Kevin Krieg
Director, Business Development, Intelinair
Kevin Krieg
Archives: Speakers
Doug Applegate
Doug Applegate
CEO/Owner, Applegate Acres Co/ Praxidyn
Doug Applegate started farming and taking night classes at Iowa Western Community College in Council Bluffs at age 16. He earned an associate degree in Farm Management and has taken many additional studies including programming and electronics. He and his wife love farming, working together and serving in their church. Doug has always enjoyed building things for the farm and passed this passion onto their two sons.
Praxidyn, their manufacturing company, was started with their sons to create automation for the farm. Mechatronics is their specialty, and they do the mechanical and electronic engineering along with all the software from the embedded control, app, and cloud service software. Mixmate is their first product and is an automated blending and recordkeeping system primarily used to blend crop protection products. Farming and engineering are Doug’s two career choices, and he has the privilege of doing both with his family.
Doug has also been involved with AgGateway since 2012. AgGateway is a global, non-profit organization with the mission to develop the resources and relationships that drive digital connectivity in global agriculture and related industries. He works with many individuals and companies who contribute their time in standardizing data communications so that farm equipment and office data systems can all work together for the traceability of crop inputs and farm production.
All of these endeavors have led to greater operating efficiency for their farm and for others around the world.
Chad Hertiz, AFM
Chad Hertz, AFM
Chief Operating Officer, Hertz Farm Management, Inc.
Chad is the third generation of accredited farm managers in the Hertz family. During his 25 plus years at Hertz Farm Management, he served as a professional farm manager and licensed real estate agent, advised ag technology and precision agriculture, and leads the information technology team.
Chad is an active member of several professional and local organizations including the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA). He is a past president of the Iowa Chapter of the ASFMRA and winner of the ASFMRA Early Career Award. Today Chad serves on the Non-Operating Landowner working group with 4R plus, an Iowa organization promoting conservation and soil health efforts with farmland owners and operators.
Chad graduated from the University of Illinois College of Agriculture with a degree in Agronomy earning Highest Honors. He earned a Master of Science degree in Ag Economics at the University of Illinois as well, specializing in production economics and precision agriculture.
Brian Lutz
Brian Lutz
Vice President, Agricultural Solutions, Corteva Agriscience
Brian Lutz leads the Farming Solutions & Digital sub-function within the Research & Development organization for Corteva Agriscience. In his role, Brian is responsible for the development of digital solutions that support the R&D pipeline and enable Corteva’s business. He also serves as a member of the R&D Leadership team. Brian joined Corteva in 2021 in the Portfolio Strategy Program Management role and continues to contribute to the company’s long-term strategic planning.
Prior to starting at Corteva, Brian was Chief Science Officer at The Climate Corporation, and was also a member of Bayer Crop Science’s R&D Leadership Team. Before joining industry, he had an academic career focused on studying soil carbon and nutrient dynamics and has an extensive amount of experience working at the science-policy interface on topics associated with global environmental change.
Brian was raised on a fourth-generation corn and soybean farm in Ohio and remains closely connected to his family’s farming operation. Brian earned his undergraduate degree in Biology from the College of Wooster and his Ph.D. in Biogeochemistry from Duke University. He also holds certificates from Northwestern University in executive education and business management.
Ben Sloan
Ben Sloan
Vice President of Strategy and Product, Ever.Ag
Ben Sloan is Vice President of Strategy and Product for Ever.Ag. He is responsible for the design, development, and deployment of FieldAlytics. Prior to his role at Ever.Ag, Ben led the development of first of its kind tools at AgSolver connecting farm profitability with environmental performance. Ben holds Masters and Bachelor’s Degrees in Mechanical Engineering from Iowa State University.
Walt Duflock
Walt Duflock
Senior Vice President, Innovation, Western Growers
Walt Duflock is a partner at a 5th generation family farming operation in Monterey County that grows specialty crops, wine grapes, and cattle. Walt has 30 years of experience at Silicon Valley tech startups with sales and marketing executive roles at eBay and 3 others that were acquired. Walt helped build THRIVE into the #1 AgriFoodTech Accelerator and is currently the VP of Innovation at Western Growers.
Larkin Martin
Larkin Martin
Owner, Albemarle Corp/Martin Farm
V. Larkin Martin manages Martin Farm, a family farm in Courtland, Alabama. The farm operates on owned and rented land. Their primary crops are corn, cotton, soybeans and wheat. She is also Chairman of the Board of Servico, a cotton ginning and agricultural services business located in Courtland, Director of the American Farmland Trust and a Director of Red Sea Ag, an agriculture technology company focused on heat resilience. In addition to her farming responsibilities, Ms. Martin holds and has held a number of positions off of the farm. She is a Director of The Soil Health Institute based in Cary, NC. Current non-farm responsibilities include serving as a of Director of Rayonier Inc. (RYN) a timberland REIT based in Jacksonville, FL and Truxton Trust, a private bank and trust company in Nashville, TN.
A partial list of past responsibilities includes serving as a Director and past Chairman of The Farm Foundation, a non-partisan accelerator of practical solutions for agriculture based in Chicago, a Director and past Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta, a Director and past Chairman of The Public Affairs Council of Alabama, a Director and past Chairman of The Cotton Board, the national check-off program for cotton, a Director of Africa Harvest, an NGO based in Kenya that helps to bring innovative agricultural technologies to smallholder farmers in Africa, Director of The Alabama Chapter of The Nature Conservancy and a Director of Leadership Alabama. Ms. was named an Eisenhower Agricultural Fellow in 2012.
After graduating from Vanderbilt and prior to returning to the farm Ms. Martin lived in Washington, DC and held jobs in at the US Treasury Department and with Arthur Andersen. She is married to John Thornton and they have 4 children.
Joe Waina
Joe Waina
Senior Innovation Principal, Verizon
Joe Waina is an Industry 4.0 evangelist focused on powering successful strategies for digitally connected manufacturing enterprises. He advises manufacturing organizations on technology trends, strategic manufacturing architecture, open technology stack options, and best practices and provides thought leadership to develop above-the-network value frameworks which support the convergence of data and application visibility across IT and OT infrastructures. As a Senior Innovation Principal at Verizon on the advanced manufacturing vertical team, he works with some of the world’s most advanced products helping leading manufacturers understand how the power of private wireless spectrum improves operational efficiencies, drives cost reductions, creates visibility of all data from Top Floor to Shop Floor through the implementation of advanced technologies in the area of big data, data analytics, business intelligence IoT, I-IoT, AI, and ML.
Aman Anand
Aman Anand
Digital and Agronomic Collaboration, Nutrien
Aman Anand is an experienced product strategist and certified professional agronomist (CPA) with over 12 years of a career spanning Fortune 100 companies, non-profits, and agriculture technology, inclusive of a decade at America’s largest farmer-owned cooperative (CHS Inc) in different roles ranging from lead agronomist to product development, data analysis, and strategy. Aman is dedicated to building a system that delivers sustainable food, clean water, and low-carbon energy to society. Aman founded the climate-tech startup “Actagra” with a mission to build a credible carbon accounting system and climate solutions to pair profitability and sustainability for a better planet.
Jennifer Goldston
Jennifer Goldston
Founder and CEO, AgTech PR
Jennifer works with our clients to align communications strategies with business goals to attract investors and scale a formidable commercial business. She brings more than 25 years of experience in agriculture and food communications after leading global public affairs and corporate communications while at DuPont Pioneer, Campbell Soup Company, Ocean Spray Cranberries and Fleishman-Hillard. She also served as VP-Marketing at FarmLink and MachineryLink, early leaders in agtech.
With deep connections across the media and influencer landscape, Jennifer helps carve out thought leadership opportunities for our clients. She earned a master’s degree in integrated marketing communications from Northwestern University, and a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Washington State University. Now based in Kansas City, Jennifer has maintained a green thumb even as a first-generation urban dweller.
