Ricky Clarke, a Memphis cotton merchant, serves as Cotton Council International president for in 2020. As vice president/senior merchant for Cargill Cotton, Business Unit of Cargill, Inc., his current merchandising responsibilities include sales to several Asian markets. Raised in Greenwood, Miss., Clarke graduated from Mississippi State University in 1980 and earned an MBA from Memphis State University in 1987. He started with Cargill’s Cotton Business Unit (Hohenberg Bros. Co.) in 1980 and has worked for Cargill Cotton in various merchandising capacities including: 1) managing the Phoenix office, 2) merchandising all of the major U.S. growth regions and 3) working a stint with Cargill Cotton’s Liverpool office. Active in the NCC, Clarke also is a director of the American Cotton Shippers Association. He is married to Terri Clarke and has four children.