FIGUEROA NAMED ADMINISTRATOR OF USDA'S AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE
                                                                       
                                                                       

Release No. 0387.97

Tom Amontree (202) 720-4623
tom.amontree@usda.gov
Jerry Redding(202) 720-6959
jerry.redding@usda.gov

FIGUEROA NAMED ADMINISTRATOR OF USDA'S AGRICULTURAL MARKETING SERVICE

     WASHINGTON, Oct. 24, 1997--Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman today
named Enrique Esquivel Figueroa as the new administrator of the U.S.
Department of Agriculture's Agricultural Marketing Service.

     "I am delighted to announce the appointment of Dr. Figueroa to head
AMS," Glickman said.  "His knowledge of economics and trade will serve this
Department well as we move forward with our strategic goal of expanding
economic and trade opportunities for agricultural producers and other rural
residents."

     As AMS administrator, Figueroa has responsibility for facilitating the
strategic marketing of agricultural products in domestic and international
markets.  Previously, he was named by Glickman to the North American Free
Trade Association Advisory Committee on Private Commercial Dispute
Resolution Regarding Agricultural Goods.
     
     Figueroa comes to USDA from Cornell University where he was an
associate professor in the Department of Agricultural, Resource and
Managerial Economics since Nov. 1992.  He was an assistant professor in
Cornell's Department of Agricultural Economics from Nov. 1986 to Nov. 1992. 
Prior to that he was a post-graduate research agricultural economist and a
research assistant in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the
University of California at Davis. 

     His experience also includes work as a staff assistant to the House
Committee on Agriculture for the U.S. Congress in 1982 and as a staff
assistant in the California Department of Parks and Recreation in 1980 and
1981.  He spent four years with the California Conservation Corps from 1976
to 1980. 

     Figueroa has a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from the University of
California at Davis, along with a M.S. in horticulture.  His B.S. degree in
agricultural education is from California State University in Fresno.

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