CANADA - The Star Group recently announced the loss of a great friend and partner, Co-Founder Leo Baribeau. As a Founder of the company, Baribeau was deeply-invested and well-known in the industry.

Baribeau was born on March 22, 1946, in Edam, SK, and was one of six children raised by Gregoire and Maria Baribeau. In 1989, he aided in the founding of Star Produce, which is now The Star Group, and remained there until his retirement in 2006.

Throughout his career, he was Chairman of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association, Chairman of the Canadian Horticultural Roundtable, and sat in on many national, international, and provincial fruit and vegetable boards and task forces. He received the CPMA Lifetime Achievement Award and The Packer Canadian Produce Person of the Year award in 2004.

Friends, family, and colleagues note, in a press release, that Baribeau was a great storyteller and could always capture a crowd with his sense of humor. His true gift was that he always had time for people. Baribeau would spend the time to mentor, teach, and coach so many.

He leaves to remember him, his wife, Virginia, and daughter, Sheila; brother, Robert, sister, Denise (Bob) Buckley; and sister-in-law Wyonne Baribeau; in-laws David (Adele) Wiegers, Gerald (Bernadette) Wiegers, Anne (Doug) Sandbeck, Theresa (Kelly) Oliphant, and Janet (Louis) Christ; and numerous nieces and nephews.

An iconic presence in the industry, Leo Baribeau will be dearly missed by all who had the chance to know him. We at ANUK send our condolences to those he has left behind.