G. Joyce Rowland will serve as the new President of the Del Mar Fairgrounds Board of Directors following a board vote on December 14th.
Vice-Presidents will be Executive Board members Richard Valdez, who served as President for the past two and a half years, and Frederick Schenk, who had previously also served as President for two and a half years.
“It’s a wonderful combination of the history we need on the board now and the future,” said outgoing Executive Vice President Lisa Barkett, who proposed to appoint the new executives.
The exhibition committee, which consists of nine members appointed by the governor, oversees operations at the state exhibition center. The positions are unpaid.
Rowland, who lives at Rancho Santa Fe, was named in March 2020. She worked at Sempra Energy from 1998 to 2019, where she served as Senior Vice President, Chief Culture Officer, Chief Human Resources Officer and Chief Administrative Officer. She also worked for Pacific Enterprises and the Southern California Gas Company.
Schenk, a Carmel Valley attorney, has been on the board since 2011.
Valdez, an attorney who joined the Fair Board in 2014, mentioned the challenges the board faced throughout its tenure as president, particularly the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 2020 San Diego County Fair and all major events were canceled, decimating the main source of income for the fairgrounds and a major source of taxation for the city of Del Mar, numbers fell and vaccines became available.
“It has certainly been a challenging time the past two years, certainly with COVID and all the effects it has had,” said Valdez.
He continued: “We have really shown the perseverance of this organization from the board and employees.”
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