L-R: Grace Pan, Awards sponsor Carlton Fields; award winners Dr. Jon Bokmeyer, April Hemmes, Dr. John Fulton, Craig Rupp, Aman Anand, and Lara Sowinski, CropLife Group
A new award was added this year – the Emerging Leader Award – and it was presented to Aman Anand, Senior Leader, Nutrien Ag Solutions. With over 20 years of experience spanning Fortune 100 companies, agrochemicals, land-grant universities, and global sustainability initiatives like the World Bank, Anand has a proven track record in scaling ag innovation and has integrated 60+ startups into Nutrien’s Echelon platform. Anand’s beautiful wife and young children were on-hand to see him honored.
The 2025 Innovator Award was presented to Craig Rupp, founder and CEO of Sabanto. Rupp was raised on an Iowa farm and has over 30 years of experience in engineering, product development, and agriculture. Among his accomplishments are founding six startups, receiving 14 Patents, and being a Monsanto Senior Fellow, focusing on advanced research and development in areas like agriculture and biotechnology.
Ohio State University professor Dr. John Fulton, Professor, was the recipient of this year’s Legacy Award for his more than 30 years pioneering precision ag leadership, including serving as President of the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA). Dr. Fulton has guided 33 MS, 12 PhD students, 6 international scholars, and 43 undergraduates. He also provides guidance to the leadership of six retailers and independent consultants annually.
The Visionary Farmer Award this year goes to fourth-generation Iowa farmer and rancher Iowa farmer April Hemmes who has operated her family’s 1,000-acre century farm for nearly 40 years. A champion for women in agriculture, Hemmes helped develop and served as the first president of Iowa Women in Agriculture and creator of multiple grant-funded initiatives. She is a global agricultural ambassador, an award-winning advocate and communicator and an ag policy and leadership voice for many commodity organizations on the national and state level.
The final award presented Tuesday was the Educator/Researcher Award presented to Dr. Jon Bokmeyer, now Beck’s Hybrids research manager and just recently concluding five years with Advanced Agrilytics. Bokmeyer is the inventor of two granted patents – Variety Profile Index (VPI) and a corn growth efficiency system and his tools and methodologies are used across thousands of acres, shaping seed, chemical, and equipment decisions in real-world environments. He also leads high-quality field trials that integrate seed, chemistry, and equipment with spatial variability.
Learn more about Dr. Bokmeyer in this interview.
2025 Ag Tech Award winner Jon Bokmeyer (1:49)