ANNA TRAVERSE, Special to the Daily News

Memphis stands at the threshold of incredible possibility. In this series, we introduce innovative Memphians who are driving our city forward and forging its future success.

William Barksdale is just off a trip to China, but he’s reminiscing about the Mississippi Delta. On sultry summer days spent alongside his father, walking the rows of soybean and cotton fields, Barksdale grew into an awareness of the nobility of farming – the simple grace involved in raising crops that will feed and clothe people.

And on those days out in the fields, Barksdale – now president of Cargill Cotton – also grew into an understanding of the value of fertilizing relationships.

His father, Barksdale recalls, “had a deep relationship with farmers. We’d spend time really getting to know farmers individually, all over the Mid-South.”

Those deep, fertile relationships were a major influence, Barksdale notes, “both in my life and in my profession.”

Barksdale grew up in Memphis, where he attended Memphis University School. But his was not a childhood spent exclusively in tidy prep-school settings. With the support of his mother, Barksdale’s father exited the corporate world to pursue agricultural photojournalism. Through his father, Barksdale was introduced early on to both the rich fields and to the farmers who plant them.

His own interest piqued, Barksdale studied agricultural economics at the University of Arkansas. Since earning his degree, he has grown a career in trading and risk management. And after stints in Minneapolis, Mexico City and Shanghai, Barksdale was drawn back to the Delta.

Barksdale’s days still revolve around farmers and farmland. A division of Cargill Inc., Cargill Cotton has deep roots in the Mid-South, having been founded in 1879 as Hohenberg Bros. Cotton before being acquired by Cargill in 1975.

While parent company Cargill Inc. is headquartered in Minneapolis, Cargill Cotton remains firmly planted in the Delta soil, and Cargill Cotton’s division headquarters are right here in the Memphis area. Memphis has long been at the root of the cotton industry, and the cotton industry has helped Memphis blossom. Front Street still symbolizes “Cotton Row.”

Barksdale has been with Cargill for nearly 25 years, starting in Cargill’s poultry business. While Cargill is, in Barksdale’s opinion, “the premier company to go to work for in the industry,” it is “not a household name.” Cargill Inc. is privately held and operates largely on a business-to-business model.

But Cargill is not under the radar of the global marketplace: It employs some 150,000 people worldwide. All over the world, Barksdale says, relationships are Cargill’s most durable commodity.

“Whether with government agencies in China or with farmers in India or Brazil, we’re all about building and reinforcing relationships,” Barksdale comments.

Within the company, too, Barksdale says the relationships are what motivate him.

“We have a fantastic team,” he declares, recounting a recent Green Beret-led, physically demanding team-building challenge. “Seeing the team come together under these stresses – five hours, outside, in June, carrying heavy loads over long distances – it was awesome.”

In the Memphis area alone, Cargill employs about 150 people – in the Cargill Cotton headquarters, focused on management and supply chain, and in West Memphis, operating a grain elevator. Cargill is also involved in a joint venture on President’s Island that produces protein to be used in aquaculture feed.

From its earliest beginnings, Memphis was a major trading center for cotton and an agricultural hub generally. Today, Barksdale envisions a future in which Cargill is the most trusted partner in the business – a business in which Memphis stands to remain central.

William Barksdale is a graduate of New Memphis’ Leadership Development Intensive (LDI). To learn more or to submit a nomination for LDI, click here.  

Source: http://www.newmemphis.org/news/barksdale-fertilizes-relationships-agriculture/