Archives: Speakers

Daren Coppock

Daren Coppock

Ag Retailers Association

In his current role, which he’s held since November 2009, Daren leads a staff of eight people to accomplish the mission of the ARA – to ensure a profitable business environment for members of the association through its public policy work in Washington, DC. 

Prior to joining ARA, he was the Chief Executive Officer of the National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) for more than eight years. He also served as Executive Vice President for the Oregon Wheat Growers League and as the first full-time Administrator of the Oregon Grains Commission. 

Daren holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Oregon State University in Agricultural and Resource Economics. He was born and raised on a wheat and cattle ranch in eastern OR, and he and his wife Mechelle live in Falls Church VA with the youngest of our three children. 

The Agricultural Retailers Association (ARA) advocates, influences, educates and provides services to support its members in their quest to maintain a profitable business environment, adapt to a changing world and preserve their freedom to operate.

Coppock-400px
Back to Home

Kevin Johnson

Kevin “KJ” Johnson

Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA)

KJ is the President of the Illinois Fertilizer and Chemical Association (IFCA).  In this role, Johnson serves as Chief Executive Officer.  He manages the overall operation and resources of IFCA, including oversight of regulatory and legislative issues and the development of programs that promote stewardship and safety for the nutrient and agrichemical industry.   

From 2013 to 2020, Johnson served as the Director of Government and Industry Relations for IFCA where he was responsible for carrying out the legislative and regulatory policy objectives.  He fostered positive working relationships with state and federal legislators and agency officials, as well as with other industry organizations. From 2001 to 2013, Johnson served as the agricultural liaison for Congressman Tim Johnson, assisting the Congressman and constituents with policy issues including agriculture and environmental regulations before the House Agriculture Committee.  

KJ still farms in Champaign/Vermilion counties with his father and two brothers.  KJ earned degrees in agri-business and political science from Illinois State University in 2004.  KJ, his wife Anna, and two sons, Kace and Beckett live in St. Joseph, Illinois. 

IFCA assists and represents the crop production supply and service industry while promoting the sound stewardship and utilization of agricultural inputs.

KJ Johnson Photo
Back to Home

Aissa Good

Aissa Good

Commercial Agriculture, Purdue University

Aissa Good serves as managing director for the Center for Food and Agricultural Business and as business development manager and managing director for the Center for Commercial Agriculture in the Department of Agricultural Economics. In this role, she oversees daily operations, identifies engagement opportunities, manages client and sponsor relationships and designs/implements professional development programs for farmers and agribusiness managers both domestically and overseas.

More specifically, Aissa cultivates client relationships and leads curriculum development in collaboration with client management and program faculty. Projects under her direction range from multi-session business management development programs to workshops enhancing key account management and market strategy planning skills of field sales and marketing personnel. She has worked with highly successful agribusiness firms and industry associations and understands the challenges that both small and large companies face in developing their future leaders.

Aissa holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business from Middle Tennessee State University, a masters of science in agricultural economics from Purdue University and MBA from the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. She and her husband Ryan have two boys, Blaine and Brecken, and she spends most of her spare time at athletic events and 4-H activities.

aissagood
Back to Home

Ernie Chappell

Ernie Chappell is the Founder and President of EFC Systems, a solution provider to Agribusiness. EFC Systems was founded in Texas in 1988 to develop ERP solutions focused on managerial insights and entered the ag sector in 1991. The company has more than 150 people focused on advancing farm profitability and empowering retail service providers to be more efficient and digitally partner with their growers. He resides in the Nashville area with his wife and three teenage boys.

EFC Systems is now part of Ever.Ag, a 500-person global ag tech powerhouse empowering the supply chain to feed a growing world. 

Ernie Chappell
Back to Home

Jim Fargo

Jim Fargo

Integrated Agribusiness Professionals 

Jim Started his Ag career in 1996 working for Centennial Ag Supply in Kersey, Colorado. After starting as a dispatcher for the Colorado retailer, Jim held and several key management roles and became well known within Agriculture and the IAP community as an owner/member in the organization. After gaining years of SH&E experience at the local retail level and earning the National Environmental respect award twice in back to back years Fargo spent working at Nutrien Ag Solutions as the Western U.S. Environmental Health and Safety manager before joining IAP as President. Jim has 27 years of experience in retail ag, he and his IAP team supports 32 independent retailers with 362 retail locations across the U.S. with their crop inputs.   

Integrated Agribusiness Professionals is a national agricultural cooperative with global affiliation that gives like-minded retailers a place to network and associate. IAP provides a unified platform that delivers to its owners the services, key supplier relationships, access to innovation and competitive positions to enhance their position as market influencers.   

 

 

Jim Fargo
Back to Home

Dr. James Budzynski

Dr. James Budzynski

MacroGain Partners

Dr. James Budzynski is the Managing Principal of MacroGain Partners, a Carmel, Indiana firm which provides strategic planning and management consulting services. He has provided strategic counsel to dozens of agrifood businesses, from start-ups to major multinationals, and frequently provides strategic technology and market sector assessments. He has helped many companies fine tune their business strategy and identify optimal private equity or venture capital partners. He is a well-known strategic thinker in the agri-business sector and has published numerous articles and delivered keynote speeches at leading conferences nationwide. His current focus is on speaking and writing to help to re-define the strategic direction of American agriculture for the post-Covid era.

Jim Budzynski
Back to Home

Amy Winstead

Amy Winstead

GreenPoint Ag

Amy Winstead is the Vice President of Business Innovation and Agronomy for GreenPoint Ag Holdings, LLC a joint venture between Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and Winfield Solutions. In this role she leads GreenPoint Ag’s IT and Business Systems and the Agronomy and Ag Technology offerings for Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and GreenPoint Ag retail locations.  Prior to joining GreenPoint Ag, Amy was the Chief Technology Officer for Agri-AFC, LLC and worked for the Alabama Cooperative Extension System as an Extension Agent with statewide responsibilities for Precision Agriculture.  She received her Bachelor and Master of Science degrees in Agronomy and Soils with a Precision Agriculture emphasis from Auburn University. Amy currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Ag Data Coalition. She and her husband Matt reside in north Alabama with their two sons.  

GreenPoint Ag Holdings, LLC is a joint venture between Alabama Farmers Cooperative, Tennessee Farmers Cooperative and WinField United. WinField is an entity of Land O’Lakes. GreenPoint Ag provides competitively priced crop inputs and premier agronomy, product application and ag technology offerings, backed by almost 90 years’ legacy of customer service and expertise. GreenPoint Ag is headquartered in Decatur, Alabama and serves growers in Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, and the Florida Panhandle. 

winstead_amy
Back to Home

Kelly Farrell

Kelly Farrell

Farrell Growth Group

Kelly Farrell is a CPA with 25 years of experience, primarily in agribusiness. Kelly graduated from Iowa State University with honors in December 1995 and worked one year in public accounting with a Des Moines, Iowa CPA firm. In 1997 she moved to Kansas City and took a position as an accountant with WILFARM, LLC. During her relatively brief tenure at WILFARM, Kelly was promoted to the position of lead accountant for the newly formed seed distribution business and worked with other departments to develop a system of accounting for seed. When WILFARM became Agriliance, Kelly worked briefly as operations manager at Agwizard.com, managing their tank monitoring service until accepting the opportunity to join Farrell Growth Group in January of 2001.

As a partner at FGG, Kelly worked to develop MIX which has become the premier financial statement benchmarking program in the agricultural retail industry. Through the MIX program and FGG’s peer to peer groups, Kelly spends the majority of her time working with the best ag retailers in the industry in order to assist them in improving their financial performance.

Kelly also works on other consulting projects and with the other FGG partners as they assist retailers in buying and selling businesses. Kelly serves on ARA’s Member Services Committee and the Agribusiness Association of Iowa’s Legislative Committee. She is a graduate of Kansas Ag Retailers Association’s Tomorrow’s Agribusiness Leaders (TAL) program. Additionally, Kelly serves on the boards of Premier Crop Systems and the Agricultural Business Council of Kansas City.

Farrell Growth Group (FGG) is an agribusiness consulting firm founded in 1997 comprised of top quality professionals. We work with only the very best companies in the segments of agribusiness we serve. Services include general agribusiness consulting, an extensive financial benchmarking service to ag retailers and business brokerage with complete mergers and acquisitions services. FGG also facilitates two peer-to-peer groups of top ag retailers in the US and Canada.

K Farrell formal - final
Back to Home

Ryan Klaveano

Ryan Klaveano

Wilbur-Ellis Ag Division

Klaveano is the Vice President of Sales & Marketing for the Wilbur-Ellis Ag Division located in Aurora, Colorado. He oversees sales and marketing activities for the retail and wholesale businesses in the United States.  He joined Wilbur-Ellis in January, 2015. 

Klaveano has focused on sales and marketing roles his entire 25+ years in the ag industry. He launched his career in 1994 with Ciba-Geigy (later Syngenta) after completing his undergraduate degree at the University of Idaho.  He touched all aspects of Syngenta’s businesses including crop protection, seeds, and seed treatment.  His Syngenta career in the US took him to South Dakota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Minnesota, the Pacific Northwest, and overseas to Switzerland.  

Ryan grew up on a cereals farm in eastern Washington and has a lifelong passion for agriculture. He holds his undergraduate degree from the University of Idaho and an MBA from Purdue University.   

Klaveano_500px
Back to Home

Dr. Jeff Bunting

Dr. Jeffrey A. Bunting

GROWMARK

Bunting is currently the Vice President of Crop Protection Division Manager at GROWMARK. He has been in the Division since January of 2011 and assumed his current role after spending 2 years as Marketing Manager. He received his B.S., M. S., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Illinois. After receiving his Master’s degree, he accepted a job with American Cyanamid as a Technical Service Representative in West Central Illinois.  After completing his Ph.D., he joined GROWMARK and has been with the company for 18 years. He is an active member in a number of ag organizations, including the American Society of Agronomy, CropLife America, FieldWatch, North Central Weed Science Society, and Weed Science Society of America. 

GROWMARK is an agricultural cooperative with annual sales of $9.5 billion (FY 2021 data) providing agronomy, energy, facility planning, and logistics products and services, as well as grain marketing and risk management services throughout North America. Headquartered in Bloomington, IL, GROWMARK owns the FS trademark, which is used by affiliated member cooperatives. More information is available at growmark.com. 

 

Bunting_500px
Back to Home