AFE appoints Megan Bowman and Gustavo Gilchrist to board of trustees

According to a press release, the American Floral Endowment (AFE) appointed Dr. Megan Bowman of Ball Horticultural Company and Gustavo Gilchrist of Kennicott Brothers Company to join the AFE Board of Trustees. Both will serve a three-year term starting in September 2019. 

AFE Trustees are industry leaders who volunteer their time and talent to help guide Endowment activities and programs benefiting the industry. Both will also serve on an AFE committee related to education, public relations and development, research, or the Floral Marketing Research Fund. 

Bowman joins the Board with a robust research background, specifically bioinformatics, molecular plant breeding and molecular biology. Currently, she is bioinformatics and data analysis Lead at Ball Horticultural Company in Chicago.

Bowman joined the floral industry recently, in 2018, but has many years of applicable knowledge including having received her Bachelors of Science in Plant Biology from Michigan State University and her Doctorate in Plant Breeding and Plant Genetics from University of Wisconsin-Madison.  

Gilchrist is president of Kennicott Brothers Company in Chicago, Illinois. He has expertise in organizational structure, workforce culture, mergers and acquisitions and employee stock ownership plans. He graduated from Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, a private university in Medellin, Colombia, with a degree in chemical engineering, and received an MBA from IPADE, the business school of Universidad Panamericana, a private university in Mexico.

Completing their terms on the AFE Board in September are Ken Altman of Altman Plants and Dr. Marvin Miller of Ball Horticultural Company.