WASHINGTON, June 21, 2017 - President Trump has nominated Gregg Doud, the president of the Commodity Markets Council and a farm policy veteran, to be the administration’s chief agricultural negotiator under the U.S. Trade Representative.
Doud was a senior aide to the Senate Agriculture Committee from 2011 to 2013 and assisted in drafting what would become the 2014 farm bill. The Kansas native previously served eight years as chief economist for the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. Meanwhile, the U.S. Trade Rep, Robert Lighthizer, has been busy filling other key positions, including appointing Jamieson Greer as his chief of staff. Prior to joining USTR, Greer was Of Counsel in the International Trade and National Security practice group at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. Click here to see a list of other new USTR senior staff members.
Sharon Bowen says she plans to resign as a member of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the next few months, creating yet another vacancy on the nation’s derivatives market regulator. Bowen and Acting Chairman Christopher Giancarlo are presently the only members of what is supposed to be a five-person commission. Bowen announced her plans to leave the commission Tuesday at a meeting of the CFTC Market Risk Advisory Committee, which she chairs.
The National Wildlife Federation has taken on Chris Adamo as a senior fellow for conservation innovation. Adamo served as chief of Staff for the White House Council on Environmental Quality in the Obama administration from 2015 until January 2017. Before that he spent a decade working for the U.S. Senate, advising members of both parties on various conservation issues. He finished his tenure there as the staff director for the Senate Agriculture Committee and helped then committee chair Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., write the 2014 farm bill.
Stami Williams is the new communications director for Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, who chairs the Financial Services Committee. Williams previously was on the press team for Sen. David Perdue of Georgia.
The Congressional Hunger Center has honored Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., and Rep. Bobby Scott, D-Va., for their contributions to fighting hunger. The CHC said Smith, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Africa subcommittee, has been “a steady champion in Congress for people facing hunger and undernutrition across the world.” Smith, the ranking member on the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, “has been a strong advocate for children’s nutrition programs,” CHC said.
The Good Food Institute hired Jessica Almy as its policy director. A lawyer, Almy joins GFI from the Center for Science in the Public Interest, where she served as deputy director of nutrition policy.
There’s been a host of promotions over at the Food Marketing Institute. Stephanie Barnes is now FMI’s chief regulatory officer and legal counsel, and LeAnn Chuboff was named vice president for technical affairs at FMI’s Safe Quality Food Institute. Additionally, Sarah Malenich was promoted to director, sales and marketing at SQFI, and Hilary Thesmar was appointed chief food and product safety officer and senior vice president, food safety programs.
Good Luck to Megan Kuhn who’s taken a new job handling social media for Elanco in Greenfield, Indiana. The Purdue University grad had been serving as communications director with the Indiana Soybean Alliance, the Indiana Corn Marketing Council and the Indiana Corn Growers Association.
Quail Forever has promoted Ryan Heiniger to director of Agriculture and Conservation Innovations. Heiniger has been with Quail Forever since 2013, working to promote and expand the organization’s Farm Bill Biologist program in the Midwest. The Iowa native previously worked with Ducks Unlimited as director of conservation programs within the Great Plains Region. In addition, Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever have promoted Rich Wissink to vice president of education and outreach.
Jordan Bartolomeo has joined the Biotechnology Innovation Organization as director of government affairs. She comes to BIO from Capitol Hill where she served as health policy adviser to Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga. She also previously worked for Rep. Lynn Westmoreland and former Sen. Saxby Chambliss.
Biotech industry veteran Vonnie Estes has been chosen to receive the 4th annual Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology. The award will be presented July 25 during the 2017 BIO World Congress on Industrial Biotechnology in Montreal. Estes is currently an independent consultant. She was most recently vice president of business development at Caribou Biosciences. Brent Erickson, an executive VP with the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, said Estes is an “accomplished industry leader with decades of experience commercializing industrial biotechnology innovations and developing emerging companies.” The award is named after Rosalind Franklin, who conceived and captured Photograph 51 of the “B” form of DNA in 1952, while at King’s College in London. This photograph, acquired through 100 hours of X-ray exposure from a machine Franklin herself refined, revealed the structure of DNA, which is considered the single most important advance of modern biology.
Marc Killebrew, vice president of international sales at Tyson Foods, was elected chairman of the board of the USA Poultry & Egg Export Council (USAPEEC) for 2017-18. Killebrew succeeds Steve Monroe, manager of export sales at Sanderson Farms. His election came Thursday during USAPEEC’s annual meeting in Cancún, Mexico.
Joe Swedberg, a retired executive of Hormel Foods Corp., has been elected chairman of the board of directors of the Farm Foundation. Swedberg also will chair the foundation’s board of trustees. Larkin Martin, owner of Martin Farm in Alabama, was elected as the board's vice chair.
Ertharin Cousin, former executive director of the World Food Programme, is one of five women recognized by McKinsey & Co. and Devex through their leadership recognition campaign “Power with Purpose.” The campaign notes Cousin has dedicated 25 years of her life to fighting famine, aiming to “end hunger around the world.” Click here to see a more complete list of her accomplishments and to see the other women who made this year’s list.
Global food and agriculture consultant Stephanie Patrick died last week from chronic autoimmune hepatitis at the age of 64. The Indiana native and Purdue grad began work in Washington in the 1970s in USDA’s Office of Communications. Most recently Patrick was a communications and research consultant in the Washington offices of a multinational grain and agricultural commodities company. Before that she was vice president for policy initiatives and advocacy for the American Dietetic Association, now the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.
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