Presenting the Slate of Candidates for the 2019-2021 CRG Elections
Dozens of CRG members from around the globe responded to our call for nominations in the 2019-2021 CRG Elections! We want to send a huge thank you to every single person who put their name forward.
The nominations process has now ended and the CRG Nominating Committee has put forward the following slate of six candidates running for one of the four available spots on the CRG Advisory Council.
Erika Chagoya León - Owner and Director at Gradios Deli-Café
Bjørnar Hafslund - Head of Sales at Røst Coffee and Founder, CEO, and Roaster at Brattestø Coffee
Kaya Carretta Herlofsen - QC & Scandinavian Sales at Nordic Approach AS
Stephen Houston - Head Roaster at Bailies Coffee Roasters
Daniel Francisco Mendoza - West Coast Sales Director at Spirit Tea
O.M. Miles - Account Manager at Ikawa
Voting will take place January 6-20 and the final voting results will be announced on January 27. Learn more about each candidate below.
Per the CRG bylaws, additional candidates who were not selected for the slate may petition to be added to the ballot. Additional petition candidates require 25 signatures from fellow CRG members to be considered using this form. The petition period ends December 16, 2019.
Meet the Candidates
Erika Chagoya León
Owner and Director at Gradios Deli-Café
I am a roaster coffee woman. I have roasted coffee since 2012 and have opened two coffee shops in the last eleven year. I won the Mexican Barista Championship 2013 and participated in the Mexican Coffee Roasting Championship 2017 where I got fourth place and had a terrific experience.. I have participated as a judge in the Mexican Barista Championship for the last two years (2018 and 2019) and judged the 2019 Mexican Coffee Roasting Championship in 2019. I am a licensed Q Grader and love coffee.
Bjørnar Hafslund
Head of Sales at Røst Coffee and Founder, CEO, and Roaster at Brattestø Coffee
I started my coffee career working at coffee shops. Then in 2006 I helped established a roastery inside a supermarket, and that is where I learned to roast. I hadn’t been involved in roasting before and had to learn all by myself. Most of my working life I have been at KAFFA, a roastery in Oslo, Norway. There I went from being production manager to general manager. I also co-founded Collaborative Coffee Source, an Oslo based sourcing and importing company. So, for the last 8 years I have had a foot in both the roasting and green coffee trade. In 2015 I also founded the Norwegian Roasters Guild.
Kaya Carretta Herlofsen
QC & Scandinavian Sales at Nordic Approach AS
Kaya is on a mission to make everyone a better cupper. A certified Q-grader, she is an eager spokeswoman in the specialty coffee industry, giving frequent lectures on roasting and processing. She has worked for pioneering coffee importers, Nordic Approach, since their early years. She fell into coffee by pure chance, starting as a barista in the Solberg & Hansen concept cafe in Mathallen, Oslo. After preparing pour-overs for two years, she began roasting for the same company, learning all the magic and science of roasting from Norway’s champions. She shares her knowledge with the Nordic Approach team, developing and running the internal sensory education program, whilst also managing all aspects of Quality Assurance, and taking care of Nordic Approach’s viking customers in Scandinavia.
Stephen Houston
Head Roaster at Bailies Coffee Roasters
Stephen is the Head roaster for Bailies Coffee Roasters, Northern Ireland, he has been roasting for over 5 years on Probat roasters from 5kg to 120kg and is Irish brewers cup champion 2017+2019. He is also on the Online marketing & Comms committee of the CRG. Being involved with the CRG is a huge passion for him, he really enjoys the community that we are building and looks forward to continue the engagement with the world wide roasting community.
Daniel Francisco Mendoza
West Coast Sales Director at Spirit Tea
Daniel Mendoza started roasting coffee at Buddy Brew Coffee (Florida, 2012), though he has worked for a few other roasteries in Colorado. He has roasted on many different machines and is always excited to get to try new ones through his passion for teaching. Right now he works for Spirit Tea and is fully enjoying his new life as both a tea drinker and a coffee drinker. Daniel has always believed that knowledge about roasting should not be secret, striving to teach anyone who wants to learn. Being from Colombia, he has a unique perspective on the coffee industry as a whole and is a friend to all; producers, farmers, importers, roasters and baristas. He hopes to create a more open and honest communication between all parties involved in the coffee world.
O.M. Miles
Account Manager at Ikawa
Miles joined IKAWA to open their US office in Los Angeles and help the business create a foothold in the country. She has a wealth of specialty coffee knowledge, most recently working as Director of Education at Royal Coffee New York, and previously as Production and Roasting Manager at Allegro, and Roaster at Blue Bottle.
What are the responsibility of the CRG Advisory Council members?
The CRG Advisory Council is a group of elected leaders who volunteer their time to the Coffee Roasters Guild and who work with SCA staff to help deliver events and services to members of the coffee roasting community. Our volunteer leaders add intellectual, political, and social value to new and ongoing initiatives of the SCA, CRG, and the industry at large. Meet our current Advisory Council here.
Some of the general responsibilities of the Advisory Council responsibilities include:
Assisting SCA staff with developing strategic objectives on an annual basis, including recommendations for needed resources
Implementing objectives and activities according to the strategic plan and reporting progress on ongoing initiatives to CRG members and to SCA
Seeking to understand the needs of current CRG members and provide SCA staff with strategic input and direction on objectives
Providing a direct link and feedback to the SCA Board of Directors via the CRG ex-officio seat on the SCA Board of Directors
Attending two in-person CRG Advisory Council meetings per year, taking places in Europe and the Americas
Being available for virtual meetings as required (8-10 virtual meetings per year)
How does the CRG elections process work?
All nominations are reviewed by the CRG Election Committee, consisting of the Immediate Past Chair Emilio Lopez, the Chair Sonja Grant (that's me), and current CRG Advisory Council members Jen Apodaca, Filip Bartelak, member of SCA’s ED&I Committee Siobhan Gottlieb and Richard Stiller, SCA staff.
Email ballots will be sent to all CRG members on January 6 and the new Advisory Council members will be announced on January 27.
Get in touch
If you have questions about your membership number or the elections in general, get in touch at crgelections@sca.coffee.
