Our Team

Michael Rozyne has been a marketer of small farm products for three decades. He worked on conventional and organic farms in Maine, and was Purchaser and Marketer for a regional food distributor in New England. He was cofounder of the fair trade coffee company, Equal Exchange. He started Red Tomato in 1996 and is RT’s Executive Director. He lives with his partner Kimberly and two daughters in Middleborough, Massachusetts.

Betty MacKenzie is HR and Finance Director of Red Tomato. She held positions as the grocery buyer, education director and marketing director at Harvest Cooperative in Boston for many years and before that, was a VISTA worker in Roxbury, Massachusetts. Her other life revolves around her family including husband Jim, teenage daughter Sofia, son Jeff, daughter-in-law Gigi, and granddaughter Vida. Much of their time is spent outdoors: cycling through apple country in the Nashoba Valley, and fending off groundhogs from the summer garden.

Angel's full name is Luis Angel Mendez. Angel came to Red Tomato in 2002 as warehouse manager, and says he was introduced to Red Tomato by Derrick Lane, the awesome former truck driver for RT. Angel held positions as Warehouse Manager for Boston Baby Superstores and T.V.I. for 7 years prior to joining Red Tomato. He is now our Operations Manager, handling transportation, trade logistics, bookkeeping and IT support. Angel says, "My journey here at Red Tomato has been an extreme learning experience. I have learned so much about agriculture and the politics that surround it. I love every aspect of the business."  Angel spends his free-time enjoying his family and his summer mornings in his garden, which he calls, his farm.

Susan Futrell has been involved in food and sustainable agriculture endeavors for over 30 years. She spent 25 years in distribution, sales and marketing, most recently as Director of Marketing for Blooming Prairie Warehouse, a Midwest organic and natural foods wholesale cooperative. She’s a writer, and has an MFA in nonfiction writing from the University of Iowa. She is Marketing Director for Red Tomato, and divides her time between Massachusetts and Iowa, where she lives with her husband, Will, two cats, and a tiny garden.

 

Diane Stalford a native of Hawaii is our Creative/Packaging Director. Working quarter time, she has been with RT since 1996. She traffics how we visually portray ourselves and strives for design continuity between print and packaging. Diane is responsible for selecting appropriate produce packaging solutions while keeping abreast of sustainable packaging.

Jon Wright, CPA is Red Tomato’s Finance Manager. He keeps our books, and those of many other non-profits, in top shape, while maintaining a busy life with his family in Newburyport, Massachusetts.

 

Laura Edwards-Orr is Red Tomato's Marketing and Communications Manager. Laura is a writer, researcher and consummate foodie dedicated to making food systems change understandable (and hopefully attainable) to everyone. Laura works closely with the Trade, Marketing, and Food Systems Development teams at Red Tomato to tell the wonderful, and sometimes quirky, story of good food, the farmers who grow it, and how it travels from farm to plate.

Lesley Sykes, Red Tomato's Trader, came to Red Tomato in May 2011 as a recent graduate from Tufts University’s Agriculture, Food and Environment Master’s program. She studied nutrition as an undergraduate, but shifted her focus to what she is most passionate about: helping farmers get fresh, seasonal produce into the hands of consumers. This is ironic, she says, since she grew up in a major produce hub in Nogales, Arizona, and her entire family is involved with sales and distribution of Mexican-grown produce. Lesley spends her free time exploring New England, running, and cooking with seasonal fare. And, she doesn’t plan on leaving New England anytime soon!

We wish the best to Ciaran Foley, our former Trade Team Leader, as he sets off for his next adventure in life.