STiR coffee and tea magazine

14 STiR coffee and tea / Issue 2, 2017 (April/May) Q A NEWS D By Dan Shryock arrin Daniel, a coffee industry professional for more than two decades, assumed leadership of the Alliance for Coffee Ex- cellence (ACE) in January. He replaces Susie Spindler, who founded the organization in 1999 and retired in 2014 but returned a year later to right the ship after the organization seemed to lose direction. ACE is an international non-profit organization perhaps best known for its Cup of Excellence (CoE) juried coffee competitions, training, and online auctions connecting farmers with buyers around the world. Daniel recently met with STiR in ACE's new offices in Portland, Oregon, to talk about the Alliance's restored direction and its plans for the future. STiR: You're an experienced coffee buyer. How do your skills transfer to ACE? Darrin Daniel: A lot of my background has been in work- ing directly with farmers. That was the drive when I was a buy- er with Allegro and Stumptown (coffee companies). [CoE] is about identifying unique lots of coffee from farmers that in the past would have been bulked and been anonymous. So, there's a lot of synergy there with my background and having a lot of relationships with people and agencies in coun- try. I've been connected to and worked with these people and organizations. There's a bridge between the farmers, the agen- cies, and the roasters. There's a thread that I can represent and tie together. It's critical to understand all the components that bring this all together. STiR: ACE's reputation suffered recently and Susie Spindler re- turned to refocus the organization. Is there an ongoing need to reinforce that positive image in the industry? Daniel: I have to be honest and say I think so. What we saw was a situation where we were rolling back our programing. As a buyer [before joining ACE], I was asking "what's going on?" It was presented that they were going through reform and look- ing at how to repackage what they were doing. Many people thought that was a step back because the idea is to expand, not contract. If you're contracting to get concentrated, lean, and more effective, that's fine. That was the intent, I think, but it wasn't received that way. When Susie came back, the first thing was to get back to planning. There was some misfiring that had occurred. I think it was distraction that got us off track. CoE is the core of what we do and that has to remain the focus. That and new country development. The idea for us now is restoration, re-engagement, measur- ing impact, and making sure we provide our members with real clear growth. We have to re-establish that. We have to say, "OK we're back. We're into our level of program management." We need to make sure we have that level of member commitment and there are clear lines about where we're going. I think that's how we get back on track. STiR: What is Susie's role now? Daniel: She's an advisor to the board and she's slowly re- linquishing the interim role to me and advising me. We have Darrin Daniel Alliance for Coffee Excellence New ACE executive director Darrin Daniel

• Cover