The U.S. Grains Council will honor two more individuals at the 10th International Marketing Conference and 53rd Annual Membership Meeting next week in Charleston, S.C., – the Kansas Corn Commission’s Ken McCauley and the Texas Grain Sorghum Association’s executive director, Wayne Cleveland.

Both are marking 10 years of contributions to the Council’s export efforts, and for both, involvement goes beyond the status quo.

In addition to serving as a Council delegate, McCauley (pictured right) contributed to a strengthening of Council-NCGA partnerships during his years as an NCGA officer (including NCGA president in 2009-2007), worked extensively on biotechnology issues, participated in Council missions to Asia, and hosted foreign customers on his farm.

Cleveland (pictured left) has participated in strategically critical missions on behalf of Texas sorghum producers, traveling to China, Vietnam, and Taiwan on the 2004 GEM mission and to Colombia in 2012 on the Free Trade Agreement implementation team.

“We have a project [in Colombia] and now that we have the free trade agreement, it’s something special to actually be able to go there and meet the customers and push for sorghum sales,” Cleveland said. “We realize that the Council is our source to access international trade, and we’re glad to take advantage of the Council’s expertise and connections to market our sorghum.”