Organic Valley has selected agricultural veteran and community advocate Shawna Nelson as the cooperative’s fourth CEO. She’s also the cooperative’s first female CEO.
“I think all the time when we’re growing up and we’re thinking about ourselves, we want to aspire to the roles that we think are possible for ourselves. Knowing that as a female, I can lead the world’s largest farmer-owned agriculture cooperative, it’s remarkable,” she says. “I have so much respect for our board of directors, our membership, and our employees for the development that we put into people that allow us to aspire from going to intern to CEO.”
Over almost 20 years within the co-op, she has grown from intern to CEO, contributing significantly to Organic Valley’s growth. Born and raised in the Driftless Area, Nelson started her career at Organic Valley in 2005 as an intern. She later moved into marketing, sales analysis, recruitment, employee relations, field operations, and dairy pool management. In every position, Nelson excelled and deepened her understanding of cooperative structure and strategy.
One of the wins Nelson says she hopes to build on includes Organic Valley’s No. 1 dollar share in the organic space. Organic products, such as dairy and eggs, are seeing double-digit growth in demand. At the same time, the cooperative is watching highly pathogenic avian influenza in both cattle and poultry closely.
“It’s been a topic that’s been top of mind because of course we have our egg pool as well as our dairy pool,” Nelson says. “We continue to monitor and work with folks to make sure that we stay on the edge of it and make sure that our products are safe for consumers and customers.”
While demand growth is a bright spot, market disruptions with trading partners are a risk.
“We’re aligned with all of agriculture in that tariffs and regulations are a market disruption that create costs and inflationary impacts of food,” she says.
Organic Valley added 150 new farms last year, and it continues to procure for this year and three years out.
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