National Chicken Council, St. Cloud, Minn. Mike Helgeson, chief executive officer at GNP Co., was elected to serve as 2013-2014 board chairman. Helgeson plans to address several current issues in the dynamic and volatile nature of the industry, which includes the ethanol mandate and its direct and negative impact on animal agriculture, as well as consumer food prices. Helgeson, who is the first in GNP Co.'s history to assume the NCC board chairman role, has served as CEO and a member of the board of directors of GNP Co. (formerly Gold’n Plump Poultry) since 1993.