HerbalEGram: Volume 5, Number  4, April 2008

The American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) has elected 8 new members to its Board of Trustees.¹ These new members were elected at the Board meeting on March 13, 2008, in Anaheim, California and will join 17 existing members of the board.

The new members include Cindy Angerhofer of the Aveda Corporation, Rupa Das of BI Nutraceuticals, Daniel Gagnon of Herbs, Etc., Jackie Greenfield of Gaia Herbs, Richard Kaufman of Paragon Laboratories, Wilson Lau of nuherbs Co.^®, Tom Newmark of New Chapter, Inc., and Volker Wypyszyk of MB Group. These members were selected by AHPA members.

Cindy K. Angerhofer, PhD, the Director of Botanical Research for Aveda, has over 25 years of experience in the fields of natural products, chemistry, and biology. Aveda, Sanskrit for “all knowledge,” was founded in 1978 to manufacture flower and plant-based beauty products.² Dr. Angerhofer earned her PhD in pharmacognosy from the University of Minnesota. She is the author of over 40 peer-reviewed publications and a member of the American Botanical Council’s (ABC) Advisory Board.

Rupa Das is the vice president of global quality and compliance at BI Nutraceuticals where she develops, implements, and manages the quality assurance, quality control, and regulatory systems.³ Das has more than 13 years of quality and regulatory compliance management experience in the dietary supplement and personal care product industries. BI Nutraceuticals of Long Beach, California is a supplier of dietary supplements and functional food ingredients.

Daniel Gagnon is the owner and medical herbalist of Herbs, Etc. of Santa Fe, New Mexico. A practicing herbalist since 1976, Gagnon has studied medical herbalism and pharmacognosy with the mission of educating the public about the practical use of herbal medicines.⁴ He serves as an herbal consultant for various types of medical doctors and is the author of Liquid Herbal Drops in Everyday Use (Botanical Research and Education Institute, 3rd edition, 1997) and the co-author of Breathe Free: Nutritional and Herbal Care for Your Respiratory System (Lotus Press 1990).

Jackie Greenfield, plant biologist, is the botanical division manager of Gaia Herbs, a producer of herbal and phytomedicinal products in Brevard, North Carolina. Greenfield purchases herbs on a global level from certified organic growers and ecologically sensitive wild harvesters.⁵ Greenfield has over 20 years of organic expertise. In addition to her work at Gaia Herbs, she runs her own organic farm in Pennsylvania and assists farmers in the transition from conventional farming to organic production, as well as the development of business plans, production schedules, and market analyses.

Richard Kaufman is the Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Paragon Laboratories, a California-based maker of natural products and supplements, founded in 1970. Its mission is to provide customers with supplements of the highest quality.⁶ Paragon has been certified by both the Natural Products Association (NPA) and NSF for good manufacturing practices. With 20 years experience in the dietary supplements industry, Kaufman has held many positions involving materials processing and regulatory matters (e-mail, April 10, 2008). He holds a doctor of jurisprudence degree from Loyola Law School in Los Angeles.

Wilson Lau has been in the herb business for 29 years working with his family business, nuherbs Co. of Oakland, California. (oral communication, April 4, 2008). After earning his law degree in 2003 from Santa Clara, in California he decided to stay with the family business as the vice president of sales and marketing. Wilson is currently also the managing editor of the nuherbs newsletter, Herbal Explorations. Nuherbs Co. was founded in 1979 with the mission of supplying premium Chinese herbs and was one of the first companies to adapt laboratory testing for Chinese herbal supplements.

Tom Newmark is President and Co-CEO of New Chapter, Inc. of Brattleboro, Vermont. Newmark has authored many articles about health and he is the co-author of the books Beyond Aspirin (Hohm Press 2000) and The Life Bridge (Herbal Free Press 2002).⁷ Newmark and New Chapter’s founder Paul Schulick are the makers of Zyflamend^®, a multi-herb combination with ongoing pharmacological and clinical research. Newmark has been awarded multiple patents for herbal formulations.

Volker Wypyszyk is the CEO of Martin Bauer (MB) North America, Inc. in Torrance, California, a subsidiary of the MB Company in Germany. He has over 25 years experience in the herbal industry. He joined Zuellig Group in 1981, became president of Botanicals International, and later became CEO of Zuellig Group North America (e-mail, April 2, 2008). He joined MB in 2002 to start MB North America to distribute herbal-based ingredients produced by the parent company to the dietary supplement and food and beverage industry.

“The AHPA Board of Trustees is the largest it has ever been, and the diversity and depth of the association’s membership is well represented,” said AHPA President Michael McGuffin in an AHPA press release.¹ “I look forward to working with this outstanding group of individuals as we continue the good work done under the leadership of these officers in 2007 and address problems old and new with the insight of the entire board.”

—Kelly E. Saxton

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