Julie Anna Potts has been named the next president and CEO of the North American Meat Institute, effective Sept. 24, 2018. Potts succeeds retiring President and CEO Barry Carpenter.
 
Potts has served the American Farm Bureau Federation since 2011 as its executive vice president and treasurer. She joined AFBF in 2004 and served as general counsel until 2009 when she was named chief counsel of the Senate Agriculture Committee. In her most recent role at AFBF, Potts led the AFBF staff in its implementation of all programs and activities, as well as the coordination between AFBF and its affiliated companies.
 
Earlier in her career, Potts was an associate in the environmental law groups of the Washington, DC, 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, DC, 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% 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.
 
Source: North American Meat Institute