Valent hires managers for southeastern, western regions

Valent Professional Products has named Jim Crockett and Nancy Voorhees territory managers for its southeastern and western regions, respectively.

Crockett, who most recently served as a horticulturist at Auburn University, has worked in a leadership capacity at a number of major turf and ornamental companies during his career. He was vice president of operations at Color Spot Nurseries and national sales manager and director of horticultural sales for Cleary Chemical Corp. He earned a bachelor’s degree in botany from Miami University and a master’s degree in ornamental horticulture from Auburn.

Crockett, who remains based in Auburn, Ala., will be responsible for Valent Professional Products’ southeastern region, which comprises Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee and the Florida Panhandle.

“The Southeast is experiencing enormous growth and is an area of great significance to Valent,” Crockett said. “My combination of commercial and research experience and my familiarity with the Valent product line will help me provide our customers and end users with the most effective solutions to their biggest challenges.”

Voorhees, who grew up in a small North Dakota farm town and earned a bachelor’s degree in horticulture from North Dakota State University, joined ChemLawn Services as a lawn care specialist. She spent two years in Salt Lake City, Utah, and then moved to Northern California, where she served as assistant branch manager at two ChemLawn branches. She spent the past 24 years with Target Specialty Products as a distributor sales representative and, most recently, as the company’s landscape business manager.

“My time at Target provided me with excellent preparation for this exciting new role at Valent,” said Voorhees, a licensed California pest control advisor and certified arborist. “I’m already quite familiar with a lot of Valent products because I’ve been selling them. I’m looking forward to expanding our presence on the West Coast and working with our customers to identify solutions for the problems they face.”

Voorhees will be based in Half Moon Bay, Calif., and cover the western region, which includes California, Nevada, Arizona and Hawaii.

“Jim and Nancy have a vast amount of experience in the turf and ornamental markets and are intimately familiar with their designated regions,” said Dr. Mike Riffle, national sales and market development manager for Valent Professional Products. “They are also already well acquainted with many of our products and will be valuable resources for our customers in what are two very important geographical areas for Valent.”