NAMI has formed a 10-member selection committee and has retained an employee recruiting firm, Raffa Inc., to conduct a search for Carpenter’s replacement. The job description is posted on NAMI’s website and Jan. 31 is the deadline for applicants to be considered. NAMI plans to name the new CEO by late spring and Carpenter will remain on its staff through 2018. 

Carpenter began his career in leading trade associations in 2007, after a 37-year career leading the US Dept. of Agriculture’s Agricultural Marketing Service’s Livestock and Seed Division. He served as CEO of the National Meat Association (NMA) beginning in 2007 and was named CEO of the North American Meat Association (NAMA) in 2013, after NMA merged with the North American Meat Processors Association (NAMP). Carpenter then was named president and CEO of NAMI in 2015, which was the result of the merger of the American Meat Institute and NAMA.