Gary Syd Goldberg
Key Player

Former president & CEO, American Corn Growers Association (resigned); chief executive officer, American Corn Growers Foundation; operator of www.takeresponsibility.orgMost officers of the American Corn Growers Association (ACGA), being rural farmers, maintain low profiles. Gary Goldberg, ACGA’s ex-president and CEO, probably should have learned from their example.

Type in “Gary Syd Goldberg” in the Google web search engine and you will find a photo of an embarrassed Goldberg beneath the words “Sex Offender Registration.” In February 2001, Goldberg was sentenced to five years probation for obtaining child pornography by mail.

“When the FBI and police knocked on his door, it was the end of Gary Goldberg, chief executive of the American Corn Growers Association,” The Tulsa World reported. “Now and forever, it’s Gary Goldberg, convicted sex offender.” Goldberg, who once rubbed elbows with senators and even visited President Clinton in the White House, now says: “I’m a felon. They don’t let felons in the Oval Office.”

Goldberg’s crime led to a very public resignation from his high-profile ACGA role. But the organization did not divorce itself of Goldberg entirely: