Greg Guse, President, Paulsen Marketing, has been named the 2012 NAMA Marketer of the Year. The NAMA Marketer award will be presented during the Second General Session of the 2012 Agri-Marketing Conference, “Acres of Innovation” on Thursday, April 19 at 11:00 a.m. in Kansas City, Missouri and is sponsored by Agri Marketing magazine.

Greg Guse’s many accomplishments span a 35-year career that has always focused on agriculture; from his early days as a communications assistant at GTA Feeds, as a young account guy at Martin Williams, starting his own agency, Gregory Scott Communications, and his fortuitous arrival at Paulsen Marketing in 1995.

Beginning in 2009, Guse’s leadership steered Paulsen to move beyond traditional agency roles to create a consistent ag marketing research program. The result is a number of thought papers and articles released to the industry including: interviews with producers, research in farm communities and outreach to ag companies. These papers generate significant discussion within the industry including numerous requests to present research findings to industry associations, clients and more.

Guse’s leadership style is much like agriculture itself—take care of the soil, plant the seeds, weather the storms and reap what you sow. And above all, never stop learning.

He recently led an initiative to build relationships with local farmers to give feedback and input—leading to the Paulsen Ag Advisory Panel. This gives staff the opportunity to talk directly to the customers that buy their client’s products.

Guse contributes to overall marketing and sales success first as the agency leader and second as a hands-on account supervisor on key accounts.    

Guse began his NAMA career in 1978, serving in many capacities over the years, and further supporting the organization with Paulsen as a Sustaining Partner. Most recently he served as Best of NAMA Vice Chairman in 2009 and Best of NAMA Chairman in 2010.

He is also committed to Paulsen staff involvement with NAMA. At the regional NAMA awards show in 2011, Greg chartered a bus to take over half of the Paulsen staff to the awards ceremony. Greg also encouraged Paulsen’s attainment of Sustaining Partner for the first time in the agency’s 60-year history.

Greg believes in the power of youth and innovation to keep agri-marketing fresh and relevant. He believes in giving opportunities to and nurturing people. And he believes in the promise of NAMA to identify and empower tomorrow’s agri-marketing leaders—not just through seminars, but through real-world, hands-on examples. Greg truly lives the NAMA ideals every day.