PMA Foundation Brings Taste of Year-round Talent Management Solutions to Fresh Summit

With Produce Marketing Association Foundation for Industry Talent (PMA Foundation) programs now extending beyond the U.S. to Australia, Canada, Chile, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa, members of the global fresh produce and floral industry attending this year’s Fresh Summit Convention & Expo will gain a world perspective on industry talent from a number of PMA Foundation programs and networking events. Fresh Summit 2015 convenes Oct. 23-25 at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta, Ga. This year’s Fresh Summit will feature the Pack Family Career Pathways, the first program to attract leading university students to careers in the fresh produce and floral industry, officials say. Since that first collaboration between the Pack Family and PMA in 2004, more than 400 students have participated in Fresh Summit with the help of Pack Foundation scholarships. This year’s program will include 41 students from 13 universities in the U.S., Australia, Chile and South Africa. Career Pathways has since grown into a suite of seven student-attraction programs held in conjunction with major annual industry events in the U.S., Canada and Australia. “We originally founded the Pack Family Foundation with a vision to give back to the fresh produce industry after the sale of our family’s fresh produce business,” says Jay Pack, former owner and CEO of Standard Fruit & Vegetable Co., Inc. “As industry business owners, we saw the need to articulate the fresh produce story to recruit college students as far back as the mid-1990s. That need has only grown as the world of produce has become, and will continue to grow, more complex.” In addition to Pack Family Career Pathways, PMA Foundation will also host the following programs, as outlined by PMA officials, at this year’s Fresh Summit as part of the Industry Talent community:

Young professionals participating in the PMA Foundation Emerging Leaders Program  will complete a capstone course and graduate at Fresh Summit. The program combines classroom work, team simulations, webinars and personal coaching to train rising stars. It was designed and is delivered in partnership with Thunderbird School of Global Management at Arizona State University, combining their global management training expertise with the PMA Foundation’s industry expertise. The 2015 ELP class includes 36 young professionals from across the industry supply chain and from around the world. “Professional development like workshops, seminars, and e-learning provide a great avenue for our early talent to learn critical skills,” says Traci Ramsey, global human resource director, vegetables, for Monsanto, this year’s ELP premier sponsor. “With retirements in this industry on the rise, companies are focused on development of talent pipelines and stronger succession plans that will offer strong leaders the ability to advance quickly.” PMA Foundation will also host the 5K Race for Talent at Fresh Summit, which will begin Saturday morning, Oct. 24, at 7 a.m. Proceeds provide crucial support for the development and execution of the PMA Foundation’s mission. Space is limited to 1,000 participants. Interested runners can register onsite Thursday and Friday at Registration Hall.