Changes in leadership at Land O'Lakes

SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Land O'Lakes has named Autumn Veazey as its director of government relations and Daryn McBeth as its director of state affairs and industry relations.

Veazey is a professional staff and counsel for U.S. Senator and ranking member Thad Cochran of Miss. and was previously professional staff and counsel for U.S. Senator Pat Roberts of Kansas, former ranking member of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry. She was a litigation attorney representing insurance companies in both insurance defense and workers compensation areas; associate counsel and director of legislative affairs for the United Fresh Produce Association, a trade association, which represents 1,300 member companies; and was manager of federal affairs at Troutman Sanders Strategies, a full-service government relations and issues management firm.

Veazey will be based in Washington, D.C., and will replace government relations director Steve Kirkava, who is retiring. Veazey will be responsible for leading Land O'Lakes’ company-wide government relations strategy and identifying issues that affect the cooperatives' members and its businesses.

McBeth has spent the last 10 years at Minnesota Agri-Growth Council, where he was most recently president. He was previously a lobby and outreach consultant and worked with Gordley Associates in Washington, D.C. and was an adviser to U.S. Congressman Earl Pomeroy on all matters in front of the U.S. House Agriculture Committee and worked for the U.S. Department of Agriculture where he was special counsel for tax issues for farm programs.

Based in Minn., McBeth will be responsible for developing the Land O'Lakes strategy for state-level government relations.

Land O'Lakes is a national, farmer-owned food and agricultural cooperative with annual sales of more than $14 billion. It does business in all 50 states and more than 60 countries. It is a leading marketer of a full line of dairy-based consumer, foodservice and food ingredient products across the United States; serves its international customers with a variety of food and animal feed ingredients; and provides farmers and ranchers with an extensive line of agricultural supplies (feed, seed and crop protection products and services) under the operations of WinField and Purina Animal Nutrition. Land O'Lakes also provides agricultural assistance and technical training in more than 25 developing nations.