News Release

U.S. Wheat Associates Hires New Technical Representatives
January 08, 2015
ARLINGTON, Virginia - U.S. Wheat Associates (USW) announces the addition of two new technical service representatives. Shin Hak (David) Oh joins as Food/Bakery Technologist in the USW office in Seoul, Korea, and Tarik Gahi joins as Milling and Baking Technologist serving markets in the Middle East and North Africa from the USW office in Casablanca, Morocco. USW is the wheat industry's export market development organization working to promote all six classes of U.S. wheat in more than 100 countries.

"I am delighted to welcome Shin Hak to our team in Korea," said Chang Yoon Kang, USW country director. "He has excellent skills and experience in research and product development that will be very valuable to our Korean customers and U.S. wheat farmers."

Most recently, Oh was a senior researcher and bakery section leader with SPC Group, Korea's leading bakery and confectionary products company. His work focused on bread products including ingredients and improvers. Oh developed a commercially successful sugar-free white pan bread and served on a team that implemented Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points (HACCP) food safety management systems. He earned bachelor's and master's degrees in food and biotechnology from Korea University and Seoul National University respectively, and he successfully completed bakery and sanitation courses at AIB International, Manhattan, KS.

"Tarik Gahi is a professional miller who is well prepared to expand our technical assistance to flour mills, bakeries and biscuit manufacturers in this region," said Ian Flagg, USW regional director for the Middle East and North Africa. "His work will focus on reinforcing the superior end-use characteristics of U.S. wheat through service and in-house milling and baking activities."

Gahi is a 2002 graduate of IFIM, the Moroccan Milling School, who worked as a shift miller at Al Ghurair Food Group in Dubai, United Arab Emirates from 2002 to 2008. He then became a milling operations manager for Seaboard West Africa Limited in Freetown, Sierra Leone, before returning to his native Morocco as head miller/operations manager at Moulins Fassia. Gahi will apply a wide range of experience managing bread and durum wheat milling lines and related baking operations in his new position with USW.

USW activities are made possible through producer checkoff dollars managed by 19 state wheat commissions and cost-share funding provided by FAS.

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