Name: Miller, John
Title: President & Owner, Southwest Ag Consultants
Texas A&M Class: 1990
Inducted: 2016
John Miller was born in Corpus Christi, Texas and has lived and worked along the Texas Coast for most of his life. John grew up enjoying lots of hunting and fishing, sandlot baseball, football, riding motorbikes, and going to the beach. His early work experiences came from spending summers in the hayfields and working at various oilfield-related jobs. After graduating from La Porte High School, he obtained an undergraduate degree in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas in 1990 and then continued in his A&M studies to earn his M.S. and Ph.D. in Ag Econ in ’92 and ’97, respectively.
During his time at A&M, John worked as a research associate, assisting research and extension faculty with data collection, economic analysis, and report writing. He was also on a team of researchers that conducted computer simulation analysis using firm-level information in an effort to determine the financial sustainability and long-term competitive outlook for U.S. production agriculture when faced with alternative economic and policy situations.
John moved to Baton Rouge, Louisiana in 1997 to become an Assistant Specialist in Agricultural Economics at the Louisiana State University Agricultural Center. He provided leadership in the development and implementation of state and regional agricultural research and educational programs in the areas of marketing, financial management, and strategic planning. His time at LSU was also focused on coordinating organizational and financial support from state and federal agencies for the development and delivery of agricultural extension programs for both public education and in-service training.
John left LSU in 1999 and returned to the Brazos Valley in Texas founding a commodity price-risk management consulting firm, Southwest Agribusiness Consulting, Inc. He and his staff provide producers and users of corn, sorghum, cotton, rice, soybeans, wheat, livestock, and energy assistance in developing and implementing commodity price risk management plans based on sound financial goals and executed with discipline in the marketplace. This firm has experienced year after year growth in revenue for all but two years since 1999. Every year has welcomed new accounts and retention rates consistently exceed 95 percent.
John serves as Senior Consultant to technical and support staff at multiple office locations for Southwest Agribusiness Consulting, Inc. and is also a Commodity Broker with Series III licensing, specializing in managing commodity price risks via the hedging of agricultural energy inputs and production. His work has helped foster their customers’ expansion and diversification in ways that has led to significant changes in the ways that farm commodities are brought to the marketplace. Many of these changes have also helped develop new local commerce that has brought jobs and additional commerce to several communities.
John is actively involved with the Association of Former Students and is a contributor and mentor for AGEC 424 and 425 classes and various other Department of Agricultural Economics activities. He has been continuously involved in supporting and assisting various commodity associations and is a supporter and volunteer around the state for youth 4H and FFA projects. John and his wife, Leslie ’89, live in College Station with their daughters Anna, Evie, Zoey, and Tilly.
