greenhouse manufacturer providing sophisticated growing solutions for commercial growers across North America and around the world. For more than 40 years, GGS has been designing and building greenhouses. Leigh took over the business in 1998 and has substantially grown the business since. Holding a business degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario, Coulter has been invited to speak at numerous events pertaining to manufacturing and business development. With GGS being one of the largest suppliers to the greenhouse industry in North America, Coulter places critical importance on developing as well as maintaining business partnerships with suppliers and customers alike.

GGS designs and manufactures growing environments for all types of crops in addition to manufacturing high-quality, multi-purpose, fabric-covered structures. Following years of working with dedicated cannabis growers to improve medical cannabis cultivation technologies, Coulter established a division of GGS dedicated entirely to the legal cannabis industry in 2013. As a part of the new division, experts were brought in to expand the company’s knowledge in indoor controlled-agriculture cultivation (CEA).

GGS was the first greenhouse manufacturer worldwide to actively promote growing cannabis in greenhouses through its website, brochures, and in the media. Under Coulter’s leadership, GGS has remained on the forefront of the burgeoning cannabis industry as a leading supplier of quality greenhouse and growing systems.

Having worked with top growers all over the world, Coulter has developed nothing but the utmost respect for people who are committed to perfecting their craft and growing their best plants.

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Steve Garvey (Dallas Johnson Greenhouses)

Steve Garvey is the Head Grower at Dallas Johnson Greenhouses (#15 on Greenhouse Grower’s 2019 Top 100 Growers list) in Council Bluffs, IA. A finalist for Greenhouse Grower’s Head Grower of the Year award in 2017 and winner of the Excellence in Quality Award, Steve started his growing career at Gurneys/Henry Fields when he was in high school. He graduated with a degree in Horticulture from South Dakota State University. After college, he took a position as the Head Grower at an independent garden center in Omaha, NE, a position he held for more than 14 years. Garvey has been the Head Grower at Dallas Johnson for a little more than five years, and he says it “is a grower’s dream job.” He takes pride in Dallas Johnson’s high-quality plant material and is focused on using the newest growing technology, new media components, and good genetics to produce unrivaled quality plants from seed and unrooted cuttings to finish containers.

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Mark Russell (Technology Development Network, LLC)

Mark Russell has been integrally involved in commercializing agricultural technologies for more than 35 years, with a particular focus on improving crop production. He began his career with ICI Americas (now Syngenta) as a Sales Manager, where his responsibilities included marketing new technologies such as such as pyrethroid insecticides, selective grass control herbicides, and strobilurin fungicides. He then moved to United Agri Products and was part of the initial management team to develop the United Horticultural Supply division servicing the U.S. non-crop business including greenhouse and nursery production as a manager for a full array of crop protection, nutrition, and specialty agricultural products. In 2000, Russell joined EDEN Bioscience, an agriculture biotech company, to manage its Western U.S. business unit and launched Messenger, the first EPA-approved biofungicide based on the SAR and ISR mode of action. He also has served as Director of U.S. Sales for Suterra LLC where he markets its environmentally sustainable pest control products. For the past 15 years, Russell has developed and operated a crop production technology consulting business, advising innovative companies about bringing their agriculture technologies to market and creating an extensive portfolio of technology-based agriculture clients. Several of these products are commercially available today. Russell earned his B.S. degree from the University of Arizona with a concentration in agronomy, which included agriculture, agriculture operations, and related sciences.

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Chris (“CJ”) Swickey (Community Hope Growers)

CJ Swickey is the CEO at Community Hope Growers in Edmond, OK, and its subsidiaries, where he implements new ideas, new technology, training, and coordination with multiple entities within his sphere of influence, including bringing new strategies for working in agriculture and bringing in new lines of microbes to help restore farms, waterways, and livestock.

CJ has worked in a multitude of fields such as agriculture, construction, and rebuilding of organization structures to streamline operations. He also has worked in disaster response within the U.S. and overseas. He was brought in during the rebuilding of Superstorm Sandy to rebuild homes, organize support teams, and build a system to help organize the effort. He also was requested to participate with the Oklahoma Industrial Hemp Agricultural Pilot Program due to having one of the only operational USDA-certified organic aquaponics operations in the state. Community Hope Growers was the first to bring USDA Organic hemp to market in Oklahoma.

Over the last 10 years, Swickey has returned to his true passion of working with farmers and building out farms. After completing the hemp project, he went on to be a part of multiple cannabis organizations as an advisor. He uses his global connection and all he has learned from different fields to connect farmers all over the U.S. with people who can help them better their farm practices.

Swickey is a father of two who are following in his footsteps. he keeps a research and development center on his personal property where his children and others learn to think outside of the box and push the limits. Swickey has lived his life by a simple set of rules: Give freely what you know and always be training the next generations to go beyond.

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Suzanne Quintero (ForwardGro)

Suzanne Quintero has extensive experience managing, reviewing, and evaluating both tactical and strategic operational functions across a multitude of emerging industries. She has been instrumental in growing many companies. Her 19 years of experience has been extremely beneficial for her work at ForwardGro, a startup medical cannabis grower in a startup industry in Maryland. Quintero’s background with customer service, her business-centered approach, and her understanding of financial operations and compliance are all skills she brings to her current position.

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Allan Armitage (Greenhouse Grower/University of Georgia)

Allan Armitage is a statesman of the industry. As a contributor to Greenhouse Grower since 1984, a groundbreaker in variety trials, a breeder, and a Professor in the Department of Horticulture at the University of Georgia for 30 years, Armitage continues to stir controversy in the industry as an active consultant, author, and lecturer.