Cattle producers Jimmy Maxey of Fresno, California, Anne Anderson of Austin, Texas and Brett Morris of Ninnekah, Oklahoma are the new leadership team for the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, elected unanimously by fellow Beef Board members during the 2015 Cattle Industry Convention in San Antonio, Texas Feb. 7. Maxey will serve as chairman, Anderson as vice chairman and Morris as secretary/treasurer of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board to lead the national Beef Checkoff Program for the coming year.

The Beef Board also elected members to serve on the CBB Executive Committee and others to fill the CBB seats on the Beef Promotion Operating Committee.

Newly elected Beef Board Chairman Jimmy Maxeyhas been highly active in beef industry organizations, including service as vice chairman and secretary/treasurer of the Beef Board, as well as president and chairman of the former National Meat Association and chairman of the California Beef Council. Jimmy grew up on his family's small cattle ranch and was also very involved in its meat-processing plant. After attending Fresno State University, he returned to the family business, including the packing and processing plant and the cattle-feeding business. Since selling Beef Packers Inc./Fresno Meat Co. in 2006, he has remained active in cattle feeding and meat processing by working for his sons at Certified Meat Products.

“I think the first thing on my hit list is to work hard with industry and cross-industry so people realize the nutritional value of beef,” Maxey said of his new role. “I mean beef is definitely enjoyable, and I think we’ve got that. We are the favorite protein in my book and I think in a lot of people’s book. We need to really convince the people – our consumers – of that. I just want the consuming public to know the values of beef, not only the enjoyable values but also the nutritional values and also how hard beef producers work to protect the environment.”

This year’s Beef Board Vice Chairman Anne Andersonis a cow-calf and stocker operator from Austin Texas and the first executive director of the Texas Beef Council. She and her husband, Jim, own a small cattle ranch in Colorado County and a larger one, which Anne manages, in Menard and MuCulloch counties. In addition to ranching, she has spent more than 15 years providing assistance to individuals and groups trying to build new companies – mostly in the beef industry, and all in the food industry. Anne also is a co-founder and former CEO of AgInfoLink Global, one of the largest food-tracking companies in the U.S., with additional international offices in Australia, Canada, Mexico and Argentina.

Newly appointed CBB Secretary/Treasurer Brett Morrisis a third-generation dairy farmer and runs a dairy, cow/calf and stocker operation, as well as the Washita Fertilizer Company, in partnership with his father. Theirs is a diversified farm operation, including about 1,000 acres of alfalfa, wheat and grassland, 65 registered Holstein cows for milking, 100-125 beef cows, and 200 stocker calves. Morris served as chairman of the Oklahoma Dairy Commission, vice chairman of the Oklahoma Johne's Advisory Committee, as a district voting delegate to DFA, a director of the Federation of State Beef Councils, and as vice chairman of the Oklahoma Beef Council.

CBB Executive Committee
The 12-member CBB Executive Committee includes the Board’s three officers and eight members elected at large. The CBB elected the following members to its 2015 Executive committee: Vice Chairman Anne Anderson, who will serve as chairman of the Executive Committee; and members Jimmy Maxey (CBB chairman); Brett Morris (CBB secretary/ treasurer); Laurie Bryant, an importer representative; Sarah Childs of Florida; Dave Edmiston of Texas; Robert Fountain of Georgia; Barbara Jackson of Arizona; Laurie Munns of Utah; Kent Pruismann of Iowa; and Gary Sharp of South Dakota.

The Executive Committee operates under the direction of and within the policies established by the full Board and is responsible for carrying out Beef Board policies and conducting business and making decisions necessary to administer the terms and provisions of the Act and Order between meetings of the full Board.

Beef Promotion Operating Committee
The Beef Promotion Operating Committee was created by the Beef Promotion Research Act to help coordinate state and national beef checkoff programs. The 20-person committee includes 10 members of the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, among them the Board’s three officers and seven others elected directly by Beef Board members. The other 10 members are appointed from the Federation of State Beef Councils.

CBB members elected to the 2015 Beef Promotion Operating Committee during the annual meeting in San Antonio include: Chairman Jimmy Maxey; Vice Chairman Anne Anderson; Secretary/Treasurer Brett Morris; Marty Andersen, Wisconsin; Jeanne Harland, Illinois; Brittany Howell, Kansas; Joe Guthrie, Virginia; Chuck Kiker, Texas; Stacy McClintock, Kansas; and Joan Ruskamp, Nebraska.

Source: Cattlemen’s Beef Board