Meet The Silk Worm Personnel

Mary Ann Victor purchased The Silk Worm to use her many years of business management and legal experience to reinvest in Michigan. She retired as General Counsel and Chief Administrative Officer of Troy, MI–based medical device company Somanetics Corporation after it was acquired last year by a global health care company. Taking a break from her legal career, Victor created a new opportunity for her business operations and marketing skills. “Owning a business gives me the opportunity to learn first-hand lessons about the challenges entrepreneurs face as well as the rewards obtained by creating jobs and serving customers,” Victor stated. “I love to hunt for unique home and gift items and I teamed up with Kerri Vizena, a master gardener who has strong experience in the garden and floral design field. Our vision is to expand the offerings of The Silk Worm and keep a vital business in downtown Rochester.”

Kerri Vizena is The Silk Worm’s store manager and director of floral design. Her creativity and design flair are on display every day as she develops unique ways to present the store’s floral and gift merchandise throughout the boutique and in its eye-popping window dressings. Vizena’s experience includes sales, management and design in greenhouse, landscape and event planning businesses, merchandise display, public relations and education. A natural teacher and a certified master gardener, Vizena has given numerous presentations on gardening topics. “I love helping our customers find ‘that perfect something’ for their home or garden,” Vizena said. “As part of our value-added services, I look forward to hosting workshops for our customers on fun topics related to floral design, home decorating and entertaining,” Vizena added.

Sandi Bostwick is an award-winning floral designer who has more than ten years experience designing for floral studios and boutiques, weddings, special events and corporate parties. Her designs also have been displayed in hotels, businesses and celebrity homes. An additional specialty is home holiday decorating where she captures the client’s style and enhances the living space. Bostwick trained for several years under a European designer where she learned fresh and silk flower design techniques. Bostwick and Vizena had the opportunity to show off their skills when they worked together on the floral design team that designed all of the flowers for a TNT television program called The Wedding Day.

Chris Robb is The Silk Worm’s IT manager with responsibility for The Silk Worm’s information technology, inventory systems and web site development. He is a graduate of Grand Valley State University with a B.A. degree in information systems.