NAMA has honored Phil Johnson, Chief Operating Officer at Colle+McVoy, with the NAMA Marketer of the Year award. The award will be presented during the Second General Session of the 2007 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Think Big!” on Thursday, April 12 at 11:00 a.m. in Dallas and is sponsored by AgriMarketing magazine.

NAMA recognizes its active members with senior management of marketing and/or sales responsibilities with the NAMA Marketer of the Year award. This award is NAMA’s most prestigious honor awarded to active members of the association and honors outstanding accomplishments in the field of agri-marketing.

Phil Johnson has become an expert at taking the status quo and making it better. Whether he’s revitalizing a stagnant brand, reorganizing a business group or providing a struggling subsidiary with the resources needed to gain the confidence to succeed, Johnson is a vital part of maximizing nearly every challenge he encounters, to the benefit of his clients, his company and those who work around him.

Johnson’s philosophy is simple. He uses a straight-forward equation to get the results that put his clients at the forefront of the agricultural industry: Relationships + Rigor = Results. Utilizing this equation to dig into a customer’s business and understand it from the ground up takes a huge amount of work and commitment, and is the key to successfully acquiring and keeping clients.

Johnson has spearheaded efforts to establish business goals and direction for Colle+McVoy’s agribusiness group. He was the first group director to develop a strategic plan within this key agency segment, establishing business objectives for organic growth from existing agribusiness clients and securing new business among both traditional and nontraditional ag companies. In addition, he established semi-annual reviews for each agency account to measure progress against established account goals. As a result, agency resources were applied more effectively and new opportunities were identified and pursued more efficiently. In the first three years of this new emphasis on strategic agribusiness growth and development, Colle+McVoy met all established growth goals and added five new clients that have significantly increased the profitability and provided long-term stability for the agency within the agribusiness marketplace.

As a principal at Colle+McVoy for 20 years, Johnson has provided the leadership and encouragement needed to offer exceptional client service and innovative marketing solutions.

Celebrating his 20^th anniversary as a member and leader of NAMA, Johnson has served as a director and president of the North Central Chapter and chaired awards program committees from the Midlands and North Central chapters. He successfully chaired the NAMA Issues Forum committee in September, 1998, and received the Outstanding Chair award in 1999 for his leadership.