Robert “Rob” Adams, Alabama 

Adams has been a lifelong resident of Union Springs, Ala., where his grandfather established their current farm in 1936 and bought the first Angus cattle in 1939. He only lived off the farm while attending Auburn University earning his bachelor’s degree in animal and dairy science.  

Adams has been involved in the day-to-day operations since purchasing his first cow at 8. The farm has transitioned over his lifetime from a diverse cattle and row-crop farm to registered Angus cattle and timber.  

After college Adams returned to the farm, but due the difficulties of the agricultural economy in the late ’70s-’80s, there wasn’t room for two families on the farm at that time. Still living on the farm and working there every day, he entered the world of finance, working as a financial advisor for the last 37 years.  

Adams is married to his wife of 31 years, Connie, and they have four children. 

Kelly Albrecht, Oklahoma 

Kelly Albrecht is a lifelong cattleman who journeyed from the high desert of southern Utah to the rolling pastures of southeastern Oklahoma. Raised on a ranch managing cattle across 40 square miles of BLM and Forest Service land, Albrecht learned from a young age what it means to care for livestock in rugged, remote conditions. 

Albrecht attended Southern Utah University (SUU) while working at the Cedar City Livestock Market, order-buying cattle and rodeoing for the SUU rodeo team. He was FFA president in high school and active in Block & Bridle in college, showing a lifelong dedication to leadership and the livestock industry. He bought his first registered Angus cattle in 1992 with the goal of building a herd that could thrive in tough conditions. 

In 2003 Albrecht and his wife, Laura, sold out in Utah and purchased a ranch in Wapanucka, Okla., where they built Albrecht Ranch Angus from the ground up. With their children, Halee, Carlee and Jarrett, they operate a 400-head Angus program. 

Art Butler, Idaho 

Butler is the third generation to raise registered Angus cattle at Spring Cove Ranch in Bliss, Idaho. Spring Cove Ranch was settled in 1912 by his grandfather A.H. Butler, who chose to make his desert homestead around a natural spring in northwestern Gooding County, purchasing their first Angus cattle in 1919. 

Attending the University of Idaho, Butler earned a degree in animal science in 1978, was a member of the Farmhouse Fraternity, Block & Bridle Club and was on the Livestock Meat Animal Evaluation Team. He participated in livestock 4-H as a member and later as a leader for more than 20 years and was inducted into the Idaho 4-H Hall of Fame in 2011. He served on the Gooding County 4-H & FFA Market Animal Sale Committee and was beef superintendent at the county fair for more than a decade. 

After college graduation in 1978, Art returned to Spring Cove Ranch to continue the family tradition of raising Angus cows and kids. He and his wife, Stacy; son, Josh; and daughter, Sarah, manage the 350-head cow herd. 

Robert Groom, New York 

Groom was born on a dairy farm in Cheshire, England. He graduated from High School in 1984 at the age of 16. A year later he and his family moved to the 360-acre diversified stock farm of East Tullyfergus, Perthshire, Scotland. 

He established the Tullyfergus Aberdeen-Angus Herd in 1987. As a first-generation breeder, the herd was built slowly as he studied the breed and its history. Funds to expand the herd were earned by operating a contract sheep-shearing business. In 1989 he undertook a three-month study tour of the Angus breed in the United States, living and working with families raising Angus cattle in many different areas of the country. 

In the United Kingdom (U.K.), Groom was appointed to the technical committee of the Aberdeen Angus Cattle Society (A-ACS) in 1996. Since coming to the United States to pursue their “American dream” in October 1998, Robert and Linda have reestablished the Tullyfergus Angus Herd near Lyons, N.Y.  

Linda is a research associate at the University of Rochester Medical Center, and they have three grown children: Oliver, Charlotte and Evie. 

Alan Mead, Missouri 

Mead is a third-generation Angus breeder from Barnett, Mo., working for his grandfather and parents on their family farms until leaving to attend college. After completing his undergraduate degree, medical school and his residency, Mead returned to the area in 1994 as a board-certified anesthesiologist practitioner, servicing his local community while harboring a new vision for Mead Farms.  

Beginning with approximately 20 cows, Mead persevered to reach his production goal to be a performance-oriented herd focusing on the needs of commercial cattlemen. Since that time, Mead Farms has been one of the leading Pathfinder^® herds both in Missouri and nationally. Under Mead’s leadership, the farm has grown to more than 7,000 acres and close to 1,500 registered Angus cows in addition to Charolais, Hereford and Red Angus cattle. 

Mead has two daughters who are actively working as the fourth generation of Mead Farms.  

Mead currently serves on the 2024-2025 Finance & Planning and Communications & PR committees and the Angus Foundation Board for the American Angus Association. Mead previously served as chairman, Angus Foundation Board.

Brooke Miller, Virginia 

Miller is a third-generation Angus breeder from Washington, Va. He and his wife, Ann, assumed principal ownership of Ginger Hill Angus upon his father’s retirement in 1999. Established in 1959 by his father and grandfather, Ginger Hill Angus now spans nearly seven decades and five generations of the Miller family raising cattle in Rappahannock County, Virginia. 

Miller’s commitment to excellence extends beyond the pasture. He graduated salutatorian of Rappahannock County High School in 1978; then attended Virginia Tech, and graduated magna cum laude in 1982 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. While at Virginia Tech, he was a member of the national championship beef cattle judging team and achieved high individual ranking in oral reasons. 

He earned his medical degree from the University of Virginia School of Medicine in 1986, where he met and married his wife, Ann Holmes Miller. 

Miller is a board-certified family physician with 39 years of medical practice spanning emergency and family medicine. 

Brian Palmer, Texas 

Though a relative newcomer to Angus seedstock production, Palmer brings a bold perspective to the American Angus Association — one rooted in strategic leadership, operational discipline and a commitment to member-driven governance. A former Fortune 500 executive and transformational leader, Palmer led billion-dollar businesses around the globe before returning to his roots in agriculture at Palmer Angus in Montgomery, Texas.  

Palmer is the owner of both Palmer Angus and Freedom Cut, a USDA-inspected beef processing plant under development in Southeast Texas. Since 2022, Palmer has built a fast-growing purebred Angus operation focused on integrity, customer trust and premium quality. He’s also been a vocal advocate for accountability and transparency in the American Angus Association. 

Palmer and his family are based in Texas, where they raise purebred Angus cattle and are raising the next Palmer generation with a commitment to faith, freedom and stewardship. They also own a ranch in Montana, where they currently work with a commercial producer to manage the land.  

Logan Sampson, Nevada 

Sampson is a fourth-generation rancher operating in the high desert of Northeastern Nevada. He manages approximately 550 commercial cows and 200 registered Angus cows in partnership with his father, Mark Sampson, and business partner, Aaron Tenney. He is the owner of Birch Creek Angus, which markets around 75 Angus bulls and 250 commercial bred heifers primarily through their annual production sale. Sampson also serves as vice president of his family’s operation, J Bar M Ranching Co., located in Ruby Valley, Nev.  

Sampson began his studies at Utah State University in 2002, where he met his wife, Adriane. They married in 2004 and are proud parents of three children. In the winter of 2005, Sampson returned home to the ranch following his mother’s serious horse accident and his father’s cancer diagnosis. Since then, he has remained committed to the family operation.  

Sampson believes that despite differences in environment, herd size, feed resources, breeding philosophy and business goals, success in agriculture unites us. 

Henry Bryan Smith, Kentucky 

Smith is a fourth-generation Angus breeder who grew up on a diversified family farming operation in south-central Kentucky. The farming operation consisted of a registered Angus herd, burley tobacco, corn, soybeans, wheat for feed and cash market. The Smith family settled and began farming in the Fonthill community in 1810. Smith’s great-grandfather and his sons began the registered Angus seedstock operation in 1940, and it continues today with Smith raising the fifth generation invested in the Angus industry.  

Growing up, Smith was active in 4-H, FFA, the Kentucky Junior Angus Association (KJAA) and the NJAA exhibiting Angus cattle. He graduated from Russell County High School and furthered his education in agriculture and animal science at Western Kentucky University. He purchased his own farmland at the age of 18 and began growing his own Angus herd. For 33 years, he has successfully operated Smithland Angus Farm with his late father, Charles “Bud” Smith. 

Smith married his wife, Melissa, in 1997. They have two children, Bryanna, 20, and Blane, 17.

Roger Wann, Oklahoma 

Wann is a native of Poteau, Okla., and was raised on a multigenerational family commercial cow-calf ranch. The early breed makeup of the family ranch did not include Angus. After the purchase of a dozen commercial Angus cows from a family relative and the addition of an Angus bull from Belle Point Ranch in Lavaca, Ark., the benefits of Angus genetics became clear, and a direction was set.  

While a student at Oklahoma State University (OSU), Wann was an employee at Oklahoma Beef Inc. (OBI), a multibreed central test facility. Later he was a student worker at the OSU Purebred Beef Center. The value of the Angus cow herd at OSU was the last step in a learning curve that would lead him and his family into the Angus seedstock business. After completing a bachelor’s degree in animal science at OSU, Wann earned a master’s in physiology of reproduction from Texas A&M (TAMU).