The Organic Center Names New Board of Trustees
The Organic Center has named 15 people to its new Board of Trustees. The trustees were formally introduced at the Washington, D.C.-based center’s sold-out fundraiser dinner held earlier this month in conjunction with Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim, Calif.
Since September 2012, when it began operating under the administrative auspices of the Brattleboro, Vt.-based Organic Trade Association (OTA), The Organic Center has been governed by an interim board of directors charged with the task of selecting a board of trustees to guide the organization going forward.
The trustees will work closely with Jessica Shade, the organization’s recently appointed director of science programs, to facilitate the center’s mission to marshal credible, evidence-based science on the health and environmental advantages of organic food and farming, and to communicate those findings to the public.
“This is a new beginning for The Organic Center,” said Todd Linsky, VP of organic sales for Bakersfield, Calif.-based Grimmway Farms/Cal-Organic Farms, who has been selected chairman of the new board. “While its structure may have changed, its mission to bring credible science to the organic industry has not.”
Along with Linsky, the trustees are Ken Cook, president and co-founder of the Environmental Working Group; Marty Mesh, executive director of Florida Certified Organic Growers & Consumers; Bob Quinn, president of Kamut International; Susan Shields, SVP and chief Innovation for Jamba Juice; green lifestyle expert, TV host and author Sara Snow; Jeffrey Brams, general counsel and VP for science and international business at Garden of Life LLC; Dag Falck, organic program manager for Nature’s Path Organic Foods; Bob Kaake, chief innovation officer for Annie’s Inc.; Theresa Marquez, mission executive at CROPP Cooperative, the nation’s largest organic farmer cooperative for the largest farmer-owned organic brand, Organic Valley; Melody Meyer, VP of policy and industry relations for United Natural Foods (UNFI), and executive director of the UNFI Foundation; Mike Ferry, president of Horizon Organic; writer and speaker Meg Hirshberg, wife of Stonyfield Farm co-founder Gary Hirshberg; Jessica Lundberg, VP of people, planet and process, and a member of the board of directors of Lundberg Family Farms; Margaret Wittenberg, VP of quality standards for Whole Foods Market; OTA CEO and Executive Director Christine Bushway; and ex officio member Mark Retzloff, outgoing chairman of The Organic Center, co-founder and chairman of the board of Aurora Organic Dairy, and a founding partner of Greenmont Capital.
Linsky, Shields, Snow, Marquez, Wittenberg and Retzloff have all previously served on The Organic Center’s board.