OGC’s VP of Supply Chain Management David Amorose to Retire After 30-Year Career
Summarizing the impact that David Amorose has had on OGC and his peers during the span of his impressive 30-year career is nearly impossible.
But a lovely tribute penned by OGC’s Quality Assurance Manager, Waylon Spoden, comes close. October 29th will mark both David’s birthday and the end of an era as he embarks on his next adventure, retirement, which we heard will include a lot of baking, gardening, time in nature and hopefully some wine tasting.
David, from all of us at OGC and from the bottom of our hearts, congratulations and thank you for your years of service and countless contributions to the organic food movement!
David Amorose is an authentic, unique individual who represents many dichotomies.
He is diplomatic and gentle in his approach to people and decisions, but a tiger when given a soapbox to climb on and espouse his opinions on a topic he feels strongly about. He is a lover of metrics and data trends but also a stickler for the individual exceptions that plague the produce industry up and down the supply chain. He once submitted an IT ticket for an “anecdotal database” that could not have been a better instance of his internal juxtaposition.
David is old school and carries a leather binder with a paper calendar when he travels. He also loves to try on the phrases that kids are using and to be hip to what is going on in the now. He zooms out to 50,000 feet designing institutional processes for the OGC’s Trust Protector Committee while also reviewing quality inspection emails and asking, “Will this broccoli work for any of our customers?”
He is deeply moved by the plight of our farmers and coworkers, but almost equally moved by the success and relevance of OGC and whether or not we made the right business decisions for our company. He’ll remind you, “we are running a business.”
One can’t overstate David’s long lasting impact on OGC’s culture, structure, and mission. He floats in and out of the day-to-day, but has always stayed committed to where OGC is going and ensuring we are living up to our potential. He is a master politicker, constantly engaging stakeholders in decisions and making sure people are and feel heard. He has been pivotal in all of the ownership structures that OGC has adopted and also keeps his eyes and fingers on the pulse of everyone that comes in the door within his sphere of influence.
While his shoes are impossible to fill, he has steadfastly honed his instincts to bring people into our organization that will help us raise the bar in the long term. He shares his wisdom with anyone who will listen, and even some that don’t. We have all benefited from David’s contribution over his 30-year career at OGC. He represents the zeitgeist of OGC with ease and can wax poetic on what makes us, us. A lot of history leaves with David’s retirement, but even he is forever optimistic about where OGC is going.
With gratitude,
Waylon Spoden