Charles (Chet) E. Townsend, Jr.

5400 Ft. Denaud Rd.¨ Alva, Florida 33920 ¨ Home: 863/675-8637 ¨ Fax: 863-675-7837

Mobile Phone: 863-673-1374 ¨ E-mail: chet@ultimatecitrus.com

 

Executive Summary

 

A highly innovative and experienced Senior Executive with more than 29 years of successful, progressive experience in all aspects of citrus industry management, including information systems, operations, marketing and futures trading. Uniquely effective in the development of useful management information tools through the use of a wide area network and intranet. Hands on, pro-active manager recognized for exceptional ability to create and implement successful marketing programs.

 

Summary of Accomplishments

 

·         Introduced soil moisture monitoring to the Florida Citrus Industry using C-Probes and AgWISE.net.

 

·         Help developed and directed the fresh fruit business-to-business on-line trading system for eFruit International, Inc., FruitMarketplace.com. (www.efruitinternational.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.

 

Employment History

 

Area Manager Florida, Agrilink Florida Inc.                                                            2001 to Present

 

Commercial Director, eFruit International, Inc., Orlando, FL                                        1999 to 2001

 

eFruit International is a business-to-business web site for trading fruit and fruit juices on-line.

 

Turner Foods Corporation, Punta Gorda, FL,                                                                1976 to 1998

 

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.

 

Vice President, Marketing and Sales                                                                           1995 to 1997

 

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.

 

Director, Marketing                                                                                                      1989 to 1995

 

Vice President of Operations                                                                                       1985 to 1989

 

Director, Operations                                                                                                    1983 to 1985

 

 

Education

 

Bachelor of Science, Agriculture, University of Florida, 1975

 

Attended George Washington University, 1971-1973

 

 

Areas of Effectiveness

 

·     Public Relations with the Citrus Industry

·     Orange Juice Marketing and Commodity Futures Trading

·     Contract Negotiations

·     Project Management

·     Windows 95/98/NT/XP and NT Internet Services

·     Microsoft Office Pro Suite; Excel, Word, Powerpoint

·     CorelDraw Graphics Design Software

·     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://members.aol.com/citrusweb/oj_story.html

·     Citrus Industry Magazine: http://www.citrusindustry.net

·     DISC - Decision Information Systems for Citrus:  http:// www.ultimatecitrus.com /disc/

·     The Gulf Citrus Growers Association:  http://members.aol.com/gulfcitrus

·     Florida Science Source, Inc.: http://www.ultimatecitrus.com/fssource

·     AMS Engineering & Environmental: http://www.ams-ee.com

 

 

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