The Professional Development Awards of Excellence recipients will be honored at the Forum luncheon on Wednesday, November 14. The Awards of Excellence recognize NAMA members for achievement in the areas of Marketing Communications, Product/Species Management, Public Relations and Sales.

This year’s recipients include:

Marketing Communications
Pete Kovac, Nicholson Kovac, Inc.

Pete Kovac has served as the CEO of one of the country’s top 100 ad agencies, one of the top BtoB agencies, and one of the top agricultural agencies for going on 26+ years. The agency now is almost $100 million in capitalized billings, employs over 125 individuals and continues to serve agricultural clients, most notably FMC Corporation.

Pete has been a lifetime member as well as supporter of NAMA, and certainly the last 26+ years as head of Nicholson Kovac. He has supported numerous staff members via paying for their memberships, attendance at chapter meetings and national conventions and more.

Public Relations
Greg Smith, Padilla Speer Beardsley

Greg Smith has over 20 years of communications management experience. At Padilla Speer Beardsley, he leads the company’s agribusiness practice which was recently recognized as one of the nation’s largest independent public relations agribusiness agencies by the O’Dwyers Directory of Public Relations Firms.

Greg is responsible for leading the public relations efforts for BASF Professional Vegetation Management, BASF Turf & Ornamental, Global Ethanol Services and Agri-Business Solutions at Padilla Speer Beardsley.

Greg is very active in NAMA, serving most recently as president and past president of the North Central Chapter. He has played an active role in program development and served in various other North Central Chapter leadership roles. He has worked to develop programs for NAMA members, including the negotiating workshop, member networking events and golf outings.

Product/Species Management
Klaas Okkinga, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc.

Klaas Okkinga is responsible for managing the marketing department in the swine division of BIVI. He has also been given the opportunity/challenge to launch a new circovirus vaccine into the swine market – Ingelvac CircoFLEX. In the swine industry, circovirus is the “hottest” disease in the industry and all of the players in the market are doing their best to launch products for this disease and lay claim to precious market share. Klaas successfully launched Ingelvac CircoFLEX and quickly achieved the market leader position. This is an especially remarkable feat, in that Ingelvac CircoFLEX was actually the third product to market and the disease pressure and competition amongst competitors was (and is) intense.

Klaas, although living and working in St. Joseph, is and has been an active member of the MOKAN NAMA chapter — participating in meetings and the annual golf outing. As a marketing manager at a corporation, Klaas’ participation with NAMA adds perspective and value to our NAMA organization, which tends to skew toward the agency/media membership. Continuing to keep the involvement of marketing managers, such as Klaas, is critical to the organization.

Sales
Bill Heffron, Bock & Associates

Bill Heffron is wrapping up a very successful selling career in 2007. He has excelled in achieving high levels of customer satisfaction and professionalism.

Bill is a consummate salesman. He knows his publications, the details of the market segment served, his competitors and, most importantly of all, his customers’ position in this market. This allows him to design advertising proposals using all appropriate publications and related products and always with the customers’ budget and objectives in mind. Research such as Starch FARMS and USDA Census of Agriculture reports were pored over by Bill. He frequently used several sources of data to explain a marketing position and to justify a communication proposal.

Bill’s NAMA involvement has focused on supporting local activities. He has been actively involved in both professional improvement/recognition events like the annual Best of NAMA awards and the more social activities such as the summer golf outing. Bill states, “NAMA is extremely important to us as a networking tool. Many of us greatly benefited early in our careers from the added boost NAMA gave us in getting to know our customers on a more social level.”

Special thanks to Farm Progress Companies and Specialty Fertilizer Products for sponsoring the Awards of Excellence Program.

Special thanks to Nicholson Kovac and Truffle Media Networks for sponsoring the luncheon.