Leading food and agriculture sustainability initiatives with a focus on rural clients of Rabobank.

- Coordinate marketing, communication, and sales of carbon initiatives between European team and U.S. farmers.- Build partnerships with external sustainability stakeholders- Responsible to develop and execute the strategy for the Rabo Carbon Bank in North America- Develop understanding of carbon product offering within the traditional financial lending team. - Align internal business teams on execution of carbon projects.- Translate US farmer needs and opportunities with respect to CO2 ambitions into products and services offered by Rabobank.

Theory of Green Consulting is a strategic advising service in food and agriculture.Experience working with organizations in Organizational Development, Sustainability Initiatives, and Federal Policy issues.

- Led Sustainability teams in Canada, Brazil and the United States.- Collaborated with company leadership on sustainability initiatives focusing on revenue generation within GHG emission offsets and insets.- Developed offset projects marketed to and executed by farmers for annual field crops.- Worked on methodologies through Verra, CAR, Gold Standard and guidance with Value Change Initiative. - Conducted research to identify new markets, and seek partnership development that aligns with company strategy.- Guided organizational assessment and made recommendations to support the organization’s long term goals

Led a nationally based, global-reaching agriculture nonprofit with responsibility for nearly 40 employees and a $16+ million budget and offices based in St. Louis, MO, and Washington, DC, and multiple international staff outposts.Directed the transformation of this nonprofit agency into a modern, streamlined, highly effective organization with formalized policies, procedures, and workflows by conducting an organizational assessment and implementing the results. Leading through change, I steered the agricultural association for soybeans, which is consistently one of the top two by production annually and the #1 US ag export, with a $27 billion export market and $40 billion annual farm gate value.Perhaps most notably, I persuaded the board of directors to approve transitioning from an outdated third-party lobbying model to an in-house, mission-focused Government Relations Team that accelerated our shareholder causes by strengthening D.C. staff alliances and increased policymaker engagement.Under my direction, the team successfully advocated Agriculture’s interests on Capitol Hill including COVID-19 legislation, USMCA and other free trade agreements, China Phase 1, Farm Bill, sustainability protocol, biotech approvals, crop protection, rural broadband, and secondary soy markets.As CEO, I navigated soybean farmers through highly public and significant trade war with China, in which tariffs levied by China on U.S. beans led to an immediate halt of export sales and 20% average price drop for all U.S. beans: China is the #1 export market for soybeans, with one in three rows produced historically being sold to China. It was professionally gratifying playing a key role in negotiating and winning a $12 billion aid package for beleaguered U.S. farmers that enabled them to stay in business and maintain their workforces. Aligning 56 directors, 5 advocacy teams, 11 topical committees, a governing committee, and state executives behind a unified vision and message.

Achieving improved collaboration and communications on priority issues between commercial business leaders, Government Affairs team, and external stakeholders was core to my success of enhancing policy awareness and knowledge across the ecosystem. Within 18-months, I enjoyed successes and built relationships resulting in the board voting me from a supporting member role to leadership as Secretary and Treasurer of the National Wheat Foundation. I developed meaningful relationships with external stakeholders by actively engaging, volunteering, and attending in-person meetings with Board members all to improve my companies “license to operate” issues Selected to overhaul and scale the Syngenta Leadership “At Its Best” development program for external stakeholders (farmers), I created a state-of-the-art, cost effective program with new content, a formalized structure, and social media capabilities. Forging critical partnerships between Syngenta and commodity groups, I focused on sensitive issues such as regulatory approval of transgenic traits (GMO/GE technology) and built value chain communication on key issues such as quality concerns of grain, specifically wheat.On my watch, we improved risk and exposure to policy threats, while restructuring the workflow and reducing contractor costs.

As a Registered Federal Lobbyist, I elevated the voice of Michigan farmers in Washington, D.C. policy circles by maintaining bipartisan engagement despite an increasing partisan environment. My role included connecting Members of Congress and their staff with farmers, heightening awareness of agricultural issues, such as protection products, adverse weather, crop insurance, and input costs. This included coordinating farmer-leader fly-ins to Washington, D.C., and focusing discussions specifically on these priority issues.I researched, interpreted, and wrote case studies and federal regulations impacting Michigan farmers ranging from Farm Bill implementation to Clean Air and Clean Water Act revisions to labor rules.