Published from the January/February 2021 Grain Journal
Randy Gordon, president and CEO of the National Grain and Feed Association since 2012, will retire from the association on March 31 following a nearly 43-year career at NGFA.
A Nebraska native, Gordon is a graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with undergraduate degrees in journalism, history, and political science. Prior to joining NGFA, he worked at the university’s Agricultural Communications Department for three years.
Gordon joined the NGFA staff on July 1, 1978 as its director of information services. In 1987, he was elected as NGFA’s vice president for communications and government relations.
In that capacity, he worked on legislative and regulatory policy issues involving grain elevators, animal feed, agricultural biotechnology, transportation, food defense, and facility security, among others. He also wrote the NGFA Newsletter and other publications and conveyed NGFA’s views to the news media.
Gordon is a recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), only one of eight industry members to be so honored during AAFCO’s 110-plus-year history. He also was recognized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2005 with an award for his efforts to prevent the establishment or spread of bovine spongiform encephatopathy (BSE) in the United States.
His successor is Michael J. Seyfert, currently director of government and industry affairs for FMC Corp (see p. 22).
In the following interview, Gordon talks about his career at NGFA and the changes he’s seen in the grain and feed industry over the years.
What was your background in the grain and feed industry prior to joining the staff at NGFA?
I had graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and worked for the next 2-1/2years for the UNL Agricultural Communications Department in Extension, covering its Animal Science, Poultry Science, Veterinary Science, Agricultural Engineering, and Agricultural Economics Departments.
While I grew up in Nebraska, I wasn’t a “farm kid.” But those experiences at UNL’s Ag Communications Department really opened my eyes to all the interesting and innovative things going on in agriculture and how significant and noble a profession it was. As a journalist, covering agriculture was a terrific assignment. I also did some freelance work for the Omaha World-Herald while with the university.
How did you get involved in NGFA?
Ironically, the chairman of UNL’s Agricultural Communications Department (Ralston Graham) had served in the U.S. Army intelligence in China during World War II with Alvin E. Oliver, who eventually had a 30-year career as NGFA’s top staff officer (and 32 years total with the association). Al modeled NGFA’s staff like a university – he’d founded the nation’s first course for educating and training grain elevator managers while at Michigan State University after returning home from WWII – and he always sought talent from specific universities for different academic disciplines for which they were well-regarded (as Nebraska was for journalists).
Unfortunately, the father of my predecessor as NGFA’s director of information services died, and he had to return to his family’s Nebraska farm to run the operation. To fill the vacancy, Al called Rollie and asked if he had another journalist he could recommend to join NGFA’s staff. I was fortunate to be the one Rollie recommended – another example of how fate works and the importance of being in the right place at the right time.
I started at NGFA as director of information services, then was promoted to director of communications from 1980 to 1987 and then to vice president for communications and government relations from 1987 to 2012, when I assumed additional roles in overseeing NGFA’s interaction with federal regulatory agencies, particularly the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Food and Drug Administration. I was elected president and CEO in 2012 upon the retirement of my predecessor, Kendell Keith. So, all told, a thrilling and eventful nearly 43-year career with NGFA.
See more of Gordon's interview here: https://go.unl.edu/x8gc
