BUSINESS PEOPLE: JMX Brands director among '40 Under 40' on Gulf Coast

Julie Blomquist, Sarasota Herald-Tribune
·3 min read
Kari-Jo Koshes, of JMX Brands, with her "40 Under 40" award from the Business Observer.
Kari-Jo Koshes, of JMX Brands, with her "40 Under 40" award from the Business Observer.

JMX Brands Director of Stores and Fulfillment Kari-Jo Koshes has been recognized in the Business Observer’s 2022 "40 Under 40" selections.

When Koshes joined JMX Brands, the largest multichannel retailer of Amish furniture at https://www.dutchcrafters.com, she could tell the company would provide opportunities for her to grow.

Today, she oversees innovations in product delivery, oversees the LaGrange, Indiana, warehouse and outlet store and supervises the DutchCrafters showroom experience and expansions.

Outside of work, she started a nonprofit called Brand New Chapters, which collects books and provides them to those who do not have access to reading. So far, she has collected nearly 2,000 books.

She has a bachelor’s in general business with a minor in international business from the University of Central Florida. She also earned an MBA and a DBA from Columbia Southern University, is a 2019 graduate of Leadership Sarasota County and was accepted to the 2022 Leadership Florida program.

Each year, the Business Observer selects 40 individuals under 40 from the Gulf Coast business community. Carefully selected from nominations and original reporting, these individuals represent the best and brightest from Tampa to Naples.

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Visit Sarasota Sales Manager Shantel Norman, second from right, at TBEX blogger convention.
Visit Sarasota Sales Manager Shantel Norman, second from right, at TBEX blogger convention.

A Visit Sarasota County team member was one of just 10 people nationwide to earn a full scholarship from the Black Travel Alliance to attend TBEX North America in Lafayette, Louisiana, the premiere gathering of travel bloggers, content creators, travel writers and tourism industry professionals.

VSC meeting sales manager Shantel Norman recently returned from the conference, where she heard from top industry speakers, participated in workshops and met with leading creators, travel marketers and experts from around the world.

The Travel Blog Exchange Convention, founded in 2009, is designed to gives attendees the tools they need to build an audience and engage the online community.

Black Travel Alliance is a professional nonprofit organization founded in 2020 to encourage, educate and equip black travel professionals in education, media and corporate positions.

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Jensen
Jensen

Child welfare agency Safe Children Coalition recently hired Robin Jensen as vice president of child welfare. She joins April Ranceful, another new VP, in performing duties associated with this critical position for the community-based care agency.

Jensen will be responsible for providing leadership, supervision and management to operations in Circuit 12 (Sarasota, Manatee and DeSoto counties).

She will be specifically responsible for assuring operations meet the established outcomes, and comply with related federal, state and local laws and rules, and all contractual requirements, as well as integrate Safe Children Coalition’s vision, mission and values internally and with state agency, contractual agencies and partners.

Jensen has dedicated her entire career to child welfare. Since 2008, she worked in two roles for the Florida Department of Children and Families: Children’s Legal Services SunCoast regional director and statewide training director.

Jensen earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Ventura College of Law. She has been honored by the Children’s Justice Center (2000) and Guardian ad litem program (2000) and was a recipient of the Statewide Excellence in Child Welfare Services Award in 2012.

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Johnson
Johnson

Westcoast Black Theatre Troupe has named five new trustees to its board for the 2022-2023 fiscal year: Nancy Flanagan, Kimberly Parris, Lee Rainer, Dr. Donald Reaves and Asa Thomas-Harris.

Members of the board are charged with sharing their expertise and providing guidance to the arts organization. WBTT trustees serve three-year terms.

The five new members join chair Doris A. Johnson and continuing trustees Cheryl Anderson (treasurer), Ali Bahaj, Chris Caswell (secretary), Kitty Cranor, Michael Gardiner, Sy Goldblatt, Michele Hooper, Penelope Kingman, Dr. John Maupin, Howard Millman, Dr. Randall Morgan, Marian Moss (vice chair), Mona Rankin, Dona Scott and Eva Slane.

WBTT is grateful to departing trustees Margie Nellum Lee and Lois Watson for their dedicated service. They will join Andrew Economos, June Gordon and Mary Ann Robinson as members of WBTT’s honorary board of trustees.

This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Pick for '40 Under 40' list, scholarship to conference