Julie Anna Potts named president and CEO of North American Meat Institute

The North American Meat Institute named Julie Anna Potts its next president and CEO effective Sept. 24. Potts succeeds retiring President and CEO Barry Carpenter.

An agriculture veteran, Potts has served the American Farm Bureau Federation since 2011 as its executive vice president and treasurer. In her role, Potts led the AFBF staff in its implementation of all programs and activities for the organization, as well as the coordination between AFBF and its affiliated companies.

Potts first joined AFBF in 2004, serving as general counsel until 2009. In late 2009, she was named chief counsel of the Senate Agriculture Committee, serving under then-Chairman Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas.

Earlier in her career, Potts was an associate in the environmental law groups of the Washington, D.C., law firms Mayer Brown, LLP, and Sonnenschein, Nath & Rosenthal. She also clerked for U.S. Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia from 1997-1998.

Potts earned her law degree at The George Washington University Law School in Washington, D.C., and her bachelor of arts in English at Bryn Mawr College in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. She is a trustee of The Pennsylvania State University and chair of the American Enterprise Agriculture Sector Committee at the Smithsonian American History Museum.

“Julie Anna Potts’ deep legal, legislative and association experience and her passion for agriculture will serve the Institute and its members well as we embark on the next chapter in our Institute’s history,” said Meat Institute Chair John Vatri, vice president of operations at Cardinal Meat Specialists Limited. “We look forward to having her join our historic Institute and our meat industry family and we are confident that her skills and experience will help us continue to serve our members’ needs.”

The North American Meat Institute is the nation’s oldest and largest trade association representing packers and processors of beef, pork, lamb, veal, turkey, and processed meat products and NAMI member companies account for more than 95 percent of United States output of these products. The Meat Institute provides regulatory, scientific, legislative, public relations and educational services to the meat and poultry packing and processing industry.