J. W. Fanning Distinguished
Professional Awards
The Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia (AEAG) presents
awards to agricultural economists who have demonstrated outstanding
achievement and leadership on a community, state, national, or international
level. Candidacy is limited to agricultural economists operating
in Georgia and/or graduates of a degree program offered by the Department
of Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia.
There are two award categories based on the number of years of experience.
The Distinguished Young Professional Award is presented to those
with ten years or less of professional experience, and the Distinguished
Professional Award is presented to those with more than ten years
of professional experience.
Award Recipients
Distinguished Young Professional Award
John
R. Hayes (B.S.A. in Environmental Economics and Management in
1995 and an M.S. in Agricultural Economics in 1997) received the
2003 Distinguished Young Professional Award by the Agricultural
Economics Association of Georgia. He works for the John Deere Company
as a territory manager. He counsels dealers on sales programs, inventory
management, future business planning, development of marketing plans
and promoting retail sales. John calls on a territory of fifteen
independently owned dealer locations. He received the 2000 John
Deere Leader's Circle Award which is given to top territory field
teams with the company.
Distinguished Professional Awards
Charles
Randall (Randy) Nuckolls (B.S.A in Agricultural Economics in
1974 and a J.D. in 1977) received the 2003 Distinguished Professional
Award by the Agricultural Economics Association of Georgia. Randy
is the managing partner of the law firm McKenna, Long, and Aldridge
in Washington, D.C. He began his career working on Capitol Hill
as a legislative counsel for Georgia Senator Herman Talmadge and
subsequently spent six years as chief counsel and legislative director
for Georgia Senator Sam Nunn, directing the activities of the senator's
ten-person legislative staff. He has twenty-five years of experience
in Washington, dealing with federal issues in public policy. Since
1986, Randy has been in private practice, counseling clients on
government contracts and federal legislative and regulatory matters.
Much of Randy's work concentrates on assisting higher education
institutions and organizations in pursuing their federal affairs
agenda. He also has particular expertise in agriculture, environment
and natural resource policy issues, and serves as general counsel
or Washington counsel for a number of corporations, trade associations
and non-profit organizations. In addition, he works as Washington
counsel to the University of Georgia.
David
E. McElyea (M.S. in Agricultural Economics
in 1985) received the 2003 Distinguished Professional
Award by the Agricultural Economics Association
of Georgia. David is Vice President of GFS Information Management
at American Express in Phoenix. His duties include developing the
infrastructure and supply models and economic logic for cross-sell
and acquisition for four United States businesses. Dave began his
career with American Express in the mid-1980's as a computer programmer.
Upon learning that his firm did not
employ economists and econometricians, he explained the benefits
of sound economic analysis to corporate executives and was allowed
to hire four of his former classmates in Agricultural and
Applied Economics at the University of Georgia. This core group
modeled economic decisions for American Express and almost immediately
saved over $100 million annually in financial losses through analyses
and recommendations. Since then, American Express has expanded their
hiring of applied economists to include 400 professionals working
in the areas of financial and corporate planning and marketing.
Dave's greatest accomplishment since college graduation is his leading
of the re-engineering of all the American Express risk management
systems worldwide from 1989 through 1994. It was Dave who
pioneered the use of statistical models and
economic logic at American Express. His accomplishments have
not gone unnoticed. In 1992, he received the Smithsonian
Computer Science Award.
Distinguished Service Award
Richey
Seaton was presented the Distinguished Service Award for his
excellent service as president of the Agricultural Economics Association
of Georgia at the 2003 J. W. Fanning Lecture. Richey will continue
to serve on the association's board of directors.