Mark Miller is the 9th president of the Arizona Food Marketing Alliance (AFMA), founded in 1943. Mark started his career in the food industry while attending high school, working at Smitty’s grocery store close to his home. He worked after school and on weekends. He enjoyed a successful 36-year career at Hensley Beverage Company, the local distributor of Anheuser-Busch brands. He was the Senior Vice President of Sales and in 2008 helped to develop and lead Hensley’s new non-alcoholic beverage division. After his retirement from Hensley Beverage Company, he worked as a Regional Manager for three years with Talking Rain. He has served on the City of Hope Southwest Food Industry Board of Directors for over 25 years.

Mark’s ties to AFMA are strong. He was honored by AFMA in 1998 as the “Supplier of the Year”. He was a member of Los Hosperderos, a supplier group that helped with the retail trade show. While he was President in 2000, the group was renamed as the Arizona Food Council and switched their focus to raising money for the AFMA Scholarship Foundation.  

Recently promoted to executive assistant at AFMA, Raynetta continues her career of 23 years with AFMA. 

She assists President Mark Miller, Dan Tennessen-Arizona Cart Services, and other staff members with support.  She handles accounts receivable and payable and helps coordinate association events and multiple tasks daily.  Also, she coordinates the coupon redemption program for the membership. She also has been known to bake for the board of directors, which has become an AFMA tradition. “I’ve managed to spoil them, but it’s my way of saying ‘thank you’ for their time and oversight of an organization that has come to mean very much to me.”

Raynetta was born in Longview, Texas, and was raised in Como TX, a small town of about 650 people in East Texas. 

She started in the grocery business at 16 as the lone female sacker at a local Safeway, then worked at Brookshire’s, a Texas chain, as a deli associate, a cashier, and a scanning coordinator and then to Office Manager.  Next, she worked for a food broker, as an assistant Retail Director.

 “The food industry,” she says, “is in my blood.”

Kristi Briceno is AFMA’s new Director of Communication. This includes editing the monthly magazine for the Arizona food industry. She will also head the golf tournaments, luncheons and any other special events that AFMA holds.

A little bit about Kristi . . .

She was born in DeKalb County outside of Atlanta, Georgia, and was raised in a small farm town in Middleton, Idaho. After graduating from high school, Kristi attended Boise State University where she received her associate’s degree. During the next few years, she traveled throughout the United States including Canandaigua, New York, a very small town on the Canadian border. After two short years, the snow and cold made her home sick, and that’s how she came to Arizona to be with all her family who had moved here.

Kristi landed in Kingman working for the Mohave Sherriff’s Department as a correction officer. Loving the job, but still not close to family, she moved to Mesa where she gave up the criminals and worked in the corporate world for Wells Fargo. While working there, she received her National Certification for Business Management, Group Management and Special Event Planning.

Wells Fargo also gave her the opportunity to take other courses through the University of Phoenix for business communications, human resources and accounting. The passion for helping people in the prison system never went away, so Kristi created an addiction rehabilitation program for women, “I Can . . . I Will.”  “When people become addicted to drugs or alcohol, we need to address their addictive personalities, and not look at them like they are broken” she says.

“I am very excited to work for AFMA”, Kristi says. ”The people in the office and board members have been amazing to me from the moment I started here.”

She has been married to an “AMAZING husband” for three years. They have six children between them and are expecting their second grandchild this year. In her spare time, she loves being a “GIGI” to Levi, her 4-year-old grandson, baking cookies and filling her home with all the Italian cooking and love she can.

Lisa grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and received her Bachelor’s Degree in Secondary Education from the University of Nevada.  Lisa accepted a position at an Anheuser-Busch wholesaler in Sacramento, where her career in the food industry began.

 Lisa moved to Phoenix in 2000. Mark Miller, President of AFMA, hired Lisa at Hensley Beverage Company as a program coordinator. Little did she know she would stay at Hensley for the next 21 years in various roles in the Corporate Sales and Brand Management departments.

 With 25 years of experience in the food industry, Lisa embraces AFMA’s passionate commitment to our members, education and the community.

 Lisa lives in the East Valley with her husband of 23 years, Bert, and their two children.