Speakers

Dr. Jacqueline Applegate  

Jacqueline Applegate, Ph.D., serves as president of Bayer Crop Science North America and is a member of the global executive leadership team. Previously, Applegate served as head of global vegetable seeds and environmental science, where she led operations, strategic planning and product development for the two key business units. Prior to that, Applegate served in a variety of leadership positions at Bayer, including as the senior Bayer representative for Australia and New Zealand; president of environmental science North America; vice president of environmental science consumer products; and head of global project management. In addition, Applegate served as the culture and change management lead for the Bayer/Monsanto integration.

She is active on multiple philanthropic, community and business organizations. A passionate advocate for agricultural youth, she serves on the board of trustees of the National 4-H Council. She serves as Bayer’s executive sponsor of the 2023 United Way campaign. A strong leader in career development, Applegate is the national executive co-sponsor of Bayer’s employee-led resource group GROW, which advocates for women’s advancement in leadership. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, traveling and spending time with her son, Matthew.

David Baloga

David Baloga is executive vice president of science and technology at Hill’s Pet Nutrition. He joined Hill’s in 2007 and started the Taste Technology program, leveraging his experience in food product design and animal behavior to deliver delicious and nutritious foods for all pets. He also leads the early research and product development teams at Hill’s.

Prior to joining Hill’s, Baloga spent 17 years developing novel technologies to improve the performance of foods and beverages for various muti-national companies.

He holds a degree in biochemistry and graduate studies in food science and flavor chemistry from the University of Minnesota.

Baloga spends his spare time traveling with his wife, visiting their three daughters and pets, and is passionate about cooking, hiking, biking and birding.

Rhonda Burns

Rhonda Burns has been with Nationwide for 22 years and currently serves the organization as the Associate Vice President of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. In this role, Rhonda is responsible for associate resource groups, business unit councils, program management, organizational capability building, learning (training),  strategic sponsorships, talent optimization, reputational survey and award submissions. 

Her previous experiences include roles in corporate campaign management, project management, strategic operations, direct marketing, regional operations and leader development program 
development. She is also a founding member of AWARE, the African-American female associate resource group here at Nationwide. 

Rhonda received her Bachelor of Arts degree in  Business Administration from Mount Vernon Nazarene University. Rhonda combines her personal and professional passion for inclusion as a driver for her work at Nationwide, but also in the community  through board service and volunteerism. 

Constance Cullman

Constance Cullman is the American Feed Industry Association’s president and CEO. She also serves as the president of AFIA’s public charity, the Institute for Feed Education and Research and represents the AFIA on international issues, including serving on the International Feed Industry Federation’s board of directors and executive committee, as well as the Global Feed LCA Institute’s board of directors. Cullman previously served as the president and CEO of Farm Foundation. Prior to that role, she held various positions at Dow AgroSciences; Corn Refiners Association; the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service; the Ohio Farm Bureau Federation, and The Ohio State University College of Food, Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. 

Cullman has a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics and a master’s degree in agricultural economics with an emphasis on international trade and agricultural policy from The Ohio State University. She hails from Marysville, Ohio, where her family owned and operated a cow/calf farm.

Jason Cummins

Jason is the Managing Partner for Horizon Performance’s Private Sector, comprised of both corporate and athletics partners. Horizon harnesses the power of teams by, with, and through their leaders and empowers disciplined organizations with customized talent management solutions to achieve the extraordinary at the individual, team, and enterprise level. Through meaningful content, scientific methodologies, and remarkable services, they remove blind spots, facilitate personal growth, and develop winning organizations that accomplish their mission.

Previously, Jason served as an Executive Associate Athletics Director within UK Athletics, responsible for all departmental learning management initiatives and the holistic development of leaders at all levels. Prior to joining UK Athletics, Jason served as the Director of Athletics Operations for Horizon Performance where he grew the business unit from infancy to formal partnerships with 5 Athletics Departments and the Southeastern Conference league office. He has designed and led deliberate, progressive leadership programs for elite teams, military commissioning sources, and university scholar programs. As a teacher and trusted confidant, Jason coaches high profile leaders and their teams to build winning cultures, select the right teammates, and develop them to be their best.

Prior to Horizon, Jason served a twenty-year career in the U.S. Army as an Apache helicopter pilot, including two years in the United States Military Academy’s Department of Social Sciences as an Associate Professor of Economics, as well as combat tours in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Jason attended the University of Kentucky and the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, where he obtained his MBA in Finance and Public Policy. He lives in Lexington, Kentucky with his wife and two sons.

Jeff Daniels

With a long history of customer and employee experience management, leadership coaching, and team building through vulnerability-based trust to his clients, Jeff has more than 25 years of knowledge in the sales, hospitality, and transportation industries. In addition to starting his own consulting practice, he has worked with the world-renowned Steamboat Ski Resort as Director of Guest Services, and along with his wife, Jamie, owns one of Steamboat’s premier property management companies, Elevated  Properties, specializing in ski-in/ski-out locations and exceptional guest service. 

Jeff is an active member of the Steamboat community, having served the Steamboat Springs Chamber Resort Association as a board member and Chairperson and Vice Chairperson of their Market Committee. Daniels also served on the board of directors for Emerald Mountain School. 

Daniels studied at Indiana University of Pennsylvania and resides in Steamboat Springs, CO with his wife and two children.

Jim Gerardot, Jr. 

Jim Gerardot is a managing partner at Kincannon & Reed Executive Search and CEO of GMC, LLC consulting services. During his more than 27-year career in the global animal health and nutrition industry, he served as a senior leader in top tier companies where he held various management positions in global marketing and commercial operations in North America, Europe and Latin America. For the last 10 years, Gerardot has placed leaders around the globe for firms in animal health, nutrition, genetics, production, precision agriculture, specialty crop biotech, finance and industry leading non-profit organizations. A Purdue University alumni, he has participated in the World Food Prize as a Borlaug Dialogue panelist and has served on several boards, including the St. Louis World Affairs Council, and most recently as a member of the American Feed Industry Board of Directors.

Carlos Gonzalez, Ph.D.

Carlos Gonzalez, Ph.D. is the vice president of global regulatory affairs at Hill’s Pet Nutrition, the leader in science-based nutrition for pets, where he supports the launches of groundbreaking innovative products via the development of agile teams with diverse expertise, while promoting cross-functional collaboration.?He is recognized as a leader in the industry, currently serving as an advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture and U.S. Trade Representative in the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee (ATAC) for Processed Products and in leadership positions with multiple associations, including as Chair-elect of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) Board of Directors and as President of the Global Alliance of Pet Food Associations (GAPFA), among others. 

Dr. Gonzalez previously worked as the global lead for regulatory affairs at Novus International, a leader in animal feed ingredients and in various roles with the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, serving in Washington, DC, as well as the embassies in Mexico City and Lima, Peru.? He serves on the Board of Directors of Kansas City’s Coterie Theatre and volunteers with American Corporate Partners, an organization dedicated to assisting U.S. Veterans, and with the United Way, having previously led Hill’s annual campaign.?He holds a master's and Ph.D. from Yale and a B.S. from Cornell University. 

Carly Guinn

Carly Guinn grew up on a family owned agritourism apple orchard in northeastern Ohio. Her passion for agriculture brought her to the University of Kentucky where she obtained a bachelor’s degree in animal science.  

Today, Guinn serves as the director of customer care for Hallway Feeds, a family-owned feed mill manufacturing premium horse feed for the equine community both domestically and internationally. In this role, she oversees administrative development, shipping logistics, feed exportation and customer service. Hallway Feeds is located in Lexington, Ky., and has been at the forefront of equine nutrition for racehorses and sport horses for over 50 years. Hallway continually invests in the research of stud and nursery, racehorse and sport horse feed, as well as extensive product development and state-of the-art manufacturing equipment. 

Guinn has held leadership roles in several agricultural commodity groups such as the Kentucky Cattlemen’s Association and Kentucky Farm Bureau. She also partakes in community leadership through Commerce Lexington and Bluegrass Tomorrow. Guinn is also currently serving on the American Feed Industry Association International Trade Committee.  

While out of the Hallway office, Guinn and her husband Spencer, along with their two daughters, run a diverse and sustainable agriculture business specializing in commercial row crops, beef cattle and freezer beef, produce and heirloom grains.  

Todd Hall

Following graduation from Iowa State University Hall joined Cargill, Inc., a global food and agriculture company. During 37 years with Cargill, he lead and managed multiple businesses throughout the world including the animal nutrition business. At the time of his retirement in 2019, he served as executive vice president, a member of the executive leadership team and a member of the Cargill Board of Directors. 

Hall currently serves on the Board of Directors of Kevin’s Natural Foods, a startup food company based in Modesto, CA. and he is a member of the Advisory Committee for Consumer Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Chicago. 

Dan Meagher

Bringing over 35 years of experience in the agriculture industry to this role, since April 2020 Mr. Meagher has led Novus International,  Inc., with the goal to transform the company into a leader in animal  health through nutritional solutions for the protein-producing global food system. 

This is not his first time with the Missouri-based feed additive company. 
From 2007-2013, Mr. Meagher served as Novus’s president of Global Animal Nutrition Solutions where he guided numerous functions,  including global sales, marketing, and animal research and  development in a time when the company was first diversifying its  product portfolio. He joined Novus in 2007 as a world area director. In  that role, he helped guide Novus through a period of major expansion and acquisitions.

Before returning to Novus, Mr. Meagher served as the president and CEO of Boston-based animal nutrition and health company Agrivida Inc. There Mr. Meagher led the company’s strategy and commercialization of a new generation of enzyme solutions with the aim of transforming the economics of agricultural food production by feeding higher-efficiency, corn-expressed protein solutions.

Mr. Meagher’s career has a strong foundation in agriculture. Until 2007  he served as president of the egg products division at Moark, LLC  based in Missouri. There he managed the strategic partnership with  Land O’ Lakes Inc. and successfully consolidated multiple business unit acquisitions and completed the sale of the business. Prior to  Moark, he was the chief operating officer and executive vice president  at start-up MBA Poultry LLC where he strategically positioned and  marketed the first air-chilled poultry product to consumers in the United  States. Mr. Meagher began his career with Ralston Purina/Purina Mills,  where he spent 17 years in roles of increasing responsibility, including  vice president, income management and operations, and president of  Golden Sun Feeds.

He has served on multiple boards during his career including the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA) since 2007, the  National Chicken Council (NCC) since 2014, the Biotechnology  Innovation Organization (BIO), the Agrivida Board of Directors, and the  United Egg Producers (UEP) Further Processor since 2020 where he  served as association chairman.

A native of Saint Louis, Missouri, Mr. Meagher holds bachelor’s degrees in finance and accounting from Saint Louis University (U.S.).

Jennifer Moss

Jennifer Moss is an award-winning journalist, author, international public speaker, and workplace culture strategist. Her most recent book, The Burnout Epidemic, was named 10 Best New Management 
Books for 2022 by Thinkers50 and shortlisted for the 2021 Outstanding Works of Literature Award. Her first book, Unlocking Happiness at Work, received the distinguished UK Business Book of the Year Award. 

To acknowledge her contributions to business and public service, Jennifer was named a Canadian Innovator of the Year, an International Female Entrepreneur of the Year, and recipient of the Public 
Service Award from the Office of President Obama.

Jennifer is a nationally syndicated radio columnist and writes for Harvard Business Review. Her work has appeared in TIME, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post

Paul Phillips

Paul Phillips currently serves as president of DuraPlas, Inc. He has served as the Chair on the Board of Directors and Executive Committee of the American Feed Industry Association (AFIA), as well as a representative of the AFIA to the International Feed Industry Federation in conjunction with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the UN and has served as the past Chairperson for the Equipment Manufacturers Committee of AFIA. Phillips chaired the Exhibitor Advisory Committee for the joint meeting with AFIA, the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association, and the North American Meat Institute.

He was selected as the Member of the Year for AFIA in 2011 and has served on the IFEEDER Foundation Board of Trustees as a charter member from 2009-2011, and again in 2022-23.

Phillips is currently serving on the Manufacturing Council for PTDA (Power Transmission Distributors Association), and is an active member of GEAPS, NIBA, PTDA, EMC, and CEMA. He holds a bachelors in marketing from West Texas A&M and an MBA from the University of Texas. 

Mark Poeschl

Mark Poeschl, president and CEO of Furst-McNess Company in Rockford, Ill., joined McNess in May?2021 after a long career in the animal nutrition industry. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.   

Poeschl began his career at Ralston Purina, worked for Carl S. Akey, Inc., and North American Nutrition Companies where he served as CEO. During that time, he was asked by its parent company, Provimi Holding, to relocate to Europe to join Provimi’s executive team and serve as Group Vice President.  Poeschl was responsible for Provimi’s businesses in North America, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, as well as the company’s global feed additives business. He was a member of the team that sold Provimi to U.S.-based Cargill, where he remained for five years and continued to lead Cargill’s nutrition businesses in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and North America, as well as its global feed software business.  In 2016, Poeschl was hired as Chief Executive Officer of the National FFA Organization in Indianapolis, where he established a comprehensive strategy and leadership priorities, including a business improvement plan for the Organization. 

Lisa Rathburn

Lisa Rathburn is the vice president of engineering at T. Marzetti Company. Headquartered in Westerville, Ohio, T. Marzetti is a national leader in food manufacturing and marketing of specialty food products, serving retailers and food service companies nationwide with product lines including Marzetti® salad dressings and dips, New York Brand® Bakery Texas Toast and Sister Schubert’s® homemade rolls. In this role, Rathburn is responsible for the corporate engineering function and capital project execution across 15 manufacturing facilities.

Prior to T. Marzetti, she worked in the pharmaceutical and dairy nutrition industries in various engineering and quality assurance roles, with staff across the globe. Rathburn is a former chair of the Packaging Machinery Management Institute, OpX Leadership Executive Council and member of the Packaging and Processing Women’s’ Leadership Network Executive Council. She also serves on the editorial advisory board of the ProFood World publication.

She has been married for 21 years and has three children. 

Mike Schuster

Mike Schuster is vice president of sales for Laidig Systems, Inc., a family-owned equipment manufacturer located in Mishawaka, Ind. Initially hired out of high school in 1979 as summer help, he continued to work at Laidig as he earned his business degree from Indiana University. He advanced to Midwest sales manager in 1988 and then vice president of sales in 2008.   

Schuster has been a member of the AFIA Equipment Manufacturers Committee since 1995 and is a past chair of the AFIA Board of Directors. He is most proud of his work associated with the scholarship program sponsored through a partnership between the EMC and IFEEDER. The scholarships, totaling $21,000 annually, are divided and awarded to students pursuing careers in the animal food industry at seven educational institutions. 

Rob Sheffer

Sheffer joined Zinpro Corporation in 2017, after working as president and CEO for a privately-owned investment firm and trust company. Previously, he worked for a global animal nutrition company for more than 25 years, serving in various management roles, including group director, managing director, regional sales leader and branch manager. Sheffer also served on the board of the American Feed Industry Association, including chairman from 2015-2016, working with more than 80 percent of the feed manufacturers and suppliers in the United States on regulatory, legislative and research projects.?He?received his bachelor's degree in business management from Cornell University. 

Ray Starling

Ray Starling serves as an executive advisor at Aimpoint Research and is invaluable resource on public policy and legal developments that have the potential to impact the agri-food value chain. In addition, he is the general counsel for the North Carolina Chamber and president of the North Carolina Chamber Legal Institute. 

Prior to joining the North Carolina Chamber team, Starling served as chief of staff to U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue, where he coordinated the execution of the secretary’s policy agenda for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He focused on regulatory and deregulatory initiatives and acted as a point of contact for stakeholders throughout agriculture and rural communities. He has also served as a principal agriculture advisor to the President of the United States at the White House, chief of staff and chief counsel for U.S. Senator Thom Tillis and general counsel when Tillis was Speaker of the House in the North Carolina legislature. Early in his career, he served as general counsel for the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services. 
 
Licensed to practice law in North Carolina, Starling has private practice experience and has taught agricultural and food law for several years. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural education from North Carolina State University and a law degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He grew up on a century farm in southeastern North Carolina and credits that experience as having more to do with his career path than any other influence or opportunity. His parents continue to farm as does his eldest brother. Starling is a former National FFA officer and 4-H member. He resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with his family. 

Haley Stomp

Haley Stomp, CEO of Stomp Strategy, LLC, advisor and cofounder of PropelDay, is an experienced global executive with almost two decades of marketing leadership experience. She has spent most of her career in the food and ag industry at companies including Kemin Industries and General Mills, Inc. Stomp served on the AFIA board from 2017-2019 and on AFIA ELS committee in 2018. In addition to helping companies grow, she spends significant time writing stories about her journey and helping others write their stories to reach their goals.? Stomp holds a B.S. in chemical engineering as well as an MBA. 

Eric Termeunde 

Eric Termuende is a best-selling author, internationally recognized thought leader, and keynote speaker on all things future of work, leadership, workplace culture, and talent management. After years spent studying the world’s greatest places to work, he has deciphered what sets amazing leaders apart from the rest, and what it takes to build incredible teams that are resilient, innovative, and ready for the future.

His research and insights have inspired category-leading companies like Amazon, Coca-Cola, Nationwide, IBM, Zoom, Nokia, John Deere, and Toyota, to name a few. Eric’s perspectives and accomplishments have also been featured in Forbes, Fast Company, Inc., and many other prominent publications.

In addition to the hundreds of keynotes he has delivered around the world, Eric is an entrepreneur and leader in his own right. As co-founder of NoW of Work, Eric has been named one of the world’s Top 100 Emerging Innovators by American Express, making him a trusted resource as we collectively navigate the future of work together.

Eric’s keynotes aren’t just engaging and insightful, they’re a fun, practical journey loaded with actionable takeaways that audiences can implement right away. Those that attend Eric’s keynotes often share that his refreshing, down-to-earth messaging not only gets them excited about the future, but also provides the practical tools and know-how to build teams and thrive in it.

Shannan Townsend

Shannan Townsend is an executive vice president and division executive for Wells Fargo Commercial Banking. She leads teams focused on serving the financial needs of Agribusiness customers in 41 states and also in Eastern Canada.  

Since joining Wells Fargo predecessor bank First Union, Shannan has focused on helping clients succeed financially. Expanding relationships with both external clients and internal partners to facilitate collaboration across Wells Fargo and in our communities has led to significant growth of the business. Shannan’s responsibilities have included numerous leadership roles as head of industry-aligned and geographically aligned divisions.  

Shannan is also a leader for broader initiatives that focus on talent development and talent engagement. In 2010, Shannan was instrumental in the formation of the Corporate Banking Group Team Member Engagement and Diversity Council, and provided leadership as the chairperson for its first six years. The collective efforts of the council continue to provide networking, recruiting, mentoring, and training opportunities for team members.  

Her community involvement includes establishing one of the first charter schools in North Carolina and serving on its board of directors for more than 10 years. She has also been very active with Wake Forest University, currently serving as a member of the board of trustees. Shannan graduated from Wake Forest University with a bachelor of science degree in business. She graduated magna cum laude and received numerous other honors.