USA—CGB Enterprises, Inc., a leader in the grain and transportation industries, names Eric Slater CEO, succeeding Kevin Adams, who retired May 31 after nearly 20 years in office.
Adams joined CGB in 1986 and during his tenure as CEO, the company has experienced tremendous growth, expanding from approximately 30 grain elevators to over 100.
It has also grown its complementary businesses including transportation and logistics, soybean processing, risk management and Agri finance.
According to Sosland Publishing’s 2022 Grain & Milling Annual, CGB operates 127 licensed grain facilities with 276.101 million bushels of licensed grain storage capacity.
“As I reflect on our company’s history and my time with CGB, I am inspired, humbled, and overwhelmed with gratitude,” said Adams.
“Some of my predecessors really helped build a foundation, the things that gave us opportunity for the growth and success we’ve had over the last 20 years.
“I hope the work we’ve done over the last 20 years has provided a base for the next 20,” Adams said during a recent company meeting. “If we’ve done that, we’ve done our job well.”
CGB, the nation’s fifth largest grain company, was purchased in the late 1980s as a 50-50 joint venture between Covington-based Zen-Noh Grain and Itochu Corp., a global trading firm based in Tokyo, Japan
Slater joined the CGB team in 1988 as a summer intern and has accrued a wealth of industry experience and knowledge during his career, including a deep understanding of the industry and appreciation for the importance of a company’s culture to overall success.
He then served as the vice president of Operations for Zen-Noh Grain Corp. (ZGC) which had significant focus around the operations at ZGC’s export elevator in Convent, Los Angeles. He then became President of Zen-Noh Hay, Inc. before transitioning back to CGB as its COO in 2021.
“Kevin’s focus on CGB’s core competencies and subsequent strategic growth served the needs of our company’s diverse stakeholders and created excellent returns for our shareholders. He has been a tremendous leader for the company and a personal mentor of mine for years,” said Slater.
He added that it was a true privilege to have worked alongside Adams and expressed how honored he was to have the opportunity to now take the helm as CEO.
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