Woods Eastland to Lead the National Cotton Council in 2005

WASHINGTON, DC –  Woods Eastland, a Mississippi cooperative executive, was elected chairman of the National Cotton Council for 2005. Named during the NCC’s annual meeting here today, he served as the NCC’s vice chairman in 2004 and succeeds Woody Anderson, a Colorado City, TX, producer.

Eastland has served as president and chief executive officer of Greenwood-based Staplcotn Cooperative Association and Staplcotn Discount Corporation since 1986. He has been a cotton, soybean and rice producer in Sunflower County since 1974.

Eastland also serves as vice president and director of AMCOT, and is a director of the Delta Council, Mississippi Chemical Corporation, and The Seam, LLC. He is past president and chairman of Cotton Council International, a past member of the New York Cotton Exchange’s Board of Managers, a past director of the Memphis Branch Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and a former member of the New York Board of Trade’s Board of Governors.

A native of Doddsville, MS, Eastland holds a B.A. degree from Vanderbilt University, and a J.D. degree from the University of Mississippi School of Law. He is a licensed lay reader in the Episcopal Diocese of Mississippi. He and his wife, Lynn, have two children and one grandchild.

Allen B. Helms, Jr., a Clarkedale, AR, producer who served as NCC treasurer in 2004, will serve as NCC vice chairman. Re-elected as NCC vice presidents were: Charles Owen, a Pima, AZ, ginner; Gail Kring, a Lubbock, TX, crusher; Fred Underwood, a Lubbock, TX, warehouseman; Robert Weil, II, a Montgomery, AL, merchant; and G. Stephen Felker, a Monroe, GA, textile manufacturer. Craig Shook, a Corpus Christi, TX, producer, was elected secretary-treasurer.

Re-elected NCC staff officers were: Dr. Mark Lange, NCC president and chief executive officer; Dr. Gary Adams, vice president, Economics and Policy Analysis; Craig Brown, vice president, Producer Affairs; Fred Johnson, vice president, Administration and Program Coordination; Dr. Andy Jordan, vice president, Technical Services; and Dr. Bill M. Norman, vice president, Ginner Services; all of Memphis; and John Maguire, senior vice president, Washington Operations; and Allen Terhaar, vice president, Foreign Operations; both in Washington, DC.