Bob Parker: 47 Years in Peanuts

Dec 12, 2023

Episode Description

In 2012, the National Peanut Board hired Bob Parker to become the Board’s second president and CEO. Parker grew up on a peanut farm, worked for Golden Peanut Company and had close to 40 years of experience. While some may have initially been hesitant that a former sheller could have the best interests of farmers at heart, Bob’s integrity and strong relationships across sectors showed that he absolutely did. As we approach the end of Bob's 11 year-tenure at NPB, we highlight his key accomplishments and future thoughts, talk to colleagues who have become true friends and share insights into choosing a successor. This episode features interviews with Parker; food allergy advocate Mary Jane Marchisotto; American Peanut Council Vice President and European Marketing Director Louise McKercher; NPB Chairman and Virginia peanut grower Paul Rogers; and executive search consultant Garland West.

In 2012, the National Peanut Board hired Bob Parker to become the Board’s second president and CEO. Parker grew up on a peanut farm, worked for Golden Peanut Company and had close to 40 years of experience. While some may have initially been hesitant that a former sheller could have the best interests of farmers at heart, Bob’s integrity and strong relationships across sectors showed that he absolutely did. As we approach the end of Bob's 11 year-tenure, we highlight his key accomplishments and future thoughts, talk to colleagues who have become true friends and share insights into choosing a successor. Guests are Parker; food allergy advocate Mary Jane Marchisotto; American Peanut Council Vice President and European Marketing Director Louise McKercher; NPB Chairman and Virginia peanut grower Paul Rogers; and executive search consultant Garland West.

First, we spoke to the man himself, Bob Parker. You likely know Bob in some way already but here's a little more about Bob's connection to peanuts and his family. “I'm president and CEO of the National Peanut Board. The 2023 crop is my 47th peanut crop since I began my career. And no two have been alike, it seems. I have two grown children, married for 45 years this year to my wife, Margaret Anne. And we have two grown children, Ellen and Robert. Ellen has three little boys, ages nine, six and three. And Robert has a little girl who just turned a year old. And in my retirement, I hope to have a chance to participate in more of their activities and see them even more as they grow up.”

Farmers know that timing is one of the most important factors when it comes to planting and growing. When it comes to organizational change, timing is also critical to growing and finding successors for industry leaders. Bob had several reasons for deciding that now was the right time to pass the baton.

“When I was given this opportunity to come to the National Peanut board, I had already retired one time from another job and when they talked to me about, if offered the job, how long would I stay? I told them I'll give you 10 years. And I've given 11 years. I'm at an age where, although I'm in still very good health, you never know. And I want to see my grandchildren grow up. I want to have more time with my wife and time to relax.”

Next, we spoke to Mary Jane Marchisotto. Mary Jane has been very involved in the food allergy community in recent years and met Bob soon after he joined NPB. Mary Jane has not always worked in the food allergy space previous working in global investment banking, which is part of the reason she had an open mind with Bob and NPB. “I was a bit of an outsider to the food allergy community. I had no preconceptions about anyone. And whenever I meet new people, like Bob, I always treat the person with as a friend, and assume that something positive is going to come out of the out of the friendship that I'll personally grow from it. Occasionally, I'm wrong and change course. But with Bob, I was I was right from the get go. From that initial lunch we had together at the FAAN Industry Day through today, I find it's personally rewarding to me and I learn and grow every time I encounter I work with him.”

The relationship NPB has had with the food allergy community has evolved over time. A lot of this evolution though is due to our relationship building and contributions to research.

“Over the years, the National Peanut board was funding LEAP and LEAP-On and EAT,” said Mary Jane. “But they also did wonderful work in funding basic research. They're helping me right now on a project that I'll talk about in mental health services. And they do wonderful good work supporting the patient groups and their education and advocacy efforts. Occasionally, you hear some negative comments. When I would hear a comment about a peanut grower or peanuts in general, I turned it around, and I asked the speaker if he or she knew what the Peanut Board does on behalf of peanut farmers and the peanut growing community. And they look at me, you know, stargaze, nothing. So I cite LEAP and the research activities and the work that they do with the communities. And I would say their opinions of the Peanut Board and growers have evolved over time. And once they understand the terrific work, they can make informed judgments. Of course, I love telling people that Bob is one of them. And that he has a family member who's personally peanut allergic and that's a showstopper. They understand why he's so empathetic. He was before the individual was diagnosed, but he's certainly been empathetic and I would argue even more so since then.”

Next up we spoke to Louise McKerchar of the American Peanut Council. Louise has worked and traveled with Bob on export activities for many years and values his collaborative spirit.

“Bob is a true Southern gentleman in my eyes. He's always immaculately turned out. He's always smart. Positive, He's considerate. He's just a really nice guy to work with. And I'm sure everyone at the peanut board has found the same over the years. He's always ready to listen. He's always ready to give some advice. He's always willing to help out. I don't think he ever says no to anybody. It's always ‘Yeah, I'll do that. Yep, I'll support you on that.’ And that's really what I'll remember, the great collaborative working relationship.”

Next, we spoke to Paul Rogers, who is the 2023 chairman of the National Peanut Board. Paul has served on the Board for the entirety of Bob’s tenure as CEO. “Bob's impact on National Peanut Board has been amazing. His knowledge of the industry is just overwhelming. The segments of the industry were fragmented when Bob came into the Peanut Board as the CEO. His knowledge, his contacts throughout the shelling segments, the allied segments and then obviously him having worked with the growers from the from the shelling side. His knowledge about all three was so great, it just brought all segments back together. I think today all the segments of the industry are as strong as they have been since my tenure, and I credit 100% to Bob Parker's leadership.”

For other industry organizations looking to hire a new CEO, Paul stresses the importance of doing your due diligence and looking everywhere, including outside the industry, for candidates to fill the position.

“Without a doubt, do yourself and your organization the due diligence and make it a search. Whether it be national, some sort of search. Even though hopefully you have strong internal candidate or candidates, do a search. And I say that with the understanding that this was my first national search. I've been on local searches, but this is my first big search going through it. And I learned so much about the process. You learn from the candidates in the search. Candidates that you may not choose, they may bring something to the table for that organization that you have never thought of, such as a background, such as an idea, such as a direction or path that they see forward.”

The final guest is Garland West. Garland was a consultant the search committee used during the CEO hiring process. Here’s what Garland believed to be the most important attributes Bob brought to NPB: “I came to think of [Bob] as a player coach. He is there to give you all of his expertise and knowledge to help you be successful in what you need to do. And that's why he was able to build such a great team at the National Peanut board. Just as important, to build these kinds of constructive relationships with every other segment of the peanut industry, and the world that they serve. Bob's ability to understand the challenges of peanut production, to understand the need to develop markets and market opportunities for peanuts, the ability to understand the challenges that the industry faces, and the role that sound science and research can play and the ultimate importance of being able to help people understand all of that and in a simple and direct way. I mean, he puts all of the pieces of the puzzle together. That's what made him so incredibly impressive to me, and I think so effective in the job that he's had.”

When it comes to looking for a new CEO, here are some of the things Garland says are the most important things for an organization to do.

“Plan ahead. There are certain basic principles that ought to be present in any executive search, any kind of preparation for leadership transition. Get started reasonably early, involve good people. And when I say good people, I mean, people who have the time and the commitment to apply to this. This is one of the most critical functions of any organization is providing for continuity and quality of leadership. It's not something that you fit in between 7:00 and 7:15 in the morning. This is something where people need to be focused and dedicated to doing it. So good people are absolutely critical to that. […] One other thing that I would strongly encourage you to do as part of that is make sure that you never underestimate the importance of having your culture clearly defined for people. In the world of executive leadership, what is the number one reason that new leaders fail? What is the overwhelming largest reason that people don't succeed in new leadership positions? The answer is because they didn't fit in. They weren't one of us. It has nothing to do with their technical skills or their experience, or their administrative capacity. They didn't understand the culture and didn't fit into the culture. So, make culture part of the process of planning for succession. Don't underestimate the importance of dealing with that element.”

Bob’s parting words for the episode capture not only how meaningful his impact on NPB has been but also how impactful it has been on him. “This opportunity to serve America's peanut farmers has been the highlight of my career. I'm grateful for that first Board who gave me the chance to lead this great organization. I'm grateful to the staff who were on board when I arrived, and so many other staff members who are still at the Peanut Board, who supported me from day one, who bought into my vision of what we could do and I'm very proud of where we are today as an industry organization, a respected and recognized leader in the industry and know that that first Board took a chance on me and I'm grateful for them doing that and giving me the opportunity and support to succeed.”

Bob Parker

Bob Parker joined the National Peanut Board, a farmer-funded research, marketing and promotion organization based in Atlanta, Georgia, as its president and CEO in 2012. At the National Peanut Board, he has focused on the mission of improving the economic condition of America’s peanut farmers and their families. Those efforts have centered around promoting the increased consumption of U.S.-grown peanuts domestically and internationally, addressing barriers to consumption such as peanut allergy and supporting production research to make peanut farmers more productive, efficient and sustainable. The 2023 peanut crop is the 47th of Parker’s professional career, although he has been around peanuts his entire life. He has a broad range of experience in peanuts and agriculture, both domestically and internationally, from growing, processing, public policy and marketing. Parker is a graduate of the University of Georgia with a degree in agricultural economics.

Mary Jane Marchisotto

Mary Jane Marchisotto is the founder and principal of MJM Advisory, LLC, a consultancy that provides advisory services to the food allergy community focused on advancing patient centered research, education and advocacy. Prior to founding MJM Advisory, Ms. Marchisotto served as Executive Director of the Food Allergy Initiative (FAI) and Senior Vice President, Research and International, at Food Allergy Research & Education (FARE). Highlights of her career at FAI and FARE include raising seed equity and Series A financing for Allergen Research Corporation (rebranded Aimmune Therapeutics); organizing, growing and managing the FARE Clinical Network to 33 sites across the United States; supervising the launch and implementation of the FARE Patient Registry; and writing and managing PCORI Award "Empowering Patient Partners and Key Stakeholders to Develop a Patient Centric Food Allergy Research Program". Ms. Marchisotto served as Chair of the Patient Organisation Committee of the European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology (EAACI) for three years and remains a member of that Committee. She serves on the National Peanut Board Food Allergy Advisory Council, is Executive Advisor to the International FPIES Association, and is a member of the Adverse Reactions Committee of the American Academy of Allergy Asthma & Immunology (AAAAI). A frequent speaker at leading global academic and industry conferences, she has co-authored about a dozen food allergy peer reviewed publications, and has served on a number of food allergy grant review and industry panels. Before joining FAI as Executive Director, Ms. Marchisotto spent 30 years in the financial services industry, concentrating on financial management issues and on the development of internal best practices.

Louise McKerchar

Louise joined the American Peanut Council in 1986. She is responsible for running the European office, based in the UK. Her portfolio includes oversight of European and UK activities; maintaining regular contact with international customers, contractors and stakeholders to help support exports of U.S. peanuts to Europe; and focusing on technical issues, such as aflatoxin, pesticide residues and the monitoring of European & UK regulatory changes that will impact peanuts. During her time at APC, Louise has worked on public relations campaigns and marketing promotions across Europe, as well as running exhibition booths at leading food and ingredient trade shows. Louise organizes and oversees the biennial International Peanut Forum, the industry’s premier event for peanut suppliers, buyers, traders, manufacturers and service providers from around the globe. Louise is an active director of The Nut & Dried Fruit Association in the UK and participates in the Nut Processors Working Group of the European Snacks Association. Educated at a leading UK public school, her previous work (many years ago!) included sales of business accounting systems for the U.S. company Kalamazoo.

Paul Rogers

Rogers was the 2023 chairman of the Board and representative from Virginia. Rogers served as vice chairman of the board last year. In partnership with his father, also named Paul, Rogers is a producer of cotton, peanuts, corn, soybeans, wheat and timber. Rogers graduated from Old Dominion University with a Bachelor of Science in civil engineering technology and has been farming since graduating in 1997.

Garland West

Garland has spent four decades immersed in the complex world of food and agriculture, as both a profession and a personal passion. As a contributing writer to Dirt-to-Dinner, he applies that experience and keen interest in all things food-related to focus on our modern global food system, sustainability and other timely topics. Over his career, Garland has applied his academic training in journalism to coverage of agricultural, environmental and trade policy in Washington and Europe for clients that include major corporate leaders and prominent global consulting firms. His resume includes postings in Washington, Minneapolis, London, New York, Chicago and Detroit, both as a corporate executive and president of his own communications company. He is a published author and public speaker on agriculture, trade and public policy matters, as well as a consultant to various organizations on organizational leadership. He and his wife Nancy today reside deep within in the Blue Ridge Mountains, where they maintain an animal sanctuary and savor a more contemplative and relaxed pace of life.