entrepreneur

Amin Tran – Independent Director

Amin Tran – Independent Director

Amin was born in Ottawa, raised on the west coast, had his own business in the Prairies and now calls Nova Scotia home, where he lives in the Annapolis valley with his wife and son. Ironically, Amin found his passion for coaching small business and food while working in the corporate world where he has held senior leadership postings for companies such as Wal-Mart, IKEA, Best Buy, and The Hudson’s Bay Company. He has experience n various aspects from merchandising to logistics, marketing to operations and at times was accountable for sales portfolios of up to $650M+ and teams up to 700 people. He feels that these responsibilities pale in comparison to the determination, perseverance and creativity required to run a small business where as an entrepreneur you must be multifaceted, you may be the first and last line of defence, the promoter and devil’s advocate, and extremely resourceful & creative to be successful. His own entrepreneurship journey took him into the cosmetic & beauty sector, automotive glass & rubber industry, and the construction & real estate market. He is passionate about changing the local food system and everywhere he looks he sees opportunity and abundance from the natural attraction to the economic environment.  He will bring his diverse life and work experiences to the FarmWorks board and looks forward to contributing his skills and experience to better our home.

“I’m honoured and excited to be working with an organization that has been instrumental in upstream efforts to improve Nova Scotia”

Linda Best, Founding Director

Founding Member, Co-chair and Treasurer of FarmWorks,  Chair Friends of Agriculture in NS, Medical Microbiologist 

Linda Best grew up on a farm in the Annapolis Valley. Since graduating from Acadia University in 1966 she has been involved with the Queen Elizabeth II Hospital in Halifax as a Medical Microbiologist (1966 – 1995), Medical Researcher and author of peer-reviewed Gastroenterology papers and presenter at Research Conferences (1995 – 2012) and as a Director of the Capital District Health Authority (2001 – 2005). For twelve years she operated Alderbrook apple orchard on weekends while working at the hospital. She founded Frame Plus Art which grew to three stores, a production facility and 10 employees. She served as a Director of Sutton Gardens Condominium Corporation for twelve years. After moving to Wolfville in 2002, awareness of food-related health issues led to research into potential solutions for the decreasing production of food in Nova Scotia. She helped establish Friends of Agriculture and the Nova Scotia Food Policy Council.