Dean Kleckner, Chairman [ dkleckner@truthabouttrade.org ]
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 in North Central 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. Mr. 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 Canada, Singapore, Brussels and Geneva.




Tim Burrack [ tburrack@truthabouttrade.org ]
Tim Burrack farms in Northeast Iowa. In partnership with his brother Jim, Tim has been raising corn and soybeans for over 36 years.

Tim is an active participant in state and national organizations. He is the Chairman 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 recently finished serving 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 [ rclause@truthabouttrade.org ]
Reg Clause is the fourth generation to manager of the family farm near Grand Junction, Iowa, USA. The operation raises corn and finishes 3600 cattle for market yearly.

Reg also works for Iowa State University Extension Value Added Ag Programs. His specialty is business development including feasibility studies, business planning and financial structuring. Clients’ businesses include biofuels, wineries, meat processing, niche marketing and many more. He also works projects internationally and has visited nearly 40 countries.

Reg is currently Chairman and President of Iowa Agriculture Finance Corp. He is on the board and investment committee of the Rural Vitality Fund. These are very active venture funds serving rural Iowa. He is also on the board of the Greene County Community Foundation.

Reg has long been a recognized leader in Iowa agriculture. He was for many years active in the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association ultimately serving as state President and member of the Foundation. He was also on the Board of Directors and several committees for the National Cattlemen’s Association. He was a founding member of the AGState Group. He has served on special committees, councils and task forces for the Iowa Farm Bureau, American Farm Bureau and Iowa’s Governors.

Reg served three years on the Ag Advisory Council to the Chicago Federal Reserve and was on the Brenton Banks board. He’s been active locally in 4-H youth programs and school board. He was one of four ISU agriculture alumni honored with the Alumni Society Achievement Award in 1999. He holds a degree from Iowa State University.




Bill Horan [ bhoran@truthabouttrade.org ]
William Horan, Rockwell City Iowa, Ex Marine, Vietnam Veteran serves as COO of Horan BioProduction, LLC. He has been a full-time farm operator since 1973. He received a BS from South Dakota State University and attended the Harvard Business School-Agricultural Executive Education Program. He is a director, Iowa State University Research Park; director, Truth About Trade and Technology; and steering committee member, 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. Chairman Western Iowa Energy, a biodiesel plant. Serving as a director for three other biodiesel plants. Bill was also appointed to the Renewable Energy Committee at the USDA.

Bill’s past positions include DOE/USDA Biomass Technical Advisory Committee, National Corn Growers Association Policy Team; director, National Corn Growers Association; director, US Grains Council; member Governor of Iowa’s Ag Value Growth Foundation; and member, Iowa State University Extension Council. He has served as President of the Calhoun County (Iowa) Farm Bureau, the Rockwell City School Board and the Iowa Corn Growers Association.




John Reifsteck [ jreifsteck@truthabouttrade.org ]
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 [ tsheely@truthabouttrade.org ]
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 [ twanzek@truthabouttrade.org ]
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 11,000 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, vice chair of the Senate Industry Business & Labor Committee, and serves on the Workforce Safety & Review Committee.

Currently, Terry serves on the National Association of Wheat Growers Budget Committee 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 and past president of the North Dakota Grain Growers 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 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.




Carol Keiser-Long [ ckeiser@truthabouttrade.org]
Carol Keiser-Long is president of C-BAR Cattle Company, Inc. which she established and currently manages operations for feeding 5,000 to 6000 head of cattle in Kansas, Nebraska, and Western Illinois. She is also president of C-ARC Enterprises, Inc.

Mrs. Keiser-Long is an Agriculture Advocate at both the state and federal level. She consults and seeks out individual and corporate support for Farm Safety 4Just Kids and Children's Safety Campaign. She has served on the Board of Directors of Agriculture Future of America since 1997.

Currently, Carol is chair of the USDA REE (Research, Education & Economics Renewable Energy Committee).  She also represents food animal commodity producers on the National Agricultural Research, Extension, Education, and Economics Advisory Board - a primary advisory board to the US Secretary of Agriculture. She also serves as a Farm Foundation Trustee, and has served on the Steering Committee of the Future of Animal Agriculture Project - representing beef producers on the Food Safety and Animal Health Subcommittee. In 2005, she was the first woman named to the US Premium Beef Board of Directors. 

She is also a member of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and has served on NCBA’s animal health and tax committees. She is also a professional member of the American Society of Animal Science and American Meat Science Association.

Carol holds a degree in Animal Science from the U. of Illinois, a degree in Education from Greenville College and coursework in Public Finance and Government Business. In May 2008 she received the University of Illinois Distinguished Service Award.

Mrs. Keiser-Long established the “Opportunities for Women in Production Agriculture and Related Areas” internship program to help young UIUC-ACES women learn more about the ag industry. This exposes young women to careers in food and agriculture as well as giving them hands on experiences.

 

Trade Policy Analyst

Executive Director

Board Member Emeriti

Craig Lang [ clang@truthabouttrade.org ]
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 [ bvice@truthabouttrade.org ]
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.

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 [ bnorthey@truthabouttrade.org ]
Bill Northey is a corn and soybean farmer from Northwest Iowa. He is currently the Secretary of Agriculture for the State of 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 – was 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 [ keckel@truthabouttrade.org ]
Keith Eckel is from Clarks Summit, Pennsylvania. Raising vegetables and grains, his farm, Fred Eckel and Sons, owns 1,400 acres in Lackawanna, Luzerne and Wyoming Counties.

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 a member of the Pennsylvania Vegetable Growers Association and 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.

In 2008, President George W. Bush appointed Eckel to the Board for International Food and Agricultural Development. Also in 2008, he was elected chairman of the Nationwide Mutual board of directors. He also serves as chairman of Allied Group, Inc., CalFarm Insurance Co. and Gardmore Asset Management Co. In 2009, he was presented the American Farm Bureau Federation’s top award, the Distinguished Service Award.

Keith has been a member of trade missions to Canada, Great Britain, Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Spain and the Netherlands.