I am pleased to report to you that the Arabian Horse Association now has a new Executive Vice President. Gary Zimmerman, 46, a resident of Denver, assumed his duties May 17. He held his first staff meeting and is busy learning about our Association. The hiring of Gary is a significant step forward for our Association as Gary exemplifies the qualities we have been seeking in an executive leader. The Executive Committee and the Board of Directors offered him the position after intensive interviews May 11 and 12. I think it is important for you to know that the selection of Gary as our new Executive Vice President was unanimous by both the Executive Committee and the Board.


I want to recap for you the process we followed in this important search. We had over 120 candidates and that list was narrowed by our search firm, MRI Consultants, to three candidates. The Executive Committee interviewed those candidates May 10. We were extremely impressed by the quality of the three people we interviewed. Of the three, we chose Gary to bring forward to the Board of Directors. On May 11, the Board spent nearly 90 minutes asking intense, difficult questions of Gary. When he left the meeting, the Board was uniform in support of hiring him.


I want to share with you the qualifications that Gary brings to our Association. He has an MBA from Denver University with an emphasis on marketing. Over a span of 20 years, he has been an executive manager with exceptional results in division, regional and corporate environments. He has proven skills in leadership, technology, consultative services, strategic planning, sales and marketing management, financial analysis, budgeting and merger situations, all to support overall business performance. He has a track record of recruiting and developing high-performance team environments. We were impressed by the fact that he has history of building business plans and then successfully executing those plans.

Prior to his AHA employment, Gary was Vice President of Business Operations for the Denver office of 180 Connect, Inc. With 105 branches and 4,000 employees, 180 Connect, Inc. is North America's largest satellite/cable/security and home technology company. He was Vice President of Operations and was responsible for security installation and services nationwide and was in charge of the operating staff and field technicians coast to coast. He has been in senior management of firms with budgets from $10 million to $250 million. Gary is no stranger to horses and to the world of competition. He spent summers at his family's farm in Wisconsin, riding the many horses they had. An outdoors person who enjoys recreation riding, he has owned his own horses over the years. His primary competition has been in the tennis world where he was a highly ranked player. He has also coached disadvantaged youth in previous years. He and his wife have two children, a son and a daughter.

Gary's quick and direct answers to the Board proved to be the deciding factor for all of us. He said he admired our mission that has an emphasis on enjoying our horses. Using his talents to see that we meet our mission's objectives provides a welcome challenge he told the directors. He also told our Board that he is not intimidated by situations where mergers have taken place, where there is a need for improved performance and delivery of services. We were also impressed by the fact that he recently led his former company in an Information Technology revamping. After reviewing Gary's credentials and listening to his confident explanation of what he can bring to the Arabian Horse Association, the Board and Executive Committee felt he was the best "match" for our Association. We are fortunate that Gary was available for immediate employment. His firm was re-organizing, sending its top management to New York. Gary and his family preferred to remain in Denver. While he had several offers from other companies, Gary chose to become the Executive Vice President of AHA. We're pleased that he felt the "fit" with us was good as well.


The hiring of a new Executive Vice President is an important step in assuring that we operate AHA more as a business with measurement tools and a sound plan of action geared to making our Association the best that it can be. Ultimately, you, as members, will reap the benefits of our efforts. We've recently gone through a re-organization at AHA. There are now four Senior Directors and departments. We have our Business Deployment Plan that was updated at the Board meeting. We know where we are going and how we are going to get there. Now we have an administrative leader to guide us in becoming the best breed association in the equine world.


The past six months have been extremely busy for our Association and for me personally. As you know, I have been a "full-time" President and in the absence of an executive leader our staff has performed at a high level as we have moved toward reaching our goals, and I very much appreciate that. I want to thank Janet Holloway, a long-time staff member of AHA, for assuming the day-to-day management leadership of our Association. Indeed, we are at an important crossroad. We have accomplished something in the past six months that we have long needed, a whole new fresh approach to running our organization. When you voted for others and me on the Executive Committee, you gave us the green light to move forward with change. We've done that. I appreciate the hard work of the Board and Executive Committee. We could not have done it without your encouragement and support. You have my personal thanks for this. I also believe I speak for the Executive Committee and the Board when I say how much we appreciate your faith in our actions.


Thank you and God Bless!

Sincerely,