Rich Jefferson has joined the AEM in a newly created position. We’ve had a chance to talk on the phone and he’s certainly getting into the swing of things already.

The Association of Equipment Manufacturers (AEM) has named Richard Jefferson to the newly created position of Senior Director of Public Relations. He will oversee the trade group’s efforts to expand the scope of its activities for increased awareness to represent equipment manufacturers, particularly in the areas of public policy, global business development and workforce issues.

Jefferson most recently served as Director of External Affairs for the USDA Farm Service Agency’s Office of Public Affairs in Washington, DC. He has also managed the public relations activities of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, was legislative liaison with Virginia’s secretary of natural resources, and early in his career was a newspaper reporter and photographer in Summerville, Georgia and Greenville, Tennessee. Jefferson is an Illinois native.