Contact: Grant Moos, Cargill, 612/742-2275
MINNEAPOLIS - Cargill Chairman Ernest S. Micek was appointed Friday by President William Clinton to serve on the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Business Advisory Council (ABAC), an influential group of world business leaders that advises APEC on important issues.
The 21-member economies that make up APEC - including China, Japan, Russia and the United States - account for nearly half of global trade and population.
Micek is one of three U.S. members to sit on the council. He and Sy Sternberg, chairman, president and CEO of New York Life Insurance Co., were named Friday to join Paul Song, president and CEO of ARIS Corp. Micek and Sternberg succeed John F. Smith Jr., chairman and CEO of General Motors Corp., and J. Gary Burkhead, vice chairman of FMR Corporation, the parent company of Fidelity Investments.
"This is a tremendous opportunity to represent America's business interests in these important markets," said Micek, who joined Cargill in 1959. "I relish the chance to help lower overseas barriers on American goods and services and to work with APEC leaders in building a more environmentally sustainable and prosperous trading system."
Since its inception in November 1995, ABAC has issued several reports to APEC on a wide range of issues of importance to business. Several of these recommendations have been adopted -- including a proposal to create a regional open food system where agricultural and food products could be traded more freely among APEC countries.
Micek is also chairman of the Emergency Committee for American Trade, a Washington, D.C.-based group comprised of the leaders of more than 50 of America's largest companies that together represent more than four million employees. He also serves on the President's Export Council and is a member of the U.S. board of the Pacific Basin Economic Council.
Cargill is an international marketer, processor and distributor of agricultural, food, financial and industrial products and services with some 82,000 employees in 59 countries. In 1999, Cargill's egg-processing subsidiary, Sunny Fresh Foods, became the first food company to win the Malcolm Baldrige national quality award."
c Copyright 2000 Cargill, Incorporated. All rights reserved.:
