John Bode, president and CEO of the Corn Refiners Association, will retire in January 2027. He has been a driving leader in food and agriculture policy during his decades-long career in Washington.
Bode joined CRA in 2013.
“The nation’s corn refiners are grateful for John’s years of transformative leadership and appreciate his continuing that leadership into next year,” said Jim Stutelberg, Primient CEO and chairman of the CRA board of directors.
“Replacing John’s expertise and influence will be a tall order. He has been instrumental in addressing the challenges our industry faced as we navigated complex policy dynamics, weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, and fought to protect markets for the American corn refining industry. Our board looks forward to maintaining the positive trajectory John has set.”
The CRA board of directors has retained Sterling Martin to guide the search for Bode’s successor.
Over the past four decades, Bode has been involved in nearly every major update to federal food law, according to CRA. Under his leadership, CRA and more than 30 other associations sponsored the annual Feeding the Economy Report that measures the economic impact of food and agriculture on the U.S. economy.
Bode was also instrumental in the founding of the Plant Based Products Council.
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He currently chairs the Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee, a group of senior representatives across American agriculture who advise the Department of Agriculture and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative on trade policy.
“The CRA Board’s comprehensive perspective supports strategic alliances that enable us to meet challenges that would otherwise exceed our capabilities. Punching above weight class has been a fun way to cap a career,” Bode said. “As gratifying as that has been, come next year, my focus will turn to our dogs, some Caribbean Islands, and working for Mrs. Bode, not necessarily in that order.”
Bode plans to remain actively engaged in guiding the CRA’s key initiatives through the appointment of his successor.
Raised in western Oklahoma, Bode served as 1976-77 student body president at the University of Oklahoma while pursuing a bachelor’s degree in government and political science. He later joined the Senate Agriculture Committee as a three-month temporary employee, which then extended to a two-year-long role on staff as he attended law school at George Mason University.
Bode then held several roles at USDA during the Reagan administration from 1981 through 1989, including three presidential appointments.
As assistant secretary of agriculture for food and consumer services, Bode was responsible for more than half of USDA’s budget, oversaw more than 90 proposed and final regulations, and testified before Congress more than 70 times on a variety of topics, including the Reagan administration’s welfare reform proposals, CRA says. He also drafted the original charter for the first Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee.
Bode then practiced law from 1989 to 2013 focused on food and agriculture policy and regulatory issues. He served as lead counsel on the nation’s first food recall based solely on epidemiological evidence and represented several national food and agriculture trade associations as general counsel.
Bode’s contributions to food and agriculture policy have been recognized with the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture Ambassador’s Circle Award, a Distinguished Lecture invitation from the Institute of Food Technologists, and as a two-time winner of the Silver Stevie Award for Government and Non-profit Thought Leadership from the American Business Awards.
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