Retired President and CEO Randy Gordon Sends Message to NGFA Members During Annual Convention

The following is a statement from Randy Gordon presented on June 3 at National Grain and Feed Association's 125th annual convention in Colorado Springs, Colo., after receiving the NGFA Distinguished Service Award and an honorary lifetime membership to the NGFA:

“I am proud and thankful to have been part of an organization that ...

• Serves the noble purpose of providing a safe, nutritious, sustainable and affordable animal food for consumers around the globe.
• Fervently believes in competitive open markets and free enterprise, and in conducting business with integrity and professionalism.
• Had the foresight to establish, maintain and expand North America’s oldest arbitration system to resolve marketplace disputes in a fair, transparent manner.
• Puts further enhancing workplace safety at the pinnacle of its priorities. • Is committed to bringing the next generation of young leaders into our industry and association, and in striving to expand diversity when doing so.
• Has the foresight to provide innovative business solutions to enhance the industry’s efficiency, exhibited most recently by the successful launch of the Barge Digital Transformation Project. I also am so thankful:
• To have interacted and developed friendships with so many great leaders within NGFA’s Officers, Board and Committees. You have been tremendous mentors and supporters, and have molded NGFA into the organization it is today.
• To have had predecessors in Al Oliver and Kendell Keith who also dedicated their professional careers – 55-plus years in all – to growing the influence and effectiveness of this Association.
• To have worked with a such a talented, dedicated, hard-working and supportive professional staff that, in my book, is second to none. I’d like to have you all stand and be recognized!
• And finally, I am so grateful to – and proud of – the young lady – Barbara – standing beside me for her unwavering love, support, advice and sacrifice throughout our nearly 43 years of marriage. Thanks, too, to my children, Kristin and Brandon, who consistently professed to have an interest in what Dad was doing and have brought such joy to us both, and with whom we’re getting to spend a lot more time these days (and our two grandchildren).

In closing, Barb and I extend our heartiest congratulations and well wishes to NGFA’s new President and CEO Mike Seyfert and his wife, Christy.

Mike’s vision, experience, solid judgment and leadership capabilities – in combination with you all – will bring this Association to ever-greater heights in the decades to come!

I’m so excited to see what the future holds for this great Association! But importantly, this is YOUR organization whose future accomplishments will be determined largely by the investment of time and talent by its volunteer industry leaders.

I fervently believe the NGFA can do and accomplish most anything that its members believe is in the industry's collective best interest so long as its members provide the vision, direction, commitment and RESOURCES to make it happen.

There’s no better place…and no better time…than this 125th annual convention to rededicate yourself and your companies to that high-minded purpose!

Thanks again for your extraordinary kindness and for the privilege of a lifetime that you’ve given us to serve. We wish you and yours all the best!”

Randy Gordon served in various roles at the National Grain and Feed Association for 43 years, most recently as its president and CEO from 2012-2021. Upon Gordon’s retirement, Mike Seyfert assumed the role of NGFA president and CEO on March 1, 2021.

- From the June 11 NGFA Newsletter