ST. LOUIS — Nathan Ruby has been selected as executive director of The World Soy Foundation, effective Jan. 4, 2010. He replaces Jim Hershey, who was executive director for the W.S.F. and the World Initiative for Soy in Human Health (WISHH) program.

"We are excited to have Nathan Ruby join the World Soy Foundation at a time when the many nutritional benefits of soy protein are needed more than ever," said Roy Bardole, W.S.F. board chairman and a soybean farmer from Rippey, Iowa. "The World Soy Foundation can play an important role in countering the sobering statistic that world hunger reached an historic high this year with one in six people being undernourished."

As executive director, Mr. Ruby will direct the organization’s fundraising and development plans, administrative operations, including fiscal management, and public relations efforts from the American Soybean Association’s (A.S.A.) headquarters in St. Louis.

Mr. Ruby brings more than 10 years of non-profit experience to the W.S.F.’s humanitarian efforts that provide soy protein to people in developing countries around the world. He previously was the major gifts manager for the Nuts, Bolts and Thingamajigs Foundation based in Rockford, Ill. From 2003-2006, he was the associate director for planned giving at the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Foundation in Chicago.