June
20 , 2001
858•535•8101
Miramar Wholesale Nurseries Manager Earns TWIN Award
SAN DIEGO, Ca. — Miramar Wholesale Nurseries (MWN) is pleased to announce that Suzie Wiest earned a TWIN (Tribute to Women and Industry) award this month. The award honors women for their contributions to industry in managerial, executive or professional roles.
“Winning this award is a wonderful compliment,” Wiest said. “My co-workers and customers make every day special — I love what I do! And I feel so honored to be recognized by such a great organization as the YWCA.”
The 22nd annual TWIN awards luncheon was held June 4 at the San Diego Convention Center. Applicants were nominated by their firms, co-workers, families or friends. Money raised by the tribute benefits YWCA programs. Including this year, more than $1.3 million has been raised.
“Suzie earned this award with years of hard work and dedication,” said Tom Ewing, special projects consultant for MWN. “She is an outstanding business woman and a great person to work with too.”
Wiest oversees the day-to-day operations of all three Southern California locations of MWN, including the 200-acre San Diego facility, the 70-acre Irvine facility, and the 40-acre San Juan Capistrano facility. More than 1 million plants are maintained between the sites on any given day. A horticulturist by trade — Wiest is a graduate of California Polytechnic Institute, San Luis Obispo — she knows the minutiae of each plant at the nursery. As a businesswoman, she oversees the production and distribution of those same plants, from purchasing and inventory, to shipping and sales. Wiest also manages all the personnel required to maintain both the plant operation and the business offices.
Wiest was instrumental in founding MWN. In 1993 she was part of a core group of people who transformed a few empty buildings and a lot of land into a thriving business. Associates look to her to resolve issues that cover a spectrum of topics, from pesticide usage to personnel matters.
Under Wiest’s leadership, the nursery began an English as a Second Language course through Cuyamaca College to help Spanish-speaking employees expand their horticulture knowledge. In 1997 Wiest earned a Women Who Mean Business Award sponsored by the San Diego Business Journal in recognition of her contributions to the agricultural business community. In 2000 she helped her company secure a coveted San Diego Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics.
For the past eight years Wiest has volunteered her time to a San Diego community beautification awareness project to help instill a sense of community pride and accomplishment in young children. As part of her year-round dedication to this project, Wiest leads elementary school classes on a field trip of the San Diego nursery site, assists in classrooms with various student plant-growing projects, or plants trees in the neighborhood during the community’s annual planting day.
Miramar Wholesale Nurseries is Southern California’s leading supplier of landscape plant material and supplies. The nursery grows a wide variety of perennials, shrubs, and trees at each of their three locations for projects in and around the region. The fully stocked will-call facilities in San Diego, Irvine/Lake Forest, and San Juan Capistrano serve the needs of commercial properties, institutions, property managers, and commercial landscapers. In an acquisition in early 1999, MWN became a member of the San Diego region of TruGreen LandCare, a ServiceMaster company.
