Senior Director of Industry Research, Knowledge Exchange Division, Cobank
President and CEO, Cooperative Network
William Oemichen is President & CEO of the Cooperative Network, a Minnesota
and Wisconsin trade association. Oemichen began his service with Cooperative
Network in September of 2001. He is a principal founder of the Farmers’
Health Cooperative of Wisconsin (FHCW), and serves on numerous
healthcare-related boards of directors, including the board of the Monroe
Clinic, a hospital and clinics network in Southern Wisconsin and Northern
Illinois; and chairs the Board of Directors’ Nominations Committee for Group
Health Cooperative of South Central Wisconsin.
Oemichen was appointed in June of this year by the U.S. Comptroller General
as one of 15 members of an advisory board to the U.S. Secretary of Health
and Human Services.
Previously, Oemichen served as Wisconsin’s top Trade and Consumer Protection
official and as Assistant and Deputy Minnesota Agriculture Commissioner. His
agriculture and consumer protection work has been featured on the front
pages of the Wall Street Journal
and other national and local newspapers, as well as on the
CBS Evening News, Dateline NBC and
ABC 20/20.
Oemichen earned a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of
Law and a B.A. in Economics from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota.
Oemichen has also served as a Fellow at the University of Minnesota’s
Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Policy. He practiced cooperative,
insurance and business law at Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi in Minneapolis
and at Doherty, Rumble & Butler in Saint Paul.
Associate Professor and Director, University of Wisconsin Center for Cooperatives
Brent Hueth is the Director of the University of Wisconsin Center for
Cooperatives and Associate Professor in the Department of Agriculture and
Applied Economics. Professor Hueth received his Ph.D. in Agricultural and
Natural Resource Economics from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Prior to joining the University of Wisconsin, Brent spent two years at the
University of California Berkeley as a Research Economist, and then eight
years at Iowa State University as Associate Professor in the Department of
Economics. His research and teaching focuses on cooperative organizations
and agricultural markets. He is the Principal Investigator of a large-scale
USDA-funded research project to measure the incidence and economic
importance of cooperative activity nationwide. This research is a unique
resource for researchers seeking to understand, critically evaluate, and
improve cooperative performance.
Senior Vice President and General Counsel, National Council of Farmer Cooperatives
Assistant Professor, Colorado State University
Professor Christopher Goemans’ research focuses on the allocation
and management of scarce resources, specifically water. Past efforts include
studies investigating the impacts associated with water transfers, the
relationship between increased climatic variability and the effectiveness of
various regional water management schemes, and optimal demand management
strategies during periods of drought. More recently his work has dealt with
understanding how information affects the decision making of residential
water customers, specifically their understanding of their own water use and
the rate structures they face. Moving forward, Professor Goemans hopes to
further investigate how continued population growth and climate change will
affect the management of resources such as water.
Associate Professor, Colorado State University
Professor Pritchett’s research and outreach effort targets applied
economic issues important to stakeholders in Colorado agriculture and
throughout the West. Most recently, his focus has been placed on water
resources: how farms might make the best use of limited water resources, the
economic activity generated by irrigated agriculture in rural regional
economies, and the perceptions that households have for water use.
Additionally, Professor Pritchett’s efforts have been invested in
understanding if crop insurance is an effective risk management tool for
dryland wheat farmers, the economics of animal disease, and creating
business plans for small and medium sized businesses. His research has been
supported by the USDA-NRI competitive grants program, the Colorado Water
Resources Research Institute, the USDA Agricultural Research Service, the
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and Colorado’s Agriculture
Experiment Station.
General Manager, Roggen Farmer's Elevator Association
President and CEO, CoBank
As CoBank’s president and chief executive officer, Bob Engel is responsible
for implementing the bank’s
strategic and business direction as set by the Board of Directors.
Previously, he served as CoBank’s
president and chief operating officer for six years. Mr. Engel is a member
of CoBank’s Senior Leadership
Team and the Management Executive Committee.
Prior to joining CoBank in 2000, Mr. Engel was chief banking officer at HSBC
Bank USA in New York. He
has 24 years of banking experience, primarily with HSBC Bank USA, and eight
years of accounting
experience, including an agribusiness specialization, with the firms of KPMG
and Deloitte & Touche.
During his 14-year tenure at HSBC, he served in a variety of management and
credit positions, including
chief credit officer, before being named chief banking officer.
Mr. Engel earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Niagara University
in Niagara Falls, New York,
where he was designated Magna Cum Laude and later received an honorary
doctorate. He is a member
of the board of directors for the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding
Corporation (Vice Chairman) and
Farm Credit Leasing (Chairman). Mr. Engel is also a member of the Farm
Credit System Presidents
Planning Committee (Chairman). In addition, he serves on the board of
trustees for Regis University, the
board of directors of New Ventures in Higher Education, Inc., the Graduate
Institute of Cooperative
Leadership, Mile High United Way, Buffalo Sabres Alumni Association and as
trustee emeritus at Niagara
University. He also serves on the Executive Council of the National Council
of Farmer Cooperatives. He is
a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.
Vice President, Practice Leader of Auctions & Competitive Bidding, CRA International
Dr. Miller is head of CRA’s Auctions and Competitive Bidding consulting
practice. He specializes in applied game theory and auction theory,
microeconomics, industrial organization, network industries, market
restructuring, and public policy. He advises on auction and market design,
implementation, monitoring, participation, bidder support and strategy,
software and electronic trading platforms, and regulatory and litigation
support. Dr. Miller has been instrumental in successful projects in
commodities, electricity, telecommunications, oil & gas, broadcast, airline,
environment, railroad, defense, health care, and other industries in several
countries including the United States, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany,
Mexico, The Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria, Switzerland, and the United
Kingdom. His clients include industry corporations and organizations,
regulated companies, and international, national, state, and provincial
government agencies.
Managing Partner, SPP Capital Partners and SPP Mezzanine Partners
Mr. Shaffer is a founder and the
Managing Partner of SPP Capital Partners, LL. Mr. Shaffer is also the
Managing Partner of SPP Mezzanine Partners; a Virginia based limited
partnership that makes direct investments in mezzanine instruments,
primarily to middle market issuers.
Prior to becoming a principal at SPP, Mr. Shaffer was a
Vice President in the Private Placement Group at Bankers Trust Company Prior
to his move into investment banking, Mr. Shaffer had been an attorney with
the law firm of White & Case..
Mr. Shaffer is a cum laude graduate of the Cornell Law
School where he earned a J.D. degree and is a magna cum laude undergraduate
from Colgate University where he was elected Phi Beta Kappa.
President and CEO, Adayana
Mike Jackson was named President and CEO of Adayana in
April 2008, after having served as President and CEO of ABG, which he
founded in 1979. Under his leadership, Adayana has refined its targeted
vertical market approach and increased profitability and return to all
stakeholders. Jackson frequently publishes management and marketing
articles in industry and company publications, and has recently been
featured on Inside Indiana Business television program and the
Indianapolis Smart Business magazine. Jackson helps companies
adjust their strategies to compete successfully in tomorrow’s market. He
co-authored Agri Selling, the standard textbook on agricultural
selling. Jackson serves on the Boards and Audit Committees of Terra Nitrogen
Company and Renewable Energy Group, Inc. and received the prestigious
“Distinguished Agricultural Alumni Award” from Purdue University in 1996.
Vice President, Strategic Planning and Corporate Services, Growmark, Inc.
Chair, Mountain Area Council, Dairy Farmers of America
Director, The Landmark Project
Sponsored by the Ralph K. Morris Foundation
David Warlick is a 34-year
educator. He has been a classroom teacher, district administrator, and
staff consultant with the North Carolina State Department of Public
Instruction. For the past ten years, Mr. Warlick has operated The Landmark
Project, a consulting, and innovations firm in Raleigh, North Carolina.
David’s attribution web site,
Citation Machine, serves nearly a million page views a day and his classroom
blogging tool, has served more than a quarter of a million teachers and
students.
David Warlick is also the author of four books on
instructional technology and 21st century literacy, and has spoken to
audiences throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Asia, The Middle East, and
South America.
Senior Vice President, Grain Marketing, CHS
Richard (Rick) Browne’s title is Senior Vice President and he is responsible
for managing the majority of the CHS global Grain Marketing business.
With the organization for 31 years, Rick started as a grain buyer and moved
into grain merchandising. Over the next 15 years, he held a series of
progressively responsible positions trading and managing several commodity
desks within CHS, which included a merchandising assignment in the Portland,
Oregon office. In 1996, Rick was
promoted to vice president and merchandising manager of Grain Marketing. In
1998, Rick was named merchandising manager for United Harvest, LLC, a grain
exporting joint venture with Mitsui, located in Portland, Oregon. Rick has
been in his current position as Sr. Vice President since 2001.
Rick serves on the Board of Directors of TEMCO LLC, United Harvest LLC,
Multigrain AG, Horizon Milling, and National Grain and Feed Association.
Rick graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Economics
and Business Management in 1979 from the University of California, Davis.
Rick is married, has two children and lives in Roseville, MN.
Duane Nelson
Duane was
elected to the cooperative board of directors in 1997. He was elected
president of Genex Cooperative, Inc., a subsidiary of Cooperative Resources
International (CRI), in 2008. In 2003, Duane was selected to represent
Genex on the CRI board. CRI has over 1,400 employees and 25,000
members in the
In
addition, Duane has served on numerous committees and leadership roles with
other cooperatives. He and his family own a herd of registered
Holsteins on their farm near
Assistant Professor and Director, Quentin Burdick Center for Cooperatives, North Dakota State University
Greg McKee is Director of the Quentin Burdick Center for Cooperatives and
Assistant Professor in the Department of Agribusiness and Applied Economics
at North Dakota State University. His research and teaching focuses on how
participants in a market can coordinate in order to improve their welfare.
Currently, Dr. Mckee teaches a semester-length course on cooperative
business management to undergraduate students at three universities in North
Dakota and a course in game theory and strategy for agribusiness management.
Recent research has focused on determinants of profitability for North
Dakota agricultural cooperatives and credit unions as well as authoring
several case studies about significant management decisions made by
cooperatives headquartered in the Upper Great Plains.
Professor, Agriculture, Food and Resource Economics, Michigan State University
Dr. H. Christopher (Chris) Peterson is the Homer Nowlin Chair of
Consumer-Responsive Agriculture and professor of Agricultural, Food and
Resource Economics at Michigan State University.
He is Director of the MSU Product Center for Agriculture and Natural
Resource, which focuses on assisting agricultural, food, natural resource,
and bioeconomy firms in the development of new markets, products, and
associated supply chain relationships.
Dr. Peterson has his Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University
and his MBA from the Harvard University Graduate School of Business.
His research and outreach activities span the areas of strategic
management, value-added ventures and differentiated product development,
cooperative theory and financial practices, entrepreneurship, business
innovation, the emergence of the bioeconomy, vertical coordination strategy,
and supply chain management. He
serves on the state advisory board for the Michigan Small Business and
Technology Development Centers.
Dr. Peterson has been an outside director on the three cooperative boards,
Michigan Sugar Company, CoBank, and the former St. Paul Bank for
Cooperatives.
Dr. Peterson also does “futuring” to craft scenarios for the evolution of
the agri-food and bioeconomy systems.
Based on this work, sustainability is a growing area for his research
and outreach. He serves on the
Executive Committee of the Sustainable Michigan Endowed Project and on the
international advisory board of TransForum, a public/private consortium
dedicated to scientific and practical discoveries to enhance the sustainable
of agriculture in the Netherlands and globally.
Director, Sustainability and Leadership Program, The Keystone Center
Sarah Stokes Alexander serves as Director of
Sustainability and Leadership Programs for The Keystone Center and has over
15 years of experience working as a facilitator on collaborative
problem-solving models. She has facilitated numerous efforts in the areas of
sustainability, agriculture, transportation, environmental cleanup, and
forestry at local, national, and international levels. She has provided
facilitation of industry-led sustainability initiatives, interagency
coordination efforts, regulatory negotiations, strategic planning, and
national and regional dialogues. She provides training in collaborative
leadership, stakeholder engagement, and sustainability strategies. She
graduated from Middlebury College with a bachelor's degree in environmental
studies and holds a Masters of Public Administration from Harvard University.
Director, Regulatory Relations, American Farm Bureau