Excellent speakers, an outstanding turnout and informative exhibits are the ingredients that helped make the 2003 American Dairy Products Institute/American Butter Institute Annual Meeting a great success.

Elmhurst Ill.--Excellent speakers, an outstanding turnout and informative exhibits are the ingredients that helped make the 2003 American Dairy Products Institute/American Butter Institute Annual Meeting a great success. The three-day meeting was held from April 27 through April 30th in Chicago.

More than 600 industry people attended the conference which was organized around the theme "Promoting Great Ingredients From A Perfect Food."

The organizations represent companies that sell dairy ingredients to food manufacturers and companies that sell wholesale butter.

"We felt we had one of the most successful conferences ever for a couple of reasons," says Jim Page, ADPI's CEO. "Our attendance was good, and our speaker group really did an excellent job of providing great insights on the issues that are affecting the dairy industry today."

Don Brick of Swiss Valley Farms Co., Davenport Iowa, and Harold Schild of Tillamook County Creamery Assn., Tillamook, Ore., were presented with Honorary Lifetime Director Awards at the meeting.

Prior to beginning his career with Swiss Valley Farms, Brick owned and operated a dairy for eight years and was employed with Borden's for 11 years. He joined Swiss Valley Farms in 1982, as v.p. of the manufacturing division. In 1998, he became v.p. of the Dairy Division.

Schild operated the family dairy before joining the Tillamook County Creamery Association in 1958 as a Package Department employee. Over the next seventeen years, Schild worked in several production and sales positions before assuming administrative duties in 1975. After 18 years in administration, Schild was appointed President and CEO in 1993. In addition to general administration, Harold remained active in milk marketing regulations, legislative issues and overall public relations.

The 2003 Award of Merit was presented to Harlan H. Mammen, who retired from Associated Milk Producers Inc. in 2002. Mammen, who made significant contributions to the dairy industry during his 37 years as a leader of AMPI. He began his career with AMPI in 1965 as a plant accountant and office manager of the Osceola County Cooperative Creamery in Sibley, Iowa.

Two members of ADPI were elected to their first terms as members of the ADPI Board of Directors. Jim Kelleher, Director of Marketing and Sales for Maple Island, Inc. and Greg Rexwinkel, v.p. of the manufacturing division for Swiss Valley Farms join nine other directors who were re-elected with terms ending in 2006.

The following ADPI Board of Directors were selected to serve as officers for the 2003 term:
President--Phillip Dale Smith, Leprino Foods, Denver.
Vice President--Richard Stammer, Agri-Mark, Inc., Lawrence, Mass.
Secretary--Rick Kaepernick, Hilmar Cheese Co., Hilmar, Calif.
Treasurer--Ken McMahon, Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery, Ellsworth, Wis.

The meeting finale on Tuesday, April 29th, was the annual Cheese and Wine reception. Attendees sampled a vast variety of cheese including award winning cheese donated by Cheese Market News, Chicago Mercantile Exchange and MCT Dairies, Inc.