Arkansas Farm Bureau promoted Jeff Pitchford this month to executive vice president, the organization’s top job. He succeeded Warren Carter, whose previously announced retirement took effect at the end of April.
At the Farm Bureau, a nonprofit advocacy group with nearly 190,000 member-families in Arkansas, the executive vice president is the chief executive officer, managing the entire staff and reporting to the board of directors.
A former vice president for university relations at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, Pitchford has spent the past eight years as director of state affairs in the Farm Bureau’s Public Affairs and Government Relations Department. Lobbying the General Assembly was a significant duty in that post; Pitchford had also worked for Gov. Mike Huckabee in the 1990s as director of rural services.
“Jeff has a special set of experiences that will benefit Farm Bureau,” said Rich Hillman, a farmer from Carlisle who serves as president of the organization. Hillman made his remarks in a statement, predicting Farm Bureau will benefit from “his work as a lobbyist, his tenure within higher education and his time as a state department head.”
Nurturing the membership is a priority, Hillman said. “The challenge of our organization is to help ensure that farmers and ranchers are an engaged part of our organization. Their input and involvement are critical to our continued success as an advocate and voice for agriculture.”
Pitchford, a Mountain Home native, earned a bachelor’s degree in public administration UCA in 1991 and a master’s from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 1994. “Jeff understands the grassroots nature of this organization,” Hillman said. “He is committed to ensuring that Farm Bureau remains relevant as an advocate for our state’s farmers and ranchers as well as a champion for the rural communities of our state. While there are fewer farmers than before, there is not less farming. The issues affecting agriculture are more significant than ever.”
Pitchford reinforced that sentiment, saying in a statement that the 87-year-old advocacy organization’s work “paves the way for a more successful agriculture industry. That is personal to me and those who represent Farm Bureau. I am humbled by the trust the board of directors has demonstrated with this decision.”
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