US' National Cotton Council elects Shawn Holladay as chairman for 2023

Holladay has served in many NCC roles including as a director and as its vice chairman in 2022. He served on multiple NCC committees including chairing its farm policy and economic policy and its budget committees. He was chairman of the NCC’s American Cotton Producers in 2018 and 2019 having previously served for several years as the ACP’s Farm Policy Task Force chairman—proving to be a tireless advocate for sound farm policy development, the council said in a media release.

Holladay also was a key asset in the creation and implementation of the seed cotton programme for US cotton producers and was a member of trade delegations to China and South America coordinated by Cotton Council International, the NCC’s export promotions arm.

A former Plains Cotton Growers Association chairman and Lamesa Cotton Growers president, Holladay is a fourth-generation producer who, along with his wife, Julie, and daughter, Katy, owns and runs an operation in West Texas’ Dawson and Martin counties that primarily produces cotton. He also is a partner in United Gin Corporation, located south of Lamesa.

Holladay was named the 2018 Texas Tech University Gerald W Thomas Outstanding Agriculturalist in Agricultural Production. He also received the 2017 Cotton Achievement Award from Cotton Grower magazine and was a 2012 recipient of the High Cotton Award—a programme sponsored by Farm Progress through a grant to the Cotton Foundation that recognises conservation and environmental stewardship.

Elected as NCC vice presidents were Hank N Reichle, Jr, a Greenwood, Mississippi, cooperative official, and Raymond Faus, a Richardson, Texas, merchant.

Re-elected as NCC vice presidents were Sammy Wright, a Tifton, Georgia, cottonseed processor; Robin Perkins, a Sanford, North Carolina, textile manufacturer; Kirk Gilkey, a Corcoran, California, ginner; and Jay Cowart, an Altus, Oklahoma, warehouser. Re-elected as secretary-treasurer is Mark McKean, a producer from Riverdale, California.

Re-elected as NCC staff officers were Gary Adams, president and chief executive officer; Marjory Walker, vice president, operations; Jody Campiche, vice president, economics and policy analysis; John Gibson, vice president, member services; Don Parker, vice president, technical services; Tas Smith, vice president, producer affairs; and Harrison Ashley, vice president, ginner services. Robbie Minnich was elected as vice president, Washington operations.

Additionally, the late Kenneth Hood, a former National Cotton Council (NCC) vice president, treasurer, vice chairman, and chairman, received the Oscar Johnston Lifetime Achievement Award for 2022 at the annual meeting in Dallas. Outgoing NCC chairman Ted Schneider presented the award to Hood’s daughter, Lou Ann Petro.

Hood, a Mississippi native and Mississippi State University graduate, was active in local, state, and national cotton organisations. He was on numerous NCC committees, chaired multiple committees and continued serving as an advisor to the NCC until his death.

Fibre2Fashion News Desk (NB)