National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF) President and CEO Jim Mulhern announced Tuesday that he will retire at the end of this year. He will conclude a decade of service leading the organization and capping a 45-year career in U.S. agricultural and dairy policy.
Mulhern said, “Directing the policy efforts of the nation’s dairy farmers and their cooperatives has been the highlight of my professional career.”
Then on Wednesday, during the NMPF Board of Directors meeting in Arlington, VA, a new top executive was announced. The Board unanimously voted to name Gregg Doud, a globally recognized agricultural leader, as its next president and CEO.
“Dairy farmers across the nation are pleased to endorse a true champion of agriculture, someone who both understands the hard work we do and the opportunities and challenges we face both here and abroad,” said Randy Mooney, chairman of the NMPF Board. “NMPF has long been blessed with leadership that’s been able to take its advocacy for dairy to a higher level. We strongly believe that Gregg Doud more than amply provides the expertise, the background, and the passion we will need as we navigate a challenging, but promising, new era.”
Doud has served in numerous leadership roles in trade association and government work in his more than 30-year career in agricultural policy and economics, most recently at Aimpoint Research, a global intelligence firm specializing in agriculture and food. From 2018 to 2021 he served as Chief Agricultural Negotiator for the U.S. Office of the Trade Representative, appointed by President Donald Trump and confirmed by the Senate, where he led numerous successful efforts to create a fair, prosperous environment for U.S. agricultural exports, including the U.S.-China “Phase One” agreement and the USMCA negotiations.