Garden Fresh Salsa Partner John Latella to Speak at Walsh College BusinessLIVE 2010 in partnership with Crain's Detroit Business

TROY, Mich., May 5 /PRNewswire/ -- John J. Latella, Partner/COO-General Counsel, Garden Fresh Gourmet, and Walsh College alumnus (Master of Science in Finance, '99), will be the Michigan Business Success Story speaker for the fourth annual Walsh College conference focused on small and family business growth, Tuesday, May 11, 7:30 a.m. - 2 p.m., at the MSU Management Education Center in Troy. This year's conference is combined with Crain's Detroit Business Second Stage Workshops.

Ferndale, Michigan based Garden Fresh Gourmet was founded in 1997 and has become the largest producer of fresh, all-natural salsa in North America, and the No. 1 award-winning salsa company in the country. Started by husband and wife team Jack and Annette Aronson, the salsa was a side project out of the couple's Woodward Avenue restaurant, Clubhouse Barbecue. Now with two production plants in Ferndale, and the recent acquisition of El Matador Chips in Grand Rapids adding a 60,000- square-foot manufacturing facility, the company's sales topped $74 million in 2009. Its 300+ employees produce the Garden Fresh Gourmet and Margaritaville brand preservative-free salsas, chips and dips sold in 5,000 stores in the U.S. and Canada.

Tickets for BusinessLIVE 2010 are $60 each, $55 for groups of ten or more, $45 for Walsh College alumni, and $25 for Walsh College students. On-site registration is an additional $15. Tickets can be purchased through Crain's at (313) 446-0300 or online at http://www.regonline.com/builder/site/Default.aspx?eventid=796827.

Additional presentations scheduled for the conference include an opening session on Second Stage Success Strategies:

• Kirk Vercnocke, president, Phoenix Innovate
• Paul Glantz, president, Emagine Entertainment (SBA 50 for the Future)
• Dave Simon, president, ilumisys (25th ANNIVERSARY: 25 Companies to Watch - Green/Energy)

The panel will be moderated by Walsh President Stephanie Bergeron and Crain's Detroit Business Publisher Mary Kramer.  All three panelists are Walsh College graduates, and each has a unique tale of growth. Breakout sessions will be offered on the following topics:

Executing the Plan

• Breathing life into a strategic plan, presented by Kathryn Baker, president, AdviCoach and Susan Gibson, CORP! Magazine.
• Succession at the second stage, presented by Frank Seyferth, JD, attorney, Foster Swift Collins & Smith and Michael Kotsis, COO, Atlas Wholesale Food Co.
• Getting Your People on the Right Bus Heading in the Right Direction, presented by Professor Lee Meadows, PhD.

Innovative Marketing

• Brand Building, presented by John Lichtenberg,  VP, Chief Marketing Officer, Walsh College.
• Social Media Savvy, presented by Rebecca Davies, JD, Attorney, Foster Swift Collins & Smith and Jason Ryan, principal, Vision Fuel Media. Twitter: @Foster_Swift and @VirtualJason
• The Letter Y: Web Strategies to Grow Your Business, presented by Andy McKeever, director of Interactive Media, Core3 Solutions.

Financial Management

• Accessing capital to grow your business, presented by Eugene Gizzarelli, Avon Plastics and Jeff Wright, senior vice president, Hennessey Capital.
• Don't just survive... THRIVE presented by Ursula Scroggs, CPA, Derderian, Kann, Seyferth & Salucci, P.C.  and Norman E. Richards ("Gene"), JD, Foster, Swift, Collins & Smith.
• Making Money outside the Mitten,  panelists are Jerry Reinhart, president/CEO, PRS Equities Limited and  Janet Sofy, president, HMS Manufacturing, moderated by Raymond Campbell, president, Mastermind Solutions.

Walsh College Business Leadership Institute sponsors include Derderian, Kann, Seyferth, & Salucci, P.C.; Foster, Swift, Collins & Smith, P.C.; Hennessy Capital; Mastermind Solutions; AdviCoach and CORP! Magazine, and Core3 Solutions. Crain's event sponsors include Huntington Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Comcast, Phimation and MSU Management Center.

ABOUT WALSH COLLEGE

Walsh College (www.walshcollege.edu) is a private, independent all-business college in southeast Michigan where application and theory are integrated to prepare graduates for successful careers. The College offers upper-division business and technology degrees at the bachelor's, master's and doctoral levels. Walsh College is accredited by The Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools (www.ncahlc.org) and the International Assembly for Collegiate Business Education (IACBE, www.iacbe.org) and is a member of the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB, www.aacsb.edu).  

Please visit http://www.walshcollege.edu/smallbiz or contact Jan Hubbard at [email protected] / (248) 823-1392 for more information.

SOURCE Walsh College