Dec 20, 2012

Walters Gardens Announces Personnel ChangesSource: Walters Gardens

Walters Gardens, Inc. has announced that Niles Riese, vice president of sales, will be leaving the company at the end of 2012. Riese and his wife Janell plan to move back to Colorado, where they are both from. Riese is looking forward to taking some time off to enjoy skiing the slopes and working on his golf game.

Riese has worked in the Green Industry since 1978 for such companies as Goldsmith Seeds, Benary, Sluis & Groot (now Syngenta) and Glass Corner. In the last five years at Walters Gardens, he has helped to build new relationships with key large growers, was instrumental in forming a successful partnership with Proven Winners, and helped to build the company’s sales. If you wish to contact Niles after December 21, please contact the new Vice President of Sales, Darren Barshaw, for more information.

To replace Riese, Darren Barshaw has been promoted to vice president of sales. His focus will be on broker relationships, mass merchant sales and key house accounts. He has spent nearly 30 years in the Green Industry as a broker sales representative for Vandenberg Bulb and EHR, and has worked in sales at Walters Gardens for the past year.

Shifting his focus to back to sales, company president, Evan Elenbaas, is now responsible for managing relationships with their direct sales force and building business with key house accounts. He will also manage and grow the Proven Winners Perennials program which began in Fall 2010. Elenbaas has been with Walters Gardens for 20 years.

Walters Gardens has also recently hired Julie Zylstra as its new office manager. Zylstra will manage a staff of 10 customer service representatives. She will work to maximize the productivity and efficiency of the office staff. Zylstra comes to Walters Gardens from Pell Greenhouses where she previously worked as the Young Plant Program Manager.