Gilroy resident and long-time festival volunteer Brian Bowe
named to head of association
Gilroy – After searching far and wide for someone to orchestrate the city’s premier event, organizers of the Garlic Festival settled on one of their own.
Long-time festival volunteer and Gilroy resident Brian Bowe has been named executive director of the Gilroy Garlic Festival Association.
“The association is extremely happy with the selection process,” said Micki Pirozzoli, 2006 festival president. “We had applications from across the United States and through the interview process, we strongly feel that we have picked the best candidate for the job.”
Bowe, 43, has lived in Gilroy for a decade and volunteered at the annual summer event for the past eight years. For the last 11 years, he also has worked as a trade show organizer for NP Expos, in Morgan Hill.
“My professional experience helped qualify me for this position,” Bowe said. “I would organize similar events as the Garlic Festival – the same logistics, staffing, marketing, sales, but on a smaller scale … It was a natural fit.”
Finding a new executive director for the festival has taken longer than expected. GFA officials had hoped to hire a new festival head by November 2005, but they extended the deadline after an initial round of applications so they could cast a wider net. In late January, the GFA conducted a second round of interviews with eight candidates, winnowing that pool down to Bowe and a second candidate. The GFA’s board of directors conducted final interviews Wednesday.
Bowe, who is married and has four children, has been a regular fixture at Garlic Festivals, selling balloons or ringing up orders at the Mercantile tent. But local roots helped, Pirozzoli said the it was Bowe’s business experience that tilted the scales in his favor.
“What it really came down to was his knowledge of business, technology and sponsorship,” she said.
The festival that draws more than 100,000 people to Gilroy each July has been without a director for seven months. Former director Dick Nicholls died last summer from pancreatic cancer. The beloved festival head oversaw the growth of the event from a local draw to an international one, securing Gilroy as the Garlic Capital of the World. Nicholls served as director from 1986 until his death in June, just one month before the 27th annual Garlic Festival.
“I knew Dick Nicholls for a number of years,” Bowe said. “He and I talked on a number of occasions about our respective jobs. We compared notes and experiences. It’s definitely going to be a difficult job to fill his shoes. He leaves an incredible legacy.”
Bowe expects to begin his new position March 6.
