NAMA announces award winners.

NAMA has announced the winners of the Professional Development Awards of Excellence. Four members will receive these awards that honor outstanding achievement in the areas of Marketing Communications, Product/ Species Management, Public Relations and Sales. The awards will be presented during the 2003 Agribusiness Forum October 14-16 in Kansas City.

Sarah Vacek receives the Marketing Communication Award. Vacek is manager, direct marketing for Monsanto Company's dairy and swine business, where she designs integrated marketing programs to educate consumers on new initiatives and technologies, while reinforcing the company's branding efforts.

Vacek helped distinguish Monsanto by putting together an innovative direct mail program featuring interactive, three-dimensional elements. Vacek achieved a twenty percent response rate from the target audience.

A NAMA member since she was an active leader in the University of Missouri-Columbia Student Chapter, Vacek joined the Gateway chapter board in 2001 and served as president of the chapter.

Product/Species Management honor awarded to Brian Markwardt. Markwardt is product manager for Golden Acres Genetics, Ltd. in Waco, TX. For the past year, his responsibilities have centered on building a marketing presence for Golden Acres Genetics, helping to establish a new marketing image.

Markwardt was instrumental in the upgrading of the company's web site to improve the flow of product information to the field. This information is now the cornerstone of all sales force presentations and has served to increase the amount of activity on the web site.

Currently serving as the vice-president/president-elect of the Southwest chapter, Markwardt was also a student NAMA member.

DuPont's Ricciuto receives Public Relations Award. Mike Ricciuto, global communications manager for DuPont Agriculture and Nutrition, Wilmington, Delaware, is currently responsible for global communications in the company's agriculture and nutrition business unit. He serves on the company's global agency transition team, a move by DuPont to consolidate all marketing communications and public relations activities to one global agency.

Ricciuto has been involved in the revitalization of the Chesapeake Chapter after it had fallen into a period of inactivity and has re-established the chapter's commitment to working with college students. He has also been actively involved in helping the Agriculture Council of America gel their message out during 2002 and 2003.

Cliff Becker named Sales honoree.

Cliff Becker, group publisher for Vance Publishing Corporation leads the sales efforts the company's Food System Group. This includes six magazines, four e-mail newsletters and numerous special projects initiatives. Becker launched the Food Systems Insider, a publication that is inserted into over 260,000 copies of various Vance Publications. FSI is designed to address issues that are being considered or implemented throughout the food system and shows how those issues might affect all areas of the system.

Becker has been a NAMA member for 18 years and gives support to NAMA in various areas. He encourages staff members to participate in NAMA events.