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Wednesday, March 10, 2010 |
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As editor and publisher of GrowerTalks and Green Profit, I’m proud of the staff here at Ball Publishing, and with good reason: You won’t find a sharper, tighter, more dedicated crew anywhere! We’re lean (there’s just seven of us, plus two off-site, full-time freelance editors) but we’re good—fast, efficient and responsive to your needs. They keep things operating smoothly while I’m touring greenhouses in Alaska, China and other far-flung locales. In fact, I suspect things work MORE smoothly when I’m on the road!—Chris Beytes
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Paul Black, Sales Manager
Joined us in 2004
As sales manager, Paul occupies one of most important seats here at Ball Publishing, overseeing all our advertising and sponsorship sales. But while he’s got 15 years of professional sales experience, including a stint in technology sales for the grocery industry, he’s a horticulturist at heart, having graduated from the University of Illinois with a degree in environmental science. He keeps busy with a wife, two kids, a guitar, and 30 African cichlids (he knows more about these weird fish than is rational, so be careful you don’t bring them up in conversation). |
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Adriana Heikkila, Sales Assistant/Trade Show Coordinator
Joined us in 2005
A Chicagoland native, Adriana is Ball Publishing’s sales assistant. And being the oldest of seven kids, she’s ideally suited to keeping our two sales guys, Paul and Luke, on track. Plus, her education is in communication and advertising, so if you’re an advertiser, Adriana is the real power in the office to get things done for you. When she’s not keeping the sales department on track or coordinating Ball Publishing’s trade show exhibits, Adriana likes nothing more than to root for the White Sox or spend time entertaining family and friends, or outdoors in her garden ... unless there's a good reality TV show on, that is. She admits to a bit of an addiction to them.
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Anissa Lobrillo, Creative Director
Joined us in 1999
Words are fine, but to really make them sing you need a beautiful design, and that’s what Anissa has been doing for Ball Publishing since 1999. Known in-house as Ms. GrowerTalks, nobody has a better grasp of clean, attractive, functional and readable design for the greenhouse trade. That's why we put her in charge of our 2008 redesign—only the second major redesign of GrowerTalks since it was founded in 1937.
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Melissa McVickar, Customer Service
Joined us in 2005
Our customer care specialist, Melissa McVickar, is the young woman who will probably answer your phone call. Melissa has a love of horticulture, and she’s even working on getting her associate’s degree in horticulture. She hopes to go on to a bachelor’s degree in chemistry or biology. If you’re calling from outside the Midwest, take note of her interesting “da Bears” accent—she was born and raised right here in Chicagoland. Because of that, Melissa is a giant Bears fan. |
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Lucas Nicholas, Account Manager
Joined us in 2006
“The man with two first (or two last) names” as we call him, Luke is responsible for advertising sales for the eastern half of the U.S. He brings to Ball Publishing a background in landscape design—he earned his degree from Montana State University. He was born and raised in Montana, which could explain his deep love of all things beef. His passion for barbecue could even be stronger than mine (but I doubt it). Luke’s wife, Kelly, is also immersed in the industry. She has a degree in horticulture and a master’s in plant science and works as the research greenhouse manager for Ball. |
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Chris Truesdale, Graphic Designer
Joined us in 2008
The "other Chris" (but certainly not Number 2) has been a graphic artist for 30 years, working for Ball Horticultural Company since 1998. Chris became a part of the Ball Publishing staff with the new re-design and is the creative mind behind the Green Profit side of the magazine. When Chris isn't working with her "electronic easel," she enjoys spending time with her daughters Rose and Margaret, both of whom attend Northwestern University. She is also very close with her family—especially her two brothers and sister. She helps out at her sister's wine store on occasion, which has earned her a wide knowledge of the finest vino. And Chris is a Broadway in Chicago season ticket holder, so she can often be spotted catching a show with friends in the downtown theater district. |
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Ellen C. Wells, Editor at Large—Green Profit
Joined us in 2008 (but has freelanced for us since 2005)
We have to consider Ellen our in-house horticulturist, as she’s the only one with a full-fledged hort degree—a master’s degree, no less, from Cornell University! But writing is her real talent and calling, and so she applies her knowledge of green industry with her love of storytelling into the perfect retail communications package. A city girl, Ellen lives in downtown Boston where she can vigorously root for her beloved Red Sox. It’s also a convenient location for her to cover the active northeastern horticulture industry. That’s why her weekly news and commentary e-mail. BuZZ!, will often include references to both. |
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Mark Widhalm, Photographer
Joined us in 2008
Mark joined the BP staff with the re-design of GrowerTalks and Green Profit, capturing the interesting photos you see on the covers and inside our magazine every month. Mark has been working for our sister company—Ball Horticultural—since 2004, coming from the world of dinosaurs and mummies as a photographer for the Field Museum in Chicago, Illinois before that. But don't be fooled by the Ray Bans and soul patch—Mark's a family guy who enjoys spending time with his "smokin' hot wife," Lynn, his two children, Julia and Peter, and his 100-pound Labrador named Otto. He always seems to be working on a new improvement for his house and is an avid cyclist.
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Kathy Wootton, Production Manager
Joined us in 1981
“Hooty,” as she’s affectionately known to us, has the longest track record of any of us, having joined Ball Publishing even before it was Ball Publishing. In fact, she is the only staffer to have worked on the original pocket-sized GrowerTalks. She started out as Vic Ball's editorial assistant but soon took over responsibility for the production of each issue—which means coordinating advertising material, creating the layout for each issue based on ad pages and editorial needs, and working with the printer to get each issue printed and mailed. It’s an enormous job, but nobody has done it longer or better. In her spare time, Kathy leads a quiet life of family, gardening and reading. |
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Jennifer Zurko, Associate Editor—GrowerTalks
Joined us in 2009
Jen is the new kid on the block. When Jennifer Duffield White left Ball Publishing to pursue her Master's Degree, Jen Z. jumped at the chance to earn a spot on the Ball Publishing staff. Since 2003, Jen worked in the Marketing Department for Ball Horticultural Company, but her first love (and what she actually went to school for) is journalism. She's eager to increase her industry knowledge and actually meet the people she's only heard about through the halls at Ball. Not only have there been changes in Jen's professional life, but her personal life as well. She and her husband, Doug, welcomed their new daughter, Olivia, into the world in early 2009. So she likes to spend lots of time with her family and hopes to pass on her love of reading to her daughter. Jen also loves rooting for the Chicago Bears (for better or worse) and Blackhawks. She's a huge music lover and has been known to sing a karoke tune or two.
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Chris Beytes, Editor & Publisher
Joined us in 1993
As your faithful scribe, I’ll put myself last and least among the crew above because I couldn’t do it without them. However, I have learned a little bit about the industry since starting my horticulture training in 1981 at the University of Florida, where I earned a degree in journalism and a minor in ornamental horticulture. My wife, a UF hort grad, and I opened our own wholesale greenhouse in Merritt Island, Florida in 1983, two weeks after graduating. Called Indian River Ornamentals, we grew weekly potted plants for the local florist and garden center trade—not an easy thing to do in hot, humid, bug-infested Florida! (You haven’t seen whitefly on poinsettia like I have!) I’ve been with Ball Publishing since 1993, where I started as Managing Editor of GrowerTalks. I helped design and launch Green Profit, and I've served in every editorial capacity possible with GrowerTalks, Green Profit and FloraCulture International, and I now occupy the hot seat of Editor & Publisher. But my passion will always be visiting and writing about greenhouses and garden centers around the world. I had the pleasure of working with the late Vic Ball for four years, and there was no finer mentor. If you don’t know me from the pages of GrowerTalks, you probably know me from my weekly news and commentary e-mail, Acres Online, which reaches more than 16,000 industry folks around the world. I’m known for a uniquely irreverent style—I can ask the tough, controversial questions, but I look for the light, humorous side of the industry, too. Oh, on the personal side? A wife (Laurie), a cat (Mulligan) and an excess of grills, musical instruments, garden implements and power tools. |
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