David Kruse
CommStock Investments
Topic: The Global Market Outlook for 2010
9:00 A.M.

David Kruse is president of CommStock Investments, and AgriVantage, his commodity brokerage, crop insurance and risk management firm in Northwest Iowa. He is also President of Brazil Iowa Farms, LLC, a group of nearly 320 U.S. and Canadian farmers, who together pooled their money to raise approximately $25 million to invest in the purchase and operation of farmland in Western Bahia, Brazil. In the past several years, David has made more than 15 trips to Brazil, giving him a great deal of personal experience observing the competitive role that Brazil will play in the global market place …both in grains and livestock.

In the past 22 years he has produced The CommStock Report, an opinionated ag commentary and market analysis available daily on many radio stations covering the greater Midwest. He lives on and manages a 600 acre corn/soybean farm in Northwest Iowa . You will quickly note by his commentary and market analysis that he has extensive personal experience with grain and livestock marketing. He is a founding member of the Organization for Competitive Markets (OCM) and is a member of their International Trade Policy Committee. Mr. Kruse is a frequent keynote speaker at major U.S. agricultural conferences.

Jim Sturdevant
POET, LLC Cellulosic Ethanol Plant
Topic: Project Liberty and the Future of the Ethanol Industry
1:00 P.M.

Jim Sturdevant of POET is the Director of Project Liberty, and is based at POET Headquarters in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The goal of Project Liberty is to bring cellulosic ethanol to commercial viability in order to reduce global warming, revitalize the rural economy and lessen our country’s dependency on foreign oil. Project Liberty will upgrade POET’s 50 million gallon-per-year grain-to-ethanol biorefinery in Emmetsburg, Iowa to a full-scale, commercially viable, cellulose-to-ethanol plant with a combined capacity of 125 million gallons-per-year. Project Liberty received one of six grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Energy for developing a commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol biorefinery. Many POET employees across the entire POET organization are involved in the project, and Sturdevant is ensuring they are all reading from the same book.
Jim Sturdevant joined POET in 2007 following a 22- year career with the U.S. Geological Survey. His diverse experience includes operations management, project management, government contract administration, and research. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in geography from South Dakota State University and a Master’s degree in geography from Oklahoma State University. Sturdevant is currently pursuing a Ph.D. in Leadership from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Sturdevant was born and raised in Sioux Falls, where he currently resides with his wife, a pharmacist at Sanford Health Systems.

Dr. David Kohl
President, AgriVisions, LLC
Topic: The Mega Trends of Agriculture in an Age of Turbulance
2:30 P.M.

David Kohl received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Agricultural Economics from Cornell University. For 25 years, Kohl was Professor of Agricultural Finance and Small Business Management and Entrepreneurship in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia. He was on special leave with the Royal Bank of Canada working on advanced initiatives for two years, and also assisted in the launch of the successful entrepreneurship program at Cornell University. Kohl retired from teaching in 2003 and is Professor Emeritus in the AAEC Department at Virginia Tech.

Kohl has traveled over 7 million miles throughout his professional career! He has conducted more than 5,000 workshops and seminars for agricultural groups such as bankers, Farm Credit, FSA, and regulators, as well as producer and agribusiness groups. He has published four books and over 1,000 articles on financial and business-related topics in journals, extension, and other popular publications. Kohl regularly writes for Ag Lender and Soybean Digest.

He has received 11 major teaching awards while teaching over 10,000 students, and 15 major Extension and Public Service awards from Virginia Tech, Cornell University, and state and national organizations. Kohl is a two-time recipient of the prestigious American Agricultural Economics Association's Outstanding Teaching Award. Kohl is only one of five professors in the 90-year plus history of the Association to receive the award twice. He received the Governor's award for his distinguished service to Virginia agriculture, the youngest recipient to receive this award.

Kohl has addressed the American Bankers Agricultural Conference for 30 consecutive years, and has appeared before numerous state bankers’ schools and conferences throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the world. He has also been one of the top rated instructors at the LSU and Colorado Graduate Schools of Banking, and is Chancellor of Farm Credit University, which has trained over 700 lenders using a online and face-to-face educational approach.

As facilitator of the United States Farm Financial Standards Task Force and member of the Canadian Agricultural Financial Standards Task Force, Dr. Kohl was one of the leaders in establishing guidelines for the standardized reporting and analysis of agricultural producers' financial information on a national and international basis. Recently, a $2 million endowed Chair of Agribusiness Management and Finance was established at Virginia Tech in the name of Dr. Kohl. This was in honor of his long-term commitment to teaching, research, and extension, and is one of only four such Chairs in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech.

If you would like to keep up with Kohl’s information and perspectives, you can find his weekly columns on the following websites:
Ag Globe Trotter: www.farm-credit.com
Road Warrior of Agriculture: www.cornandsoybeandigest.com

Kohl is currently President of AgriVisions, LLC, a knowledge-based consulting business providing cutting-edge programs to leading agricultural organizations worldwide. He is also business coach and part owner of Homestead Creamery, a value added dairy business in the Blue Ridge Mountains.