Gary Jones

Gary has extensive commercial industry experience, having worked in the greenhouse horticulture sector, turf/amenity parks, field vegetables and mushroom production. (It’s a little known fact that he was at one time the Ministry of Agriculture National Consultant for Protected Rhubarb production in the UK!).

He previously helped establish a commercial micro-propagation company (now propagating the famous Robin Hood Oak), spent 9 years with the UK Ministry of Agriculture, was ‘Technical Field Officer’ at a large salad marketing group, and enjoyed 6 years as ‘Technical Manager’ at the largest producer of bedding and potted plants in the UK.

Gary was a founding member of the Steering Committee of the British Ornamental Plant Producers (BOPP) quality assurance scheme and represented bedding plant growers nationally on the Technical Committee of the British Bedding and Potted Plant Association (BBPA) before moving to Canada in 1999.

Here, he was Department Co-Chair and faculty member at KPU’s School of Horticulture, for 23 years, before taking early retirement in April 2022. However, you can take the guy out of horticulture but not horticulture out of the guy, and Gary returned to the foray as Program Manager – Industry Development with the BC Greenhouse Growers’ Association.

In 2012-13 Gary spent a year in Uganda living and working alongside school students and local farmers to develop potential new food crops to the region and build a school curriculum in field-scale agriculture for high school students.