Okanagan Specialty Fruits™ Welcomes New Management Team Members
SUMMERLAND, B.C. - When one door closes, another one always opens. For Okanagan Specialty Fruits™, developer of non-browning Artic® apple varieties, that means welcoming new hires to the management team after saying farewell to Co-Founder and previous CFO Louisa Carter when she retired earlier this year. The company has hired JF Gamelin as the Director of Sales, Joel Yaeger as the Facility Operations Manager, and Andrew Hofer as the Chief Financial Officer.
“We are extremely excited about the growth opportunities ahead of us at OSF,” explained Neal Carter, President of Okanagan Specialty Fruits. “The industry experience these new team members bring will play an integral role in reaching our goals and finding creative solutions to any challenges we may encounter along the way.”
In his new role, Gamelin is responsible for leading sales operations for Arctic apples and ApBitz™ dried apple snacks. What makes the addition of Gamelin in this role so exciting is his clear vision for driving sales and his ability to strategize the alignment of the company’s innovative product development and its expanding supply. With his master’s degree in project management and over a decade of produce industry experience, Gamelin is jumping into his role, and the company excitedly welcomes the addition of his work.
The company has begun to develop its own centralized fruit receiving, storage, processing, packing, and shipping facility in the state of Washington, and, there, Yaeger will tackle the development of this infrastructure. In his role, Yaeger will oversee day-to-day operations when its complete. He brings with him a bachelor’s degree in business management, as well as 28 years of food processing industry experience, and the company looks forward to seeing Yaeger’s work in action as they move forward with its Washington endeavor.
As the company welcomes these two assets to its team, it said goodbye to Louisa Carter earlier in the year, after she served more than two decades developing Arctic apples. According to a press release, the company has brought Andrew Hofer on deck to hold the Chief Financial Officer role she left. Proving to be a perfect fit for his new role, he grew up on an orchard in British Columbia and has since become a Chartered Accountant.
“Starting this company with Louisa has been such an adventure and I couldn’t have done it without her,” says Carter. “Her retirement is very well-deserved, and I know I speak for the whole team when I say how much her contributions were valued and will be missed.”
Congratulations to the Okanagan Specialty Fruits team on these promising new additions to your team, and to Louisa Carter on this exciting new chapter!
