USGC欢迎首席执行官Legrand

Ryan LeGrand joined the U.S. Grains Council’s (USGC’s) Washington, D.C., office last month as the organization’s new president and chief executive officer (CEO).

Previously, he spent four years as the Council’s Mexico director during a time of expanding ethanol programs and challenges related to the renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). He was also a grain and feed ingredient trader for 15 years and grew up in rural Oklahoma, a combined set of experiences that have offered perspective on the key elements of the Council’s membership and market development work.

Here, LeGrand talks about his vision for the organization, how his experience informs his approach to leadership and what he has been working on since arriving back in the United States.

您对安理会的愿景是什么？您认为安理会在推广美国商品和谷物的国际贸易中发挥了什么作用？

我对理事会的愿景是为美国农民的底线增加尽可能多的价值 - 真正对整个价值链 - 通过市场准入和我们在50多个国家的世界各地所做的开发工作。

人口分布和中产阶级收入增长方面的数字真的画画。超过95％的世界人口生活在美国以外的生活，因此我们宣传产品的需求的主要增长将来自我们的边境之外。

We are working in foreign markets to promote trade in a number of ways. Market access is really the first and most crucial step. We simply have to have the ability to sell into a market free of barriers and restrictions, so we work with local authorities in these countries to make sure they are correctly informed when they make policy decisions that could affect the products we represent.

We are also working to maintain and defend our valued markets through market education, trade missions and activities like industry outreach.

了解和欣赏客户并提供优质的服务是非常重要的。这就是我在交易和整个职业生涯中练习的东西，它是我将确保安理会在我们经营的任何地方做。

您在墨西哥学到了什么，作为适用于此新角色的谷物交易者？

Working for the Council in Mexico taught me how the organization works on the administrative side - running books and managing programs. All of that translates up, and that knowledge is really going to help me in this role.

与墨西哥政府和公共关系合作也是有价值的经历。我们不能在世界各地的各个国家采取饼干方法，但有一些策略将适用。

As far as trading, my experience lies on the grains side, and I am quickly getting up to speed on ethanol trade. Knowing transportation flows, how products physically move around the world, and understanding key issues like basis and arbitrage opportunities are important. I traded Latin America and Asia for a total of 15 years, shipping barges, railcars, containers, trucks, just about every mode of transportation. Being able to go in to talk trade and logistics with our customers around the world, showing them I understand their business by having that knowledge, really helps with credibility.

What does growth under your leadership at Council look like?

我们做得很好。在过去的四年里，我们在乙醇促销方面努力工作，这不会改变。乙醇目前是来自美国的增长最快的AG出口。在该国向商品玉米添加价值是一种很好的方式，然后以燃料的形式出口该产品。您将看到安理会继续创新，提出新的计划，并在全球乙醇出口促进的前线。

On the grain side, we need to win back markets. We have lost market share in many countries, and we need to work to get those markets back. Every bushel counts when it comes to moving high inventories, so we will be looking to ramp up trade servicing activities, turn over every stone to make sure we are not missing opportunities for trade in the short-, medium- or long-terms.

首席执行官最初几周是您的议程是什么？

我的前几周专注于获得我们正在实施的方案和活动的加快。我们的国际董事，员工和顾问真的是我们全球的眼睛和耳朵，所以我将伸出援手看看有什么工作，而不是寻找关于如何改进的想法。

We have our annual meeting coming up in Cincinnati at the end of the month. At this meeting, we always hold elections for the USGC Board of Directors and officers, so it will give me a chance to talk with past, current and future board members as well as many of our member states and companies who attend this meeting every year. Focusing on our employees and our membership will be crucial in these first weeks.

NAFB Audio: Listen to LeGrand share his vision for USGC here