News
GROWER DAY ‘SYNERGY’

9:45 am – 4 pm  

12:00 pm        

Seminars & trade show

Buffet Lunch         

Melhem Sawaya graduated from the American University of Beirut with a B.Sc. in horticulture, plus a supplemental degree in agricultural engineering. Then, through a student exchange program, he was able to further his education at the University of Guelph. In 1978, he joined Fernlea Flowers Ltd., eventually becoming production manager of Fernlea Gro-Pro, where he was responsible for the production and sale of grower products. 
In 1990, Mel started his consulting company, Focus Greenhouse Management Inc., working with many progressive greenhouse growers in the areas of management and production to maximize potential.
Mel also writes monthly articles for Greenhouse Canada magazine, and frequently lectures at industry conventions. For the past seven years, Sawaya Gardens, a division of Focus Greenhouse Management, has conducted field trials on about 2,000 cultivars, representing most of the breeders in the industry.

Barbara Jeffery-Gibson’s passion for design and consumer fashion has propelled the growth of her family business into directions that were considered avant-garde at the time when she began to manage the company a decade ago. Her unique approach gives an overriding market and consumer-oriented focus to all aspects of greenhouse production: all products and programs are designed to make the customer happy. When a customer enjoys the plants, he or she will return to buy more.
She studied at Ryerson University and obtained a degree in fashion merchandising, and this rather unusual combination of interests allowed her to open up a world of novel ideas, concepts, and strategies for her business.
Under her leadership, Jeffery’s Greenhouses in St. Catharines, Ontario, has experienced unprecedented growth, not just in terms of product volume but also in terms of market leadership, and this in an industry that is undergoing a very difficult shift of paradigms in marketing and consumer service.
Today, Jeffery’s Greenhouses is one of the leading producers of annual bedding plants and cyclamen in Ontario.

Graeme Murphy graduated from the University of Melbourne in Australia with a masters degree in Ag. Science. Following graduation, he worked for the Victoria Department of Agriculture for eight years. In 1988, he accepted the position of IPM specialist with the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, working with the greenhouse floriculture industry helping growers develop and implement IPM programs that will improve the effectiveness of their pest management efforts. His work also includes organizing and running educational IPM workshops, preparing publications and factsheets, carrying out practical research and demonstration trials, and working with the industry to gain access to newer, more biocompatible pesticides through the Minor Use pesticide program.

Bernard Chodyla offers Belgian mum support for Grolink in U.S. and Canada. He received his B.Sc. in agronomy in 1990, and his M.Sc. in agriculture in 1991, both from the University in Poznan in Poland. He served an internship at the University of Florida in 1991. He began his professional career as a spray technician with Esposito's Garden Center in Tallahassee, Florida, in 1992. He later served as production manager with the Quincy, Florida, facilities of Fernlea Flowers, before taking on the same responsibilities with Florida Plants Specialists. His special interests include new plant development and breeding, along with tissue culture production.

Jerry Gorchels started in the industry in 1972 as a greenhouse manager. Since then, he has worked and managed in many different aspects of the industry, including greenhouse production, retail, landscape and nursery. In 1987, he became the greenhouse manager for the PanAmerican Seed research and development station in northern Illinois. In 2002, he became a technical product representative for the Ball Horticultural Company. He now travels the Midwest and Great Lakes regions assisting growers and promoting PanAmerican Seed and Ball FloraPlant genetics for Ball.