Council Mourns Loss Of Longtime Director In Egypt

U.S. Grains Council (USGC) members and global staff came together this week to mourn the loss of the former director of USGC’s office in Egypt. Dr. Hussein Soliman passed away last weekend.

“Dr. Soliman was a tremendously passionate ambassador for the Council for many years and was famously known as the Buffalo Man,” said Ryan LeGrand, Council president and CEO. “His passion for Egypt and the Council was truly remarkable.”

For more than 25 years, Soliman worked tirelessly on behalf of the Council and its members, while also helping modernize Egypt’s livestock and poultry production and supporting the development of aquaculture. Soliman retired from working with the Council in 2013.

“Over Dr. Soliman’s career, Egypt became the number one corn importer in the region. Egyptian corn imports soared from 2 million metric tons (MMT), or 80 million bushels, to 9 MMT (354 million bushels) – a four-fold increase in total imports. These exports only tell half the story,” LeGrand said.

“Dr. Soliman was a larger-than-life character; his passionate embrace of the Council’s mission to develop markets, enable trade and improve lives both in Egypt and the United States was a part of the fiber of his character.”

Earlier in his career, Soliman was a professor of animal nutrition at Ain Shams University in Egypt. He received a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in Egypt and his doctorate in animal nutrition from Aberdeen University in Scotland.

Soliman’s expertise in animal nutrition allowed him to help the dairy and dairy buffalo sectors use modern feed formulations, and he repeated these successes with poultry and aquaculture. He helped introduce American Holstein cattle to the country as well as the use of semen for breeding. He also worked diligently to promote the advantages of quality feed ingredients, including U.S. corn, high-oil corn, corn gluten meal, corn gluten feed and distiller’s dried grains with solubles (DDGS).

“I have known Hussein Soliman nearly as long as my association with the Council,” said Tom Sleight, the Council’s former president and CEO. “Dr. Soliman enjoyed deep respect from his students, the close ear of the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture and the heart of the U.S. Grains Council. Few Council members fully realize the stature and transformative impact that Dr. Soliman had. While I fondly remember the good times with Hussein, this news deeply saddens me. We can all feel the impact of his service to the Council and Egyptian agriculture.”

Remembrances can be sent to Soliman’s daughters, Marwa and Dalia Soliman, at daliasoliman10873@gmail.com.