Candidate Statements:

Election for Board of Directors Durham Central Market

November 4, 2012

This year we will elect two new members to the Board.  The candidates are Drew Peng and Melissa Mills.  Their candidate statements are available below. 

This year we are offering online voting for those owner who will not be able to join us at the Annual Meeting on November 4th.  Online voting will end on Friday, November 2nd at midnight.  Check your owner email for the link to online voting or contact Shelley Beason.

Andrew Peng

Drew stated in his application that he has a “strong interest in helping start up a community-driven full -service grocery store. “  His background and interests are in retail, food and technology with 6.5 years of professional experience in private equity investing, 1.5 years in consumer packaged goods and 3 years in management consulting.  He has extensive experience in forming business plans, financing and strategy in mature operating businesses and has a good understanding of various operational, marketing, strategy and financial aspects of businesses.  Drew is currently self-employed.  

Drew began serving on the Finance and Development Committee of DCM in 2010.  In early 2012, he was appointed to serve out the remainder of a vacated seat on the DCM Board of Directors.  He is currently the Treasurer of the DCM Board.  Drew believes that communication is essential to well-informed decision making.  He prefers to make consensus-driven decisions that are founded upon facts and data.  Drew describes his time on the DCM Board as a “wonderfully collaborative experience where all parties are united in the mission to strengthen Durham’s community” and he is highly motivated to be a part of Durham’s renaissance. 

Drew has been actively involved in various non-profits and philanthropies in each of the cities in which he has resided and hopes to continue this history of service on the Board of Directors of DCM.

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Melissa Mills

After a thirty year career in university administration, Melissa is currently teaching at the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute.  She is also “doing research to tie ideas developed in philosophy, political science and mathematical biology to contemporary social structure and paradigms for successful long-term economic investment.”   Melissa stated that she sees “DCM as an example of a community-based enterprise that provides both local employment and an improvement in the availability of high quality food, especially to those who currently have limited choices,“ and she would like to be a part of the effort to develop the market.  Melissa brings experience in budgeting, long range planning and information technology.  In addition to her professional experience, she has an MBA from the Fuqua School of Business and a Master of Theological Studies from the Duke Divinity School. 

Melissa believes that “consensus is a creative endeavor that involves changes in my own perspective as much as in anyone else’s.”  She seeks to ask questions and to listen to the perspectives of others.  This process often takes time but she stated that “time is a very useful device for letting consensus develop around complex issues.” 

Melissa has been actively involved in the Durham Community including the Downtown Durham Rotary, the Campus Club of Duke University, Durham Congregations in Action , the Religious Coalition for a Nonviolent Durham, YO Durham, The Congregation at Duke University Chapel, Habitat for Humanity and the Durham Junior League.  She describes herself as “data-driven and analytic.”  She enjoys working with people and hopes to continue to do so on the DCM Board of Directors.

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