Dean Kleckner, Chairman [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Dean Kleckner served seven two-year terms as president of the American Farm Bureau Federation. Before becoming AFBF president, he was president of the Iowa Farm Bureau for ten years. He served on the American Farm Bureau's board of directors during that time. Mr. Kleckner owns a 350-acre family farm near Rudd, Iowa - raising corn, soybeans and hogs. As a strong advocate of reduced protectionism and freer trade worldwide, Mr. Kleckner was the only farmer on the U.S. advisory team to the GATT negotiations when they began in September 1986 in Uruguay. Kleckner served on the U.S. Trade Advisory Committee, first appointed by President Reagan, reappointed by President Bush, and reappointed twice by President Clinton. In that role, he has attended World Trade Organization meetings in Singapore, Brussels and Geneva.


Tim Burrack [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Tim Burrack farms in Northeast Iowa. In partnership with his brother Jim, Tim has been raising corn and soybeans for over 26 years.

Tim is an active participant in state and national organizations. He is a director of the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, past president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association and has served as a director for the National Corn Growers Association. In 2003, he chaired the US Grains Council Trade Committee and now serves on the US Grains Board of Directors. Tim is a past member of AgState, an agricultural think tank based in Iowa that was organized to create leadership for Iowa agriculture through strategic visioning, planning and implementation.

Tim has been very involved with Mississippi River lock improvements and has traveled to Brazil to research their river, rail and road infrastructure changes. With a presentation entitled, “Will Rodgers Was Wrong!” Mr. Burrack shares a presentation on the expanding current state of South American agriculture and what their future potential may mean to 21st Century American agriculture – including the changes that will be needed to compete on a global trading stage.


Reg Clause [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Reg Clause lives in central Iowa and is the fourth generation to manage the family farm.

He holds a BS degree in Animal Science from Iowa State University. He operates the family farm and manages a commercial cattle feedlot that markets 3,000 finished cattle per year. Reg also provides consulting services for banks, multi-national companies, regional meat processors, producer groups, grain processing, commodity organizations and others. These works includes market research, marketing plans, grant procurement, feasibility studies and facilitated planning sessions.

Reg is active in state and national organizations. He is past president of the Iowa Cattlemen's Association and was legislative chairman. He has been active in Iowa legislative matters and has been to Washington DC many times for lobbying issues. He was for many years a member of the National Cattlemen's Board and also on many committees. He serves as chair of the Beef Advisory for the Iowa Farm Bureau and is a member of the American Farm Bureau Beef advisory council. He currently represents American Farm Bureau on a special advisory panel to Environmental Protection Agency concerning small business issues.

Reg was a member of trade missions to Japan, China, Korea and Hong Kong representing Iowa, the Beef Industry Council and the U.S. Meat Export Federation. He has traveled in most of Europe gaining knowledge of the markets and consumer issues. He was a member of the American Farm Bureau Water Quality task force. He served on three ag related task force groups for former Iowa Governor Terry Branstad. He has been a charter member of the AGState group, which is a coalition of Iowa ag organizations designed to do strategic visioning and create leadership for Iowa agriculture.

Reg served three years on the Ag Advisory Council to the Chicago Federal Reserve. He represented the Chicago Fed district in meetings with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors meeting in Washington DC. He was one of four ISU agriculture alumni honored with the Alumni Society Achievement Award in 1999.


Bill Horan [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Bill Horan has been farming in Northwest Iowa since 1973 as a partner in Horan Brothers Agricultural Enterprises. The fourth generation family farm has been involved in specialty crop production and identity preservation for over 20 years, with over 50% of the crops grown on this farm produced under contract for various end-users.

Currently, Bill is on the Board of Directors for the Iowa State University Research Park and serves as a steering Committee member for Natural Resource Solutions, LLC, a non-partisan group dedicated to developing public policy with a goal of US energy use to be 25 percent biomass-based by 2025.

Mr. Horan served as a Board member of the Iowa Ag Finance Corporation. The Iowa Ag Finance Corporation is a publicly chartered, privately operated business whose mission is to provide the financial and business leadership, expertise and financial leverage to help Iowa become the leading value-added agricultural processor of the twenty-first century.

Bill has also served as a Board Member for the US Feed Grains Council, member of the DOE/USDA Biomass Technical Advisory Committee, Board member of the National Corn Growers Association, was a past president of the Iowa Corn Growers Association, past president of the Calhoun County Farm Bureau and past president of the Rockwell City School Board.


John Reifsteck [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
John Reifsteck operates a corn and soybean farm in western Champaign County Illinois.

John currently serves as Vice Chairman of the GROWMARK Board of Directors - a farm supply and marketing cooperative that operates principally in Illinois, Iowa, Wisconsin and Ontario. He is also Chairman of the GROWMARK’s Audit and Budget Committee.

John has won several awards, including being named Prairie Farmer Magazine "Master Farmer" in 1997. He has served as president of the Champaign County Farm Bureau and is a past member of the American Farm Bureau Technology Users Advisory Committee. John is also past President of the Illini FS Inc. - a full service farm supply cooperative in east central Illinois - and is a member of the University of Illinois crop sciences advisory committee.

Holding a degree in Ag Economics and education from the University of Illinois, John is qualified as a Certified Crop Advisor (CCA). John’s wife Nancy is a special education teacher and they have two sons.

Ted Sheely [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Ted Sheely operates Ted D. Sheely Farms - raising upland and pima cotton, tomatoes, wheat, pistachios, wine grapes and garlic - in the San Joaquin Valley of California.

Ted served on the California Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors from 1989-1996. In addition to Farm Bureau, he has also served on the National Cotton Council Board of Directors. Currently, he is a member of the board of Directors for the Westlands Water District and was elected Chairman of the Board for Cotton Incorporated for 2008-2009.

In 1999, Ted received the High Cotton Award from the Cotton Foundation / Farm Press. He has also been honored by the California Water Policy Conference with the Innovative Water Conservation Award.


Terry Wanzek [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Terry Wanzek is a fourth generation North Dakota farmer. In partnership with his parents and brother, Terry and his family raise spring wheat, corn, soybeans, barley, dry edible beans and sunflowers on 9000 acres. A ND State seed certified processing plant and 150 head beef cow herd are part of their operation.

Terry was elected to the North Dakota House of Representatives in 1992 and became a member of the North Dakota Senate, serving from 1994 to 2002. While Chairman of the ND Senate Ag Committee, he led ND ag policy, was instrumental in defeating a proposed ND moratorium on biotech wheat and led a study on biotechnology and renewable fuels. He was re-elected to the State Senate again in 2006 and is vice chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee and serves on the ND Senate Industry Business & Labor Committee and the Workforce Safety & Review Committee.

Currently, Terry serves on the board of directors of the North Dakota Grain Growers Association and the Nodak Mutual Insurance Company. He also served as a gubernatorial appointee to the ND Legislative Compensation Committee. Terry is a former Farm Bureau county president as well as past county president of the Stutsman County Ag Improvement Association. He is also a founding member of the Growers for Biotechnology organization.

Terry graduated from Jamestown College with a bachelors in Business Administration and Accounting. He is also a graduate of the Texas A&M TEPAP (The Executive Program for Agricultural Producers) program.


John Rigolizzo, Jr.
John Rigolizzo Jr. is a fifth generation farmer, raising fresh vegetables and field corn in southern New Jersey. The family farm manages both road side retail and wholesale markets.

John served as New Jersey Farm Bureau President from 1994 to 2002. In that capacity, he attended WTO Ministerial Conferences in Seattle and Geneva and was involved in international trade missions to 11 countries, including Cuba, Vietnam, Indonesia, Brazil, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

In addition to Farm Bureau, Mr. Rigolizzo has served on the boards of the Vegetable Growers Association of New Jersey, New Jersey Tomato Council, NJ Agriculture Society Board of Trustees among others.

Board Member Emeriti

Craig Lang [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Craig Lang of Brooklyn, Iowa, was elected president of the Iowa Farm Bureau in December 2001 after having served as vice president. Lang farms with this father and brother in eastern Iowa in an operation that manages a 400-cow dairy herd and tills 1,000 acres of cropland.

In 1998, Craig was appointed to the Cattlemen’s Beef Board by the U S Secretary of Agriculture to determine the use of beef check-off dollars. Craig also chaired and organized an agricultural advisory committee for presidential candidate Lamar Alexander’s 2000 campaign in Iowa.

He also continues as an active member of the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association, and the Iowa Holstein Association.


Bob Vice [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Bob Vice grows avocados in Fallbrook and Valley Center California. In January of 1998 he formed B.L.V. Agribusiness Consultants. Today the firm has clients in agriculture, banking, public broadcasting and related businesses.

Bob retired as President of the California Farm Bureau in December of 1997 after serving seven and a half years as Vice President and eight and a half years as President. Bob was elected to the American Farm Bureau Federation board of directors in 1994 and was also named to a six member AFBF executive committee. Bob has also served as the chairman of the American Farm Bureau Federation international trade committee.

Currently Bob is a member of the California Association of Citrus Nurserymen, the California Avocado Society and the advisory Council on Small Business and Agriculture of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco. He is also a member of the California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo and the University of California, Riverside Agricultural Advisory Council.

Bob has led trade missions to over forty countries in Europe, Asia, the former Soviet Union and South America.


Bill Northey [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Bill Northey is a corn and soybean farmer from Northwest Iowa.

Bill was on the Commission for 21st Century Production Agriculture – appointed to this position by the Chairman of the Senate Agriculture Committee, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana. The Commissions mission – as outlined in the 1996 Farm Bill – is to make recommendations for the 2002 Farm Bill.

Bill participates in a number of farm and commodity organizations. He has served as past president of both the National Corn Growers and Iowa Corn Growers Associations. Bill has traveled extensively with these groups, studying agricultural, environmental and technological adoption in agriculture as well as trade policy. He has also been working as an active charter member in a contract production and remote imaging ag marketing group.


Keith Eckel [ This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ]
Keith Eckel farms 1800 acres in Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. Keith raises tomatoes, sweet corn, pumpkins, field corn, wheat, oats, and hay.
Keith served as president of the Pennsylvania Farm Bureau from 1981-1996. He was named Pennsylvania Master Farmer is 1982 and Outstanding Young Farmer in 1983. He served on the American Farm Bureau board of directors for ten years, and was a member of the executive committee from 1990-1996. Keith is also an active member of the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association.

Most recently, Keith was a member of the ATAC on Vegetables, and the APAC to Trade Ambassadors Yuetter and Hills. He also attended the GATT meetings in Geneva and Brussels.
Keith has been a member of trade missions to Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands.

Trade Policy Analyst

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