Advisory Board

Dean Kelch — Primary State Botanist, California Department of Food & Agriculture (2011-present), formerly held the position of Associate Plant Systematist for this department (2006–2011), and is an Assistant Researcher with the UC Berkeley and Jepson Herbaria, where he teaches and conducts plant systematic research. He has been a Research Associate at The Jepson Herbarium since 1996. He received a Bachelors degree at the University of Michigan, and his Masters and Ph.D. degrees in Systematic Botany from the University of California, Davis. Dr. Kelch served as Director of the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, California from 1997 to 2000. He currently serves as President of the California Botanical Society, is Past President of the San Francisco Cactus and Succulent Society, and is widely published.

Brian Kemble — is Curator, Chief Horticulturist, and Assistant Garden Director at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Concord, California where he has been employed since 1980. He is a member of the Board of Directors for the Cactus and Succulent Society of American, is currently on the Board of the San Francisco Chapter, and served as President of the Oakland Chapter. He is a frequent speaker at society chapters in the western region, has published numerous articles in their national journal, and is widely recognized as an expert on Aloes. Brian received a degree in philosophy in 1971 from Antioch College in Ohio.

Timothy Metcalf — retired — former Director of UC Davis Botanical Conservatory and Division of Biological Sciences Plant Growth Facilities, a position held from 1972 to 2008. His duties included directing, teaching, and supervising activities in the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, Weier Instructional Greenhouse, DBS Orchard Park and Core Plant Growth Facilities. He is still an active member of numerous plant societies and lectures widely on a broad range of botanical and horticultural topics. Mr. Metcalf received an M.S. in Environmental Horticulture at UC Davis in 1980. He has received numerous awards, most recently an Award of Distinction from the UCD College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Elton Roberts — formed Roberts Cactus and Succulents Nursery in 1987. He has been growing cactus from seed more than 30 years, and has amassed the largest and most diverse private collection of the plant family in northern California. His knowledge of cacti is extensive. He is past president of the regional Cactus and Succulent Society of America, having served seventeen years as a board member. He is a current board member and past president of NorCal, a primary growers association in northern California.

Ernesto Sandoval — is presently Director of UC Davis Botanical Conservatory and Division of Biological Sciences Plant Growth Facilities, a position held since 2008. His duties include directing, teaching, and supervising activities in the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, Weier Instructional Greenhouse, DBS Orchard Park and Core Plant Growth Facilities. He was formerly the Curator for the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory, a position held from 1998-2008. He received his B.S. in Botany at UC Davis in 1996. He frequently leads botanical field trips, and is a popular speaker for California chapters of the Cactus and Succulent Society of America (CSSA), as well as other regional plant and garden groups.

Mark Wegman — is general manager and owner of Wegman's Nursery, Redwood City, California. Mr. Wegman has over thirty experience in the nursery industry. He is currently secretary for the Master Nursery Growers Cooperative, and has been on the board for 16 years. He also served as president of the peninsula chapter of the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers. Mr. Wegman recently received the association Young Nurseryman of the Year award and their Jack Wick award, honors bestowed on members for extraordinary contributions to the industry. He is a member of their state-wide educational committee helping to refine their certification program.

Linda J. Popky — is Founder and President of L2M Associates, Inc., a strategic marketing company. She is a senior marketing professional with over 20 years of experience in technology and B2B marketing, including experience with Sun Microsystems and Cisco Systems. She earned an MBA and a Bachelor’s degree in Communications from Boston University. Among other things, she is the Director of Alliances & Partnerships for Women in Consulting, a member of the Society for the Advancement of Consulting, a Fountainblue certified consultant, associated with Marketing Operations Partners, and is an Astia business incubator mentor and a member of their Technology Planning Committee.

Dr. David Dreyfuss — joined the team in 2006 as Engineering, Entrepreneurial, and Business Consultant. Dr. Dreyfuss brings a broad range of experience in product and process development in digital printers, automated inspection, and web-based information tools. His training and background as a scientist has been invaluable to Aerulean; he has made critical contributions in engineering, business management, and data management, and was a member of the Board for three years. He has an extensive background as scientist, engineer, professor, entrepreneur and consultant. Dr. Dreyfuss was formerly V.P. of Engineering for The Salmon Group, LLC. He received an Sc.D. in 1980 from MIT.

Keith Morrison — is President of Infused LLC, a software development and IT consulting company he founded in 2006. Morrison has extensive experience developing and scaling web applications and managing IT infrastructure projects and brings this experience to each new development task. He is particularly adept at interpreting and executing a client’s vision into a working piece of software. He is an active member of the open source community and maintains several libraries for the Ruby programming language.