Charles (Chet) E. Townsend, Jr.
5400 Ft. Denaud Road ¨ Fort Denaud, Florida 33935-0440 ¨ Home: 863-675-8637
Mobile Phone:
863-673-1374 ¨ E-mail: chet@ultimatecitrus.com
A highly innovative and experienced Senior Executive with more than 34 years of successful, progressive experience in all aspects of citrus industry management, including information systems, operations, marketing and futures trading, and Irrigation Agronomy with field crops, including corn, cotton, peanut, soybean, and tomato. Hands on, pro-active manager recognized for open, honest, straightforward communication.
·
One
of the top Irrigation Agronomists world-wide, specializing in corn, cotton,
peanut, soybean, tomato, and tree crops, including citrus, by analyzing soil
moisture data collected via soil moisture probes.
·
Unique
ability to train growers to use and understand soil moisture data to improve
water use efficiency and crop yields.
·
Introduced
soil moisture monitoring to the Florida Citrus Industry using C-Probes, AquaSpy
Probes, AgWISE.net, and AquaSpy Server.
·
Help
developed and directed the fresh fruit business-to-business on-line trading
system for eFruit International, Inc., FruitMarketplace.com.
·
Maintained
excellent customer relations, expanded orange juice concentrate sales from $5
million to over $16 million in annual sales, with overall fruit and juice sales
combined in excess of $40 million.
·
Developed
corporate Intranet to allow easy access of data, HR policies, marketing, and
weather information for production and other personnel. Facilitated data
linkage and communications between all divisions of the company. Developed
juice inventory, production and sales spreadsheets to manage growth in sales.
·
Added
$1.2 million to bottom line in 1997 by conservatively hedging orange
concentrate inventory on the OJ Futures Market and managing pricing of fruit
and juice.
·
Directed
a unique pounds solids management program to accurately estimate the company’s
fruit crop and to maximize returns by managing the harvest of the crop in a
scientific manner.
·
Through
quick innovative negotiations, was able to salvage the company’s orange crop,
after the January, 1997 freeze, by contract packing orange juice through
several processors and selling the juice directly to end users for a profit.
·
Successfully
negotiated multi-year fruit contracts with major processors at favorable
prices.
·
Active
in industry affairs representing the company and is well respected.
Turner Foods Corporation was a
subsidiary of the FPL Group, Inc., trading on the NYSE (FPL), with annual
revenues exceeding $6 billion. Turner Foods Corporation annual revenues were in
excess of $40 million.
Vice President, Technical Services 1997
to 1998
Reporting directly to the CEO, responsible for OJ Commodities Futures Trading, FCOJ Sales from Toll Processing Inventory, Internet and Intranet Web site Maintenance. Direct reports in the Information Systems Group included a Director of Technical Services and two technicians.
Reporting directly to the
CEO, responsible for revenues in excess of $40 million annually by directing
all corporate marketing strategies including Fruit Marketing, FCOJ Sales and
Futures Trading Fruit Harvesting and Contract Negotiations. Direct reports
included a marketing manager, a harvesting manager and a staff of 5 harvesting
superintendents.
Education
Bachelor of Science,
Agriculture, University of Florida, 1975
Attended George Washington
University, 1971-1973
Areas of Effectiveness
·
Irrigation
Agronomist
·
Public
Relations with the Citrus Industry
·
Orange
Juice Marketing and Commodity Futures Trading
·
Contract
Negotiations
·
Project
Management
·
Windows
XP and 7
·
Microsoft
Office Pro Suite; Excel, Word, PowerPoint
·
DreamWeaver
HTML Web Authoring Tools
Web Sites Published
·
The
Ultimate Citrus Page:
http://www.ultimatecitrus.com
·
The
Story of Florida Orange Juice - From the Grove to Your Glass: http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/Story/oj_story.html
·
Citrus
Industry Magazine: http://www.citrusindustry.net
· DISC - Decision Information Systems for Citrus: http:// www.ultimatecitrus.com /disc/
· Florida Science Source, Inc.: http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/fssource
Professional
Affiliations
Gulf Citrus Growers Association
Director 1986
to 2001
Chairman, Community Relations
Committee 1996 to 2000
President 1991
to 1992
Florida Citrus Mutual
Director 1989
to 1992
Citrus Administrative Committee
Grower Member 1988
to Present
Chairman 1992 to 1993
Florida Citrus Crop Estimate Advisory
Committee
Member 1988
to Present
Chairman 1994