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Daehnfeldt names Joe Reed Messer Vice President of Daehnfeldt, Inc.

Daehnfeldt warmly welcomes JOE REED MESSER as new vice president of Daehnfeldt Inc. !

Joe Reed Messer is an international executive with 12 years experience in the flower seed industry and 8 years of experience as a greenhouse operator.

In 1989 Joe became the President of Sluis&Groot America. In 1994 he resigned his position to become the director of DePuy ProSource - a world leader in the manufacture and sales of orthopedic devices. DePuy has a sales force of over 500 people and revenues greater than $600 million (USD). After two years at DePuy, Joe became part owner and Vice President of Sales and Marketing for Paragon Medical. Paragon specializes in surgical instrument management.

After two years of 50% annualized sales growth, Joe sold his share of the business to re-enter his true passion: the flower seed industry.

Joe says: "I intend to use the experience that I gained at Sluis & Groot along with the outside know- ledge that I acquired at DePuy and Paragon to bring creative solutions and proposals to many of the challenges that face Daehnfeldt as we approach the new millennium. My desire is to bring new F1 varieties into our product portfolio while at the same time expanding the market for our current products like Gerbera, Begonia and Primula. I look forward to worldng with Tom Linwick and the rest of the flow- er seed team in my continual quest to make Daehnfeldt the preferred vendor by all our US customers and growers".

Joe is a strong beliver in technology and he plans to leverage his experience in computer aided systems to enhance Dahnfeldt's ability to market seed, process and fill orders, and produce seed.

During his high school and college years, Joe worked in his father's business "Jacks Greenhouse". He graduated from Purdue University in 1982 with an Bachelor of Science degree in Horticulture Business Management. He then started to work as a flower seed product manager for Sluis & Groot Seeds in Enkhuizen, Holland. During his term with Sluis & Groot, Joe continued his education with schooling at the International lnstitute for Management Development in Lausanne Switzertand in 1991 and with a Master of Science degree (MBA) from the Krannert Business School at Purdue University in 1993

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