2019 Manager of the Year Credits Faith, Hard Work for his Success BY M A RY C AT H E R I N E G A S T O N The recipient of the 2019 E.P. Garrett Manager of the Year Award remembers vividly the first time he attended an Alabama Farmers Cooperative Annual Membership Meeting. The year was 2004, and Lance Ezelle was part of the Management Trainee Program at the time. “I can recall putting people’s luggage away at Annual Meeting that year,” he says with a grin. “I remember seeing Keith Griffin win this award. It became a goal of mine right then…and it’s been a goal of mine for the past 15 years.” Described by AFC President and CEO Rivers Myres as both intense and fun-loving, Ezelle has also earned the reputation of being loyal to AFC in his decade and a half with the company.
Growing up in the tiny river town of Pickensville in West Alabama, Ezelle’s first job was at his family’s hardware store. It was behind the counter there that he received a phone call in 2003 that would set him on a new course. A 1999 graduate of the University of Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in management, Ezelle saw himself at the helm of the hardware store one day. All that changed when Elton Gibson called him “out of the blue” to ask if Ezelle would consider talking to the folks at AFC about entering their Management Trainee Program. Because he had great respect for Gibson, long-time manager of Aliceville Farm Supply, Ezelle acquiesced. James Fudge, Vice President of Management Services for AFC and Director of the Management Trainee April 2020
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