Presenting the New Members of the Coffee Technicians Guild Leadership Council
/Dear members of the Coffee Technicians Guild around the globe,
The election of the new 2022-2024 CTG Leadership Council is complete and we’re thrilled to welcome four new members!
Please join us in giving a warm welcome to:
Hugo Flores
Maria Cleaveland
Panagiotis Litos
Hylan Joseph
The CTG Leadership Council consists of 12 volunteer members who serve a two-year term, supported by the SCA staff. There are four open seats in the 2021 election and members elected to serve on the council will serve a two-year term from February 2022, to January 2024.
Special thanks to all nominees who put their name forward in this election and thanks to CTG members for their commitment to the guild! We urge the community to please continue to support the new members in their upcoming two-year term. A big thank you also to the CTG Election Committee for the hours of work interviewing all of the nominees that we received. It was a lot of work and we appreciate their dedication to the Guild. The members of the election committee 2021 were:
Madeleine Longoria Garcia
Gary Norwood
Kaleb Leach
Scott Manley
Simon Green
Kurt Benedikt
Ann Halsne
Thank you for supporting the mission of the Coffee Technicians Guild!
Richard Muhl
2021 Chair of the CTG
Meet the New Members of the Leadership Council
Hugo Flores
Hugo worked as a roaster manufacturer at the beginning of his career and has been a technician for several years. Nowadays he is a master roaster from 6 years ago in Etrusca Comercial S.A. de C.V. in Mexico City. And an AST in the CSP and AST in the CTechP. He works in maintenance of coffee equipment and has been taking all the certifications in this matter.
In 2018 he became an Arabica Q Grader.
Maria Cleaveland
Maria Cleaveland is a food and beverage professional with business development, strategic planning, finance, and operations expertise. A veteran of the early specialty coffee scene, she has served as both Director of Wholesale & Licensing and Store Support for Peet’s and the Vice-President of Sales for Equator. Notably, Cleaveland managed Starbucks’ expansion into airports across the US. Currently she serves as Regional Sales Director across the Western US and Canada for Urnex Brands. In her role, she advances sales with technical acumen while advancing gender equity in her volunteer role with International Women’s Coffee Association (IWCA). Cleaveland earned her Bachelors of Science business degree in Hotel Administration from Cornell University.
Panagiotis Litos
Born and raised in Patras Greece where he still works with passion in a sector that he loves. From an early age through his studies in electronic engineering he discovered the importance of machinery equipment in every field. His professional career started in the renewable sector and specifically in the construction of wind and solar systems as a team leader of the construction team in Greece and abroad.
For nine years he was additionally in charge of conducting wind tests (measurements), constructing medium-low voltage and fiber optic networks.
In 2014 he entered the coffee industry and the Coffee Island company. Initially he was responsible for the maintenance and repair of the machinery and equipment of their franchise network (more than 450 coffee stores YTD). In 2016 he was upgraded to Supervisor and began to get more involved with the company’s R&D procedures. His involvement with the R&D Dpt is mostly dedicated to evaluating new or updated equipment so as to support top quality products and services. He strongly believes that innovation and excellence can only be achieved through reliable tools and highly trained team members and that is why he never ceases to develop his colleagues and evolve their way of working.
Hylan Joseph
Hylan is Past Chair of the CTG and is running for a new term as a Leadership Council Member. Hylan's knowledge and drive to move and the CTG forward has been described as an amazing attribute to the CTG, which he hopes to continue with.