AMES, Iowa – Howard Hill, president-elect of the National Pork Producers Council and strategic council to Iowa Select Farms, will present the 2013 William K. Deal Endowed Leadership Lecture Oct. 9 at Iowa State University.
He will present “Entrepreneurs and Leadership in the Swine Industry" at 7 p.m. in the Sun Room of the Memorial Union on campus. The event is free and open to the public.
Dr. Hill earned a master’s degree and doctorate in veterinary microbiology from Iowa State and joined the faculty at Iowa State's Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. During his 20-year tenure at the university, he served as an industry leader in the eradication of pseudorabies.
A native of California, Dr. Hill earned a doctorate of veterinary medicine from the University of California-Davis. He has been with Iowa Select since 2000, when he joined the company as director of production. In 2001, he was promoted to chief operating officer, continuing in that role until 2009. In 2011, Dr. Hill was one of nine veterinarians appointed to serve on the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Advisory Committee on Animal Health.
Iowa Select Farms is an Iowa-based pork production company founded in 1992 by Jeff Hansen, a third-generation family farmer and pork producer. Headquartered in Iowa Falls, Iowa Select is the state’s largest pork producer with more than 900 employees in 43 counties.
Throughout his career, Dr. Hill has been involved in the American Association of Swine Veterinarians, the Story County Pork Producers, is on the board of directors of the Iowa Pork Producers Association and is past president of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians. He also is involved with the Iowa Veterinary Medical Association and the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Dr. Hill's pork production business, H&K Enterprises, includes hogs and cattle, and he and his son farm 2,600 acres of corn, soybeans and alfalfa.
William K. Deal, an Iowa State alum with a degree in agricultural education, established the lecture series to help prepare future leaders and innovators in agriculture. The lecture is organized by the Department of Agricultural Education and Studies in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences and co-sponsored by the Committee on Lectures funded by the Government of the Student Body.