Suzanne Powell
Suzanne was born and raised in Indio, right here in the Coachella Valley. She is a third generation family farmer, working at Peter Rabbit Farms in Coachella, a company her grandfather started in 1950. Peter Rabbit Farms is best known for its packaged baby carrots but also grows: peppers, leaf lettuce, citrus and grapes among other things.

Suzanne attended high school in San Diego returning each summer to work with her grandfather and father at their Coachella farm. She attended the University of Southern California and has a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology. She returned to Peter Rabbit Farms to work full time but found the family business not to her liking. Returning to San Diego she worked as the Director of Foodservice Sales at The Green House, a fresh herb company. She then move to Denver in the early 90’s to be the Category Manager of Perishables for Kraft Foodservice. After winning many performance awards at Kraft, the long hours and intensity of the job got the best of her and she felt the pull to return to San Diego. That and wrapping her car around a tree during a snowstorm in Denver made the decision to move that much easier!!! She then began work for the Washington Apple Commission as a Foodservice Account Manager and with a 19 state territory, lived her next 3 years on airplanes and in hotel rooms.

She returned to the family company in 1998, much wiser and grateful to be working with her dad and 2 brothers. She is the VP of Sales & Marketing and now has a 50 state territory so the travel is still an important part of her job, as she negotiates contracts with the major retailers around the country.

Her love of golf started early. Farming was tough business with long hours. The few hours her dad was home on the weekends were spent watching golf on TV. He loved the game and Suzanne loved spending that time with her father. Her grandparents lived on the Bermuda Dunes golf course and she spent many wonderful days driving her grandfather’s golf cart as he played.

Suzanne joined EWGA in December of 2001. A significant number of the produce professionals she deals with play the game and it’s not uncommon for deals to be made on the course; she felt she needed to learn the proper way to play. Although she would “hack” around a course once every year or so, it was not golf she was playing but rather some odd version of the game spent mostly in the trees!

EWGA’s lesson series, fun and serious tournaments as well as social events have led to increased confidence in her game. She loves to brag that she broke 100 (99) last summer and broke 90 (87) this past April in Hawaii. Unfortunately the rest of her game still hovers in the 100-110 range. That doesn’t matter though, as she loves the organization, and what golf has brought to her life both personally and professionally. She is very excited about the opportunity to give back to the organization that’s had such a positive impact on her life.