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Stephen Nicholson is the Global Sector Strategist–Grains and Oilseeds, Rabo AgriFinance in the RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness group.
Nicholson has more than forty years of experience in cash grain markets, hedging, commodity/ingredient procurement, commodity risk management and commodity analysis. A native of Iowa, he holds a bachelor’s degree in Farm Operations and Agricultural Education and a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics, both from Iowa State University.
Nicholson joined Rabo AgriFinance in 2014 and was the Senior Grains and Oilseeds analyst for North America until being appointed Global Sector Strategist in 2022.
Prior to joining Rabo AgriFinance, Nicholson was Category Manager and Chief Economist with International Food Products, a trader and distributor of food ingredients. Responsibilities included procurement and trading of vegetable oils, corn sweeteners, starches and grain products, along with consulting assignments.
From 2001 to 2007, he was a Senior Economist with Doane Agricultural Services in St. Louis as the oilseed analyst.
Nicholson also has nearly fifteen years of experience in the food and beverage industry. He has served as Senior Buyer at The Earthgrains Company, now part of Bimbo Bakeries USA, in St. Louis. From 1988 to 1997, he was the Senior Commodity Analyst in the Global Procurement and Trading Company at The Coca-Cola Company in Atlanta. While at Coca-Cola, he was involved in the creation of the first commodity risk management and governance policy framework for the company.
Founder of RealAgriculture, Shaun Haney manages one of the leading industry ag media companies for Canadian farmers and ranchers. RealAgriculture provides the latest in ag policy, agronomics, current events and farm management from their website, radio show, and podcast streams. Shaun is the host of RealAg Radio which is broadcast across North America on Rural Radio Channel 147 on SiriusXM daily at 4:30 PM Eastern, and also makes regular appearances on RFD-TV, Agritalk and US Farm Report.
Kim McConnell is a founder and former CEO of AdFarm.
Over the years, Kim has led national and international brand and marketing assignments for many respected national and international agriculture and food companies, and has been the catalyst behind many major industry ventures including an initiative to build greater public trust in food and farming.
Kim is also the recipient of many national business awards including ‘Agri-Marketer of the Year’ and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation “Mentor of the Year”. In 2012 he was inducted into the Canadian Agricultural Hall of Fame. And in 2017 he was appointed a Member of the Order of Canada.
Kim remains a director on a number of corporate, industry and volunteer boards and is a mentor to emerging executives and fast-growth companies. He is passionate about agriculture, food, youth and the entrepreneurial spirit.
Daniel Bilak is a Canada-qualified lawyer with over 30 years of public and private sector experience in Central and Eastern Europe. He is a partner with international law firm Kinstellar and director of the firm’s Ukraine practice.
Prior to joining Kinstellar, Daniel was the chief investment advisor to the Prime Minister of Ukraine and headed UkraineInvest, the Ukrainian government’s foreign investment promotion agency.
Daniel currently serves in the Territorial Defence Forces, a branch of the Ukrainian military, and has been awarded recognition by the Minister of Defence for Support to the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Shane Thomas is the founder of the globally read agribusiness newsletter Upstream Ag Insights. With a unique fusion of technical agricultural depth and business acumen, Shane informs tens of thousands of agribusiness leaders across more than 100 countries with a strategic vantage point. Upstream Ag Insights acts as a beacon of agribusiness intelligence and deciphers agricultural innovation through a pragmatic lens, offering actionable insights that steer professionals through the complex agribusiness landscape every single week. You can subscribe today at www.upstream.ag.
Josh Oehlerking leads the Small Grains Production System Innovation Manager for John Deere. The Small Grains Production System Innovation team is focused on accelerating innovation for small grains growers across the globe to improve agriculture and help growers be more profitable and sustainable. Josh grew up on a farm in Iowa, US, and has developed deep knowledge of global production agriculture through his 14 year career with John Deere. His experiences include product development for application, planting, and harvesting equipment and agricultural marketing throughout the world.
Josh holds a BS in Agronomy and MBA from Iowa State University and a Graduate Certificate in Systems Design and Management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
John Weigelt leads Microsoft Canada’s strategic policy and technology efforts. He helps individuals and organizations across Canada innovate with technology while avoiding the unintended consequences that might arise. John has contributed to many technological efforts that established the foundation for the electronic services we take for granted today and he continues to lead efforts to evolve technology standards and policy. His extensive experience in technology, business and policy provides him with a unique perspective of our technology enabled economy.
Craig Lehr is a 3rd generation farmer and rancher. Along with his wife Nicole, he is working on the 4th generation with his two children.
Short Grass Ranches began operations over 70 years ago, and has developed into a 1200 head cow/calf operation, 7000 head backgrounding feedlot, as well as irrigated and dryland (emphasis on DRY) farming.
Craig currently serves as the chair of the Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC) and is a delegate with Alberta Beef Producers.
The concept of “disruptive marketing” has become so buzz-wordy that we often mistake simply being “innovative” with being disruptive. Truly standing out in a tough economy, against monster-sized competition requires us to use part of our brains we don’t often access.
Graham Sherman has been shaking things up since he worked on private-sector government and military contracts in Afghanistan, to when he began brewing beer and changed the game for small breweries across Alberta. He then transformed his business to meet the demands of a pandemic-riddled economy. And today he is changing the game again with BBQ and winning worldwide competitions.
After hearing Sherman’s story and insights, audiences will walk away inspired and armed with a clear path to unleashing their own disruptive behaviour to transform their business, no matter what challenges in their path.
Cadmus Delorme, a Cree and Saulteaux, was the Chief of the Cowessess First Nation. Mr. Delorme graduated from Cowessess Community Education Centre in 2000. He later moved to Regina to pursue a Bachelor of Business Administration and a Certificate in Hospitality, Tourism and Gaming Entertainment Management from the First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv), and a Masters of Public Administration from the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Recently, he has completed an Institute of Corporate Directors designation.
In 2012, Mr. Delorme received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal for his hospitality in walking with King Charles III and Queen Camilla when they visited First Nations University of Canada in 2012 and in 2022, Mr. Delorme received the Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal. In 2015 he was named one of CBC Saskatchewan’s Future 40, which celebrates the province’s new generation of leaders, builders and change-makers under the age of 40.
In 2016, Mr. Delorme was elected Chief at the age of 34. In 2019, Chief Delorme was re-elected to a second term in office. Under his leadership, Cowessess First Nation has focused on economic self-sustainability for its nation and people and has moved forward on renewable energy, agriculture, efficiency in land use initiatives that have created both current and future business opportunities. Also under his leadership, Cowessess First Nation focused on political sovereignty and has moved forward on child welfare reform, empowering full jurisdiction when it comes to child protection, prevention, and the wellbeing of the entire family.
In 2021, Mr. Delorme faced one of the hardest moments as Chief when the Saulteaux and Cree First Nation made headlines with the validation of unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School. Shortly after, Cowessess made headlines again as the first First Nations to sign an agreement with Ottawa and the province that returns jurisdiction over children in care to the First Nation. Federal legislation overhauling Indigenous child welfare was passed in 2019 and came into force last year. Mr. Delorme lives with his wife Kimberly, brother-in-law, daughter and two sons on Cowessess First Nation.
Riaz Meghji is a human connection expert and bestselling author of Every Conversation Counts: The 5 Habits of Human Connection That Build Extraordinary Relationships. After one conversation led him to take a dramatically different career path that changed his life for the better, Meghji became dedicated to exploring the ways that authentic human connection can change lives and organizations. A natural storyteller, he shows audiences how to create engaged and connected cultures through the power of candid conversation.
Meghji is an accomplished broadcaster with 17 years of television experience, interviewing experts on current affairs, sports, entertainment, politics, and business. He has hosted for Citytv’s Breakfast Television, MTV Canada, CTV News, TEDxVancouver, and the Toronto International Film Festival.
A respected thought leader on human connection, Meghji is a highly sought-after keynote speaker and moderator with a proven ability to conduct engaging, in-depth conversations across various disciplines. His insights have been featured in Fast Company, Harvard Business Review, and Financial Post.
Off camera, Meghji dedicates himself to philanthropy and causes he cares about, including Canuck Place Children’s Hospice and Covenant House. He holds a degree in business from Simon Fraser University and studied leadership communication at Harvard’s Extension School and the Canadian Management Centre.
After decades of standing in the fire with leaders of high-performing organizations, Peter Sheahan has come to believe that an organization will only go commercially where its leaders first go personally.
Having grown his own companies by accelerating the growth and transformation for clients that include Apple, Chick-fil-A, DeBeers, and AT&T — Sheahan will provoke you to get bigger, by getting better! When leaders are true to their purpose, they gravitate towards doing work that matters and solving higher-order problems. The journey to get there requires that they have the courage to tell themselves the truth, take intelligent risks, and assume ownership for driving the alignment necessary to build an organization that behaves in ways worthy of its leadership position.
In being true to his own ambitions and relentless pursuit of growth, Sheahan has published seven books, built three global companies and delivered more than 2,500 presentations in 40+ countries. Today, Peter’s team is focused exclusively on inspiring leaders to do the hard work required to accelerate growth and transformation.
Jake Leguee is a third-generation farmer from Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada, where he, along with several family members, grows a variety of crops. Jake and his wife, Stephanie, have three young sons.
Passionate about advocating for the agricultural industry, Jake writes regularly in his popular blog, A Year in the Life of a Farmer, and has been a speaker at several events and conferences.
Jake is currently a director and is vice-chair of the Saskatchewan Wheat Development Commission, where he serves as chair of the Canadian Wheat Research Coalition. In 2019, he travelled to several countries promoting Canadian durum, speaking as the farmer representative. He is a member of Bayer’s Farmers Who SUSTAIN global advisory council, which has a goal of improving farm policy at the United Nations level. In 2017, he was invited to Des Moines, Iowa to participate in the Global Food Prize with the Global Farmer Network, which he continues to be an active participant in to this day.
Jake is optimistic about the agricultural industry and believes its future is very bright.
Heather Clarke is the CFO and Co-Founder of Poseidon Ocean Systems, an aquaculture clean-tech start-up based on Vancouver Island. Over the last 8 years, Poseidon has grown from a family run home based business, to being recognized as a global leader in aquaculture technology; attracting venture capital partners and exporting Poseidon’s technologies around the world. Poseidon focuses on salmon farming infrastructure and life support systems—helping to reduce the environmental impact of farming and assist in the production of nutritious, sustainable protein sources to feed the global population. Heather is passionate about developing Canada’s Blue Economy, challenging the status quo, and making the planet just a little bit better for her kids.
Bill Wirtz is the Senior Policy Analyst at the Consumer Choice Center, a global consumer advocacy organization defending innovation, trade, and consumer choice.
