WASHINGTON, July 19, 2013- American Meat Institute (AMI) President and CEO J. Patrick Boyle announced today that he will step down at the end of 2013 after 24 years of service in the meat and poultry industry. He is the longest serving president in AMI’s 107-year history.
Boyle joined AMI in 1990 after serving as administrator of USDA’s Agricultural Marketing Service. Before that, he worked as an attorney at several food trade associations and as agricultural legislative assistant to former Senator Pete Wilson, R-Calif.
“It has been an honor and a privilege to lead this great industry for more than two decades,” he said. “With the organization in a sound position to meet the challenges of the future and given the many accomplishments of the last two decades, this year seemed like an appropriate time for me to move onto another phase of my professional life.”
During Boyle’s tenure, AMI formally petitioned the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) to require nutrition labels on meat and poultry products and to promulgate a regulation requiring that meat and poultry plants implement HACCP-based food safety controls. USDA issued final regulations on both proposals.
“Under Patrick’s twenty-four years of leadership, AMI has been an influential voice for the meat and poultry industry successfully addressing numerous public policy challenges,” said AMI Chairman Nick Meriggioli, president of Kraft Foods, Inc./Oscar Mayer. “He has led AMI’s efforts that have enhanced the safety of our products, the protection of our workers, the welfare of our animals and the preservation of our environment.”
When E. coli O157:H7 emerged as a new pathogen of concern in the early 1990s, Boyle led the reestablishment of the AMI Foundation, which made its mission to reduce and eliminate E. coli O157:H7 in raw ground beef and Listeria monocytogenes in ready-to-eat products.
During the 1990s, Boyle and his team were early adopters of the animal welfare approach of Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University. AMI first partnered with Grandin in 1991 on its Recommended Animal Handling Guidelines for the Meat Industry.
Also under his leadership, the AMI Board voted to make key issues non-competitive, including food safety, animal welfare, worker safety and the environment.
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