March 15, 2024

Brent Coker is a producer in Lamb County, a PCG producer-director for Springlake-Earth Cotton Growers, and currently serving as the Secretary/Treasurer for Plains Cotton Growers.

Rowland serves as the manager of North Gin in Dimmitt, Texas, in Castro County and grew up on a farming operation in Castro where his father grew cotton, corn and wheat. Under the tutelage of Jim Bradford, the founder of the Windstar Corporation, he assumed the manager position in 2014.

Buddy Allen has experience in agriculture from several vantage points. Allen has been involved in legislative and regulatory matters through his service to the staff of United States Senator Thad Cochran and his partnership in The Macon Edwards Company, a Washington based government affairs firm. He has engaged in agricultural financial services through his participation in the creation and opening of Covenant Bank. Allen is an active stakeholder in a vertically integrated agribusiness encompassing a production farming operation, ground and areal application services, seed and crop protection retail, ginning, an extensive grain storage and shipping operation, and agricultural real estate holdings in Mississippi. Additionally, Allen is a partner in Miss Cal Orchards, a California based almond farm.

Allen serves in numerous leadership positions throughout agriculture and conservation spaces. In 2015, he was named a “Champion of Change for Sustainable Agriculture” by President Obama. Allen currently serves on the Agricultural Advisory Board of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

In January of 2019, Allen was named President and CEO of The American Cotton Shippers Association, where he leads their policy development and advocacy on both domestic and international matters.

Allen is a native of Belzoni, Mississippi, an Ole Miss graduate, and is married to the former Allison Allen of Tunica, MS. Together, they have three daughters.

Robert Lacy, Jr. – President & CEO, PYCO Industries, Inc.

Robert grew up in a farming and ranching family in West Texas and Eastern New Mexico.  He graduated from Eastern New Mexico University in 1982 with a BBA degree.  In 1984-1990, Robert worked at Paymaster Oil Mill in Lubbock, Texas holding positions of scale clerk, transportation, and marketing.  From 1990 until the present time Robert has been with PYCO Industries, Inc. (formerly Plains Cooperative Oil Mill).  His job duties have been marketing, VP Marketing, Senior Vice-President, and currently he is the President and CEO.  Robert has a combined 39 years of experience in the cottonseed processing business and has been active in many industry and community organizations over the years.  He has been married for 41 years to his wife Karyn and has two children and two grandchildren.

Eric is the CEO of Farmers Cooperative Compress in Lubbock, Texas. A Lubbock native, Eric attended Texas Tech University where he earned his Bachelor’s in Agricultural Economics and his Master of Agriculture. He has worked at Farmers Cooperative Compress since 2005 and took on the role as CEO in July of 2020. Eric and his wife Christine have three children, Sarah, Ben, and Hugh, and two international students from China that have become a part of the family, Chen and Eric. Christine is the Superintendent of Catholic Schools for the Dioceses of Lubbock and Amarillo.  Sarah earned her food science degree from Texas Tech University and now works as a business development manager for HEB’s seafood category.  Their second, Ben, is an Officer in the US Air Force and is currently in pilot training.  Their youngest, Hugh, attends Texas A&M University and is studying Agricultural Economics.

Kevin Brinkley is the president and CEO of Plains Cotton Cooperative Association, headquartered in Lubbock, Texas. PCCA is a grower-owned marketing cooperative supplying high-quality, sustainable cotton from Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas to textile mills worldwide.

Originally from Burnet, Texas, Brinkley graduated from Texas Tech University with bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Agricultural & Applied Economics. He served as an economist for the National Cotton Council until 2000, when he joined The Seam, an online trading and agri-tech company, eventually becoming chairman and CEO. He became CEO of PCCA in 2015.

Since 1989, Brinkley has used his knowledge and experience to promote U.S. cotton and ensure the success of American cotton farmers in global markets. He is Vice Chairman of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He is an advisor on trade policy to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and United States Trade Representative Katherine Tai.