Risa DeMasi was elected as the second Vice Chair of ASTA at the 130th ASTA annual meeting. This election is marks a memorable moment for ASTA as DeMasi is the first woman to be elected an officer. She will serve a three year term in which she serves as the second Vice Chair in 2013-2014, the first Vice Chair in …
FuSE program grows future ASTA members
The Future Seed Executives (FuSE) program was initiated as a branch of the ASTA Management Skills Committee in 2004. According to Liz Pestow, immediate past chairman of the FuSE initiative, “The focus of FuSE is to provide educational and networking opportunities to those in the industry with seven years or less experience,” Pestow said. Members involved in FuSE range from …
IFAMA Student Competition Winners
A team of MBA students from Santa Clara University won first place in the IFAMA Student Case Competition Wednesday at the World Forum in Atlanta. The competition consists of teams representing universities worldwide who simulate a fast turnaround analysis and presentation which they make to a panel of senior management judges on a corporate hot topic. This year there were …
DuPont Exec Talks Food Security at IFAMA
Food security was the topic for an address Wednesday to the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) World Forum by DuPont Executive Vice President Jim Borel. “We need a new generation of food visionaries who can see the tremendous opportunity made possible by the simple fact that people have to eat,” Borel said. The DuPont executive talked about the …
Georgia Ag Commissioner Welcomes IFAMA
Georgia Commissioner of Agriculture Gary Black was very pleased to have the International Food & Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) host its 23rd annual World Forum in the Peach State. “Thank you for choosing our capitol city to be the host for this wonderful meeting,” Black said in welcoming the group on Tuesday. “It’s a great opportunity to celebrate what we …
World Food Prize Honors Pioneers in Biotechnology
The 2013 World Food Prize will honor three distinguished scientists – Marc Van Montagu of Belgium, and Mary-Dell Chilton and Robert T. Fraley of the United States. Building upon the scientific discovery of the Double Helix structure of DNA in the 1950s, Van Montagu, Chilton, and Fraley each conducted groundbreaking molecular research on how a plant bacterium could be adapted …
Swanson Russell Welcomes New Account Supervisors
Swanson Russell announces the hire of Amy Bugg and Heidi Grunkemeyer as account supervisors in the Omaha office. Bugg focuses on the agency’s agribusiness accounts. A graduate of the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, she holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural communications with an emphasis on advertising. Bugg previously worked as both a group account lead and team lead for …
Harvest is Plenty, Ag Laborers are Few
It was over 2,000 years ago that Jesus said “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” and that is apparently very true today in the agribusiness world. “Here in the United States, just in the next five years based on surveys that we’ve done, we know we’re going to have about 60,000 jobs available in the agribusiness enterprise …
Agribusiness Ties to Harvard
When you think of agricultural education, Harvard is probably one of the last institutes of higher learning that comes to mind, but think again. Mary Shelman is director of the agribusiness program at Harvard Business School and has been president of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA). “The very term agribusiness was created by a colleague of mine …
Novus CEO is New IFAMA President
Novus International President and CEO Thad Simons will be the new president of the International Food and Agribusiness Management Association (IFAMA) Board of Directors for the next two years. IFAMA made the announcement at its 23rd Annual World Forum and Symposium. IFAMA is a leading agribusiness nonprofit that brings together the best minds from all sectors of food production and …