Abbe steps down as SSGA adviser

Bruce Abbe, the longtime leader of the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance’s (SSGA) predecessor organization, has stepped down as SSGA’s strategic adviser for trade and transportation.

SSGA is grateful for Abbe’s service as it has grown into a national business organization.

Abbe has been in his advising role since SSGA was formed in 2019 as a merger between Midwest Shippers and the Northern Food Grade Soybean Association. Abbe was the president and CEO of Midwest Shippers for more than a decade prior to the merger.

“Bruce showed me the path ahead when I became director of SSGA three years ago,” said Eric Wenberg, SSGA executive director. “He has been a constant adviser and friend as we took on more and bigger tasks. What I understand about intermodal shipping comes from him.”

Abbe has more than 35 years of professional experience in public affairs, communications, trade promotion and organizational management for agricultural business organizations. In 2020, he received the William K. Smith Distinguished Service Award for outstanding leadership and contributions to private sector freight transportation from the University of Minnesota Center for Transportation Studies. Later that year, SSGA awarded him with its first SSGA Alliance Honor for Advancing Transportation.

SSGA will continue to lean on Abbe’s expertise in training, presentations, events and projects as it looks to update the advisory position. SSGA has truly grown into an organization that tackles shipping and transportation issues at a national level. As SSGA conducts a search, Katelyn Engquist will be the staff lead for SSGA’s Competitive Shipping Action Team on behalf of chair Darwin Rader. The action team follows and listens to major concerns of SSGA members seeking container supply chain solute ions and solutions to other present-day problems, as well as educates customers about container shipping in order to build a brighter future for intermodal exports of high-quality grains and oilseeds.

Please wish Bruce well and express your thanks, as we do to him at bruce@abbecommunications.com. For more information on SSGA’s Competitive Shipping Action Team, reach out to Katelyn at kengquist@soyagrainsalliance.org or Darwin at darwinr@zfsinc.com.