People: Jerry Lane becomes new NCC chairman
Jerry Lane, president of Claxton Poultry in Claxton, Georgia, has been installed as 2014-2015 chairman of the National Chicken Council (NCC) during NCC’s 60th Annual Conference held in Washington, DC.
Lane, a veteran of 35 years in Georgia’s poultry industry, has been with Claxton Poultry since 1985, serving as General Manager and Vice President. He was named President in 1997. Prior to joining Claxton, Lane began his poultry career at Mar-Jac Poultry in 1978.
He has held a variety of leadership roles with a number of local and national poultry groups and associations, including serving as: a member of the NCC Board of Directors; a member of the Georgia Governors Agriculture Commission; president, senior vice president and board member of the Georgia Poultry Federation; past chairman, Georgia Poultry Improvement Association; and a board member of N.W. Fries, Inc. and Claxton Bank. He is also a life member of the Poultry Leaders Roundtable.
Lane graduated in 1972 from the Georgia Institute of Technology with a Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering. He is also a graduate of Brenau University with a Masters of Business Administration.
Other appointments
Todd Simmons, Chief Executive Officer of Simmons Foods headquartered in Siloam Springs, Arkansas, will serve as vice chairman for 2014-2015. He joined Simmons in 1994 following graduation from Georgetown University. Most recently Simmons was promoted to Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman in January of 2013, after having served as Chief Operating Officer of both the Poultry and Pet Food divisions for the previous six years. Simmons also serves on the Executive Committee and Board of the Pet Food Institute, and is a member of the Arkansas Executive Forum.
New to the officer corps, Mike Popowycz, vice chairman and chief financial officer at Case Foods, headquartered in Troutman, North Carolina, takes over as Secretary-Treasurer. Popowycz joined the Ohio Division of Case Foods in 1987 as Corporate Controller, was promoted to Corporate Treasurer of Case Foods in 1990, was promoted to Chief Financial Officer in 1992, and was promoted to Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer in February 2012. Popowycz was elected to the Case Foods Board of Directors in 2005 and to the National Chicken Council Board of Directors in June 2012. Prior to joining the Ohio Division, Popowycz spent two years with Bell Atlantic Corporation and seven years with Perdue Farms Incorporated serving in various accounting and tax positions. He received a B.A. in Accounting from Moravian College in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania.
Officers serve one-year terms.
In addition to the three new officers, Mike Brown, of Vienna, Virginia, was elected to a fourth term as president of NCC.
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