AABP selects next executive
Dr. K. Fred Gingrich II, current president of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners, will become the organization’s new staff executive in 2017.
The dairy veterinarian and practice owner from northern Ohio will end his term as volunteer leader of the association July 1, about two months early, to begin learning how to manage the association as the new executive vice president. He will take over from Dr. M. Gatz Riddell, who is retiring at the end of the year and has been executive vice president since March 2005.
Dr. Gingrich plans to sell his dairy and small animal practices and establish an AABP office in Ashland, Ohio. That office will replace the current AABP headquarters in Auburn, Alabama.
Dr. John Davidson, immediate past president, will fill the remainder of Dr. Gingrich’s presidency, which will end at the AABP’s annual meeting Sept. 15-17 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
The change for Dr. Gingrich follows 21 years in private practice. He said the decision whether to make that change was difficult, as he enjoys working with his dairy clients, but he also enjoys working with veterinary medical organizations and feels a particular attachment to the AABP.
He sees his role as executive vice president as a continuation of Dr. Riddell’s work.
“I want to focus on member services—demonstrating the strength of our organization to our members—and listen to our members about what they desire from an organization,” he said.
He wants to advocate for all bovine practitioners as well as continue the AABP’s collaboration with allied organizations, including the AVMA.
“I think we have taken a leadership role in the important issues for cattle, cattle producers, and cattle veterinarians over the past many years,” he said.
He noted that has included advocacy on issues of animal welfare, cattle health and productivity, antimicrobial use and resistance, and financial success of rural veterinary practices.
“Our Veterinary Practice Sustainability Committee was one of the first to really address that issue,” he said.
The executive vice president is an employee of all AABP members, answering to the association’s board of directors and relying on the expertise of its volunteer members, Dr. Gingrich said. He noted that the position can guide and form committees and task forces but said the organization works as well as it does by guidance from expert volunteers throughout North America.
He also encourages AABP membership for all veterinarians who work with cattle, and he asked for an opportunity to demonstrate to them the AABP’s leadership.
Dr. Gingrich is an Ohio native who raised calves for the 4-H Club and what was then named Future Farmers of America, and he knew since he was little that he wanted to be a veterinarian, he previously told JAVMA. He graduated from The Ohio State University College of Veterinary Medicine in 1995 and, after two years of dairy practice in California, started working at the Ashland, Ohio, dairy practice that he owns today.
He will be the fourth to hold the AABP’s executive staff position since it was created in 1989, the first two executives being Drs. Harold Amstutz and Jim Jarrett.
Related JAVMA content:
Guidance, recruitment on AABP president’s agenda (Dec. 1, 2015)