Beef Improvement Ontario (BIO) has hired a former executive director of the Ontario Cattlemen’s Association to manage the restructured organization.
Mike McMorris, who most recently was a senior director for Agricorp, was previously the OCA’s executive director and before that worked for the provincial ag ministry. He takes the general manager’s job at BIO starting Feb. 4.
The move follows an eight-month restructuring process ordered by BIO’s board of directors in April 2007, which the organization said has realigned its business model “with a focus back on the primary producer.”
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BIO’s board said in December that the restructuring followed concerns expressed about the “lack of a clear vision” to describe what BIO was about and what it could provide to beef producers, as well as about the organization’s accountability to its membership.
BIO, a beef industry-backed organization, provides “genetic and management information services to the beef industry,” including herd management and sire selection systems, ultrasound evaluation for carcass traits, heifer development and bull evaluation services and an AI semen service.
Bruce Mines cow/calf producer Ron Bonnett, who took over from Kim Sytsma as BIO’s president at the start of the restructuring, said McMorris is well-known in the beef industry and has the “experience and commitment necessary to build BIO’s credibility within industry.”
OCA executive director Dave Stewart said McMorris’ experience will mean “a quick turnaround for BIO, thus raising the organization’s value and profile as a strong partner in the Ontario beef sector.” He said the OCA aims to collaborate with BIO on “a number of producer-based initiatives.”
McMorris, in BIO’s release, said the organization’s role “will be to focus on information exchange that supports interested producers in making the best possible decisions.”
McMorris replaces an interim management team from Guelph consulting company Strive, which replaced manager Elaine Graham in April at the start of the restructuring.
