2025 Ag Aviation Expo General Session
Allan Gray, Executive Director of the Purdue Center for Food and Agricultural Business (CAB)
NAAA is pleased to announce that economist Allan Gray will deliver a keynote address at the 2025 Ag Aviation Expo General Session. Gray will discuss the status of global agricultural trade, highlighting the changing market dynamics that are reshaping the agricultural landscape. In the face of uncertainties, ranging from tariffs to political tensions, it is important to understand potential shifts ahead and how the industry and your business can manage through different scenarios.
Gray has been a member of the agricultural economics faculty at Purdue University since August 1998, and he currently holds the position of Land O’Lakes Chair in Food and Agribusiness. He works with food and agribusiness managers across the United States and internationally, providing industry insights and strategy facilitations.
Gray serves as the executive director of the Purdue Center for Food and Agricultural Business (CAB). In this capacity, he provides strategic direction for the center, helping to drive both executive education programming and research. The center’s mission is to meet the industry’s needs in professional development in the areas of sales, marketing, finance, strategy, talent management, and leadership.
Gray also serves as the executive director of the Digital Innovation in Agri-food Systems LAB (DIAL). In this capacity, Allan provides strategic direction for market research and new business development. Gray works with the annual cohort of DIAL Fellows to identify industry challenges and create new startup companies to bring digital innovation to the industry that helps improve transparency, traceability, efficiency, resiliency and food safety across the food system.
Gray has won numerous awards, including the American Agricultural Economics Association’s (AAEA) Distinguished Extension/Outreach Program Award, the Purdue University Dean’s Team Award and the U.S. Distance Learning Association’s Excellence in Distance Teaching Award. In 2012, he received the inaugural Early Career Leadership Award from the National Association of Agricultural Economics Administrators. A native Texan, Gray and his wife, Stephanie, have two daughters and a son.