Dawn Stump, a member of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, named Dan Bucsa as her chief of staff and senior policy adviser and Elizabeth Mastrogiacomo as senior counsel. Bucsa joins Stump’s office from the CFTC’s Division of Market Oversight, where he most recently served as deputy director of the Data and Reporting branch. Mastrogiacomo had been working at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP where she was a senior associate in the Derivatives practice group.
President Trump’s nomination of Aurelia Skipwith to be the next director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service went to the Senate this week for confirmation. Skipwith, a graduate of the University of Kentucky College of Law, has been serving in the Interior Department as deputy assistant secretary for Fish, Wildlife and Parks since April 2017. She also holds a master’s degree in animal sciences from Purdue University. Skipwith is replacing Dan Ashe who signed an order banning the use of lead bullets on federal lands on Jan. 19, 2017, his last day in office before President Donald Trump’s inauguration. A short while later, on his first day at work, Ryan Zinke, Trump’s new Interior Secretary, reversed the order.
Leonard Jordan, acting head of USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, is stepping down in early January, after 20 years with the agency, including posts as state conservationist in Washington and Georgia. There’s still no word on who the next NRCS chief will be.
Debra Miller is joining the National Confectioners Association as senior vice president of scientific and regulatory affairs. Miller has nearly 20 years of food industry experience, 14 of them at The Hershey Company where she most recently served as director of Nutrition and Wellness. Her professional portfolio includes leading external engagement activities for Hershey, including regulatory advocacy around Nutrition Facts panel reform, vending labeling, and the U.S. Dietary Guidelines.
Jeremy Stump has started his new job as vice president, global government relations, at Nutrien, charged with setting up the Washington office for the provider of crop inputs and services. Stump previously spent more than eight years with Bayer CropScience/Monsanto, and before that, eight years with USDA, including a stint as deputy chief of staff.
National Biodiesel Board members have elected eight people to serve on the NBB board for two-year terms. They are: Troy Alberts, Ag Environmental Products; Rob Shaffer, American Soybean Association; Jeff Lynn, Illinois Soybean Association; Tim Keaveney, Lake Erie Biofuels DBA Hero BX; Mike Rath, Darling Ingredients Inc.; Greg Anderson, Nebraska Soybean Board; Robert Morton, Newport Biodiesel; and Tom Brooks, Western Dubuque Biodiesel. NBB says the board reflects the wide range of member companies in the biodiesel industry from feedstock operations to producers. The board also voted in the new slate of officers with Kent Engelbrecht returning as chairman, Chad Stone as vice chairman, Ryan Pederson as treasurer and Ron Heck as secretary.
Bunge’s board of directors has three new members: Paul J. Fribourg, chairman and CEO of Continental Grain Company; Gregory Heckman, founding partner of Flatwater Partners; and Henry W. (“Jay”) Winship, president of Pacific Point Capital LLC. Fribourg will join the Finance and Risk Policy Committee, Heckman, the Corporate Governance and Nominations, and Winship, the Compensation Committee.
President Trump has selected John Barsa of Florida, to be an assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean). Barsa currently serves as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Partnership and Engagement.
J. Billy Pirkle has left Nutrien to launch Pirkle Solutions Inc, an agricultural consultancy. Prior to the new venture, Pirkle held various leadership roles with IMC Agribusiness and Royster-Clark Inc. Most recently, he had global health, safety and environment responsibilities for Crop Production Services Inc., then Nutrien Ag Solutions.
Trey Glenn, EPA’s regional administrator for the U.S. Southeast, was indicted by a grand jury in Jefferson County, Ala., for violating state ethics laws. Glenn is alleged to have helped a law firm fight potential EPA actions to clean up contaminated industrial sites on behalf of a client, the Drummond Co., which could be responsible for the cleanup. The Alabama Ethics Commission said the grand jury also indicted former Alabama Environmental Management Commissioner Scott Phillips for his role in the controversial effort. The two men were charged with multiple violations of state ethics laws, including soliciting a thing of value from a principal, lobbyist or subordinate; and receiving money in addition to that received in one’s official capacity. Then-EPA chief Scott Pruitt named Glenn to lead the EPA’s Southeast Region, based in Atlanta, in August 2017, after the alleged incidents that are the subject of the indictment.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Tuesday hosted a ceremonial tree re-planting in honor of USDA Forest Service employee Tom Stefani who was killed in action in Afghanistan in 2007 while serving as an agriculture specialist. Prior to serving in Afghanistan, Stefani worked as a rangeland management specialist at the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest in Nevada.
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