Jaime Castaneda is NMPF’s Executive Vice President for Policy & Strategy. In this role he oversees the organization’s domestic policy initiatives as well as international trade. He also provides government relations and advocacy support for the U.S. Dairy Export Council, leading the U.S. dairy industry in international trade negotiations. He is a private sector advisor to U.S. Trade Representative Ambassador Katherine Tai and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and regularly provides guidance to the Biden Administration on agricultural policy issues.
Since March 2012, Castaneda has also served as Executive Director of the Consortium for Common Food Names, working with food organizations worldwide to defend generic food names and the rights of consumers, buyers and producers to continue to use them.
In his more than 35-year career in agriculture, he has held through policy positions with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Center for Food and Agricultural Policy as well as marketing roles within the U.S. poultry and oilseed industries and the agricultural division of a leading U.S. pharmaceutical company.
Charlene Boulden is NMPF’s Executive Assistant to the President and CEO, bringing more than 35 years of administrative experience to the table with expertise in day-to-day operations supporting Jim Mulhern and the NMPF office staff.
Her contributions to the organization include coordinating schedules; data management systems; correspondences, projects related to NMPF’s members and its Board of Directors and working closely with staff and members in successfully executing organization meetings, among other critical responsibilities. Originally from New Jersey, she joined NMPF in 2017 after relocating to Virginia. She previously worked at Marsh & McLennan Companies for more than 20 years.
Paul Bleiberg currently serves as Executive Vice President, Government Relations at the National Milk Producers Federation. In this capacity, he leads the organization’s policy and legislative efforts and oversees the organization’s regulatory department. During his NMPF tenure, Bleiberg has worked with Congress and the executive branch to achieve significant dairy policy gains, including strengthening the dairy safety net and risk management programs and securing new resources to support on-farm dairy sustainability endeavors.
Prior to joining NMPF in 2016, Bleiberg served as Deputy Chief of Staff and Legislative Director for former Rep. Reid Ribble, R-WI, a member of the House Agriculture and Transportation & Infrastructure Committees, during work on the 2014 Farm Bill and the 2012 and 2015 highway bills. Bleiberg is an Upstate New York native and currently resides in Washington, DC.
Alan Bjerga serves as Executive Vice President of Communications and Industry Relations, leading NMPF’s communications efforts with a focus on digital storytelling, media relations and marketing while expanding NMPF outreach to its members and the broader dairy industry. He is the author of NMPF’s Dairy Defined thought leadership series and the host of its “Dairy Defined” podcast, exploring issues of interest to agriculture and domestic and global food systems.
Bjerga previously worked at Bloomberg News as its lead writer on national farm-policy issues, covering topics including the Farm Bill, agricultural trade, rural economics and politics, and publishing a book on global hunger and food security, “Endless Appetites.” He also worked at Knight-Ridder Newspapers, extensively covering defense and intelligence issues. Bjerga is a past president of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., as well as the North American Agricultural Journalists. He grew up on a sheep farm in central Minnesota.
In her role as Chief Sustainability Officer, Nicole Ayache leads NMPF’s sustainability strategy and oversees the FARM Program’s Environmental Stewardship and Workforce Development pillars, developing tools and resources to enhance environmental and labor outcomes on U.S. dairy farms and provide supply chain assurances. She leverages her background in environmental science and expertise in value chain sustainability to advance NMPF’s efforts.
Before joining NMPF in 2018, she was a consultant for several clients in the food and ag sector, giving her a broad perspective on sustainability. She holds her M.S. in Agriculture, Food and Environment from Tufts University and B.S. in Biology from Yale University.
