Joel Goldsmith is President and CEO of Goldsmith Seeds Inc., one of the largest wholesale breeders of hybrid flower seeds in the world.

Joel has been with the company that his parents founded for more than 25 years. He has worked at a number of positions until becoming president in 1989. Joel attended the University of California at Davis. He has held director positions in a number of industry, trade and service organizations. Joel served on the boards of All America Selections, the National Garden Bureau, Fleuroselect, Bedding Plants Foundation, Professional Plant Growers Association, the American Horticultural Society and the Gilroy Rotary Club.

Under Joel’s guidance, Goldsmith Seeds has expanded and flourished in the horticulture industry. Goldsmith now has some 4,000 employees on three continents. Besides hybrid flower-seed production, Goldsmith also has a vegetative-cutting arm called Goldsmith Plants that deals primarily with geraniums and verbena.

The company was founded in 1962 in Gilroy, California by Joel’s parents, Glenn and Jane. Goldsmith Seeds is known throughout the industry for its innovative hybrid flowers and also for being a "first-class" company. Goldsmith has won more than 30 international awards for introducing hybrids to the world. Among them are: "Accent" impatiens, "Maverick" geraniums and "Fantasy" milliflora petunias, the first-ever miniature petunia series.

But Joel’s company doesn’t stop there. Goldsmith Seeds is also known for humanitarian efforts. Founder Glenn Goldsmith was bestowed the Guatemalan Peace Medallion for the company’s 31 years of operation in the Central American country. Goldsmith Seeds also operates employee child-care centers at operations in the United States, Guatemala and Kenya, East Africa. Currently, Goldsmith Seeds is involved in the third year of a program to benefit breast cancer research, which has raised more than $250,000 for The Susan G. Komean Breast Cancer Foundation.