News Release
Contact: Elizabeth Masten (415) 974-2133
San Francisco Fed Names Two San Diegans to Advisory Council
SAN FRANCISCO, March 27, 1998-- San Diego high tech entrepreneur Barbara
Bry and Encinitas floraculturist Paul Ecke III have been appointed to
the Advisory Council of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, according
to an announcement by Bank president Robert T. Parry.
The purpose of the Council is to serve as an important source of information
to the Federal Reserve System on the District's nine-state economy.
Bry, 48, is co-founder and director of ATCOM/INFO, a supplier of Internet,
E-mail, and information services for the business traveler, and is executive
director of Athena, a program for executive women in technology companies.
She also is the executive producer and moderator of a monthly program
on UCSD-TV, The CONNECT TV Show, which is devoted to issues impacting
technology companies in California and across the nation.
Ecke, 42, is chairman and chief executive officer of the Paul Ecke Ranch,
one of the world's largest producers and breeders of poinsettias. The
Ranch also markets and produces spring plants under The Flower Fields
brand, including New Guinea Impatiens and Sunscape Daisies. Production
sites include California, Guatemala, Mexico, Denmark, and Italy. Mr. Ecke
is the fourth generation to run the family business since it was founded
in 1906.
Ms. Bry is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and holds an
M.B.A. from Harvard University Graduate School of Business Administration.
With experience as a business writer for The Sacramento Bee and The Los
Angeles Times, she went on to serve for twelve years as director of programs
for CONNECT, an internationally recognized public-private program in technology
and entrepreneurship at the University of California, San Diego, which
links high-tech and life sciences companies with the resources needed
to succeed.
Active in business and the community, Ms. Bry has served as president
of the Children's Museum of San Diego, as a director of the San Diego
Data Processing Corporation and the La Jolla Playhouse, as a trustee of
the La Jolla Country Day School, and as an advisory committee member of
the Small Business Development Center of the Greater San Diego Chamber
of Commerce.
Born in San Diego, Mr. Ecke is a graduate in horticulture from Colorado
State University, and holds an M.B.A. from Duke University. Prior to joining
the family business, he worked four years at Hewlett-Packard Company in
Palo Alto as production manager for electronic components. Ecke then developed
and installed a new, computerized order entry system for the Ranch, worked
as operations manager, and became chief executive officer of the company
in 1991. In addition, he serves as managing partner in Caritas Company,
formed to manage family-owned real estate holdings.
Mr. Ecke is the vice president and a director of the Joseph Shinoda
Memorial Scholarship Foundation. He also is active with industry associations
such as the International Community of Plant Breeders, the Society of
American Florists, the San Diego Flower and Plant Association, the California
Farm Bureau, and was a participating founder and developer of the family-owned
San Diego International Floral Trade Center. Mr. Ecke is an officer in
the Las Californias Chapter of Young Presidents Organization, and is active
in The Executive Committee.
Other members of the Bank's Council include its chairman, Bailey S.
(Biff) Barnard, senior vice president of Allied Capital Corporation, San
Francisco, California; council vice chairman, Karla S. Chambers, vice
president of Stahlbush Island Farms, Inc., Corvallis, Oregon; Paula R.
Collins, chief executive officer, WDG Ventures, Inc., San Francisco; Ed
P. Mayne, president of the Utah AFL-CIO; Lawrence S. Okinaga, partner,
Carlsmith Ball Wichman Case & Ichiki, Honolulu,
Hawaii; Peter H. Parra, 5th District Supervisor, County of Kern, Bakersfield,
California; Walter F. Payne, president and chief executive officer, Blue
Diamond Growers, Sacramento, California; Peter H. van Oppen, chairman
and chief executive officer, Advanced Digital Information Corporation,
Redmond, Washington; Bob L. Vice, president, BLV, Agribusiness Consultants,
Fallbrook, California; Richard S. Walden, president, Farmers Investment
Company, Sahuarita, Arizona; Don M. (Duff) Willey, president of Willey
Motors Inc., Bountiful, Utah; and Denice A. Young, C.P.A., president of
Young Real Estate Services, Torrance, California.
The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco provides wholesale banking
services to financial institutions in the nine western states through
the home office in San Francisco and its branches in Los Angeles, Portland,
Salt Lake City, and Seattle. As the nation's central bank, the Federal
Reserve System formulates monetary policy, serves as a bank regulator,
administers consumer protection laws, and is fiscal agent for the U.S.
government.
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