News

USB names new CEO

The United Soybean Board has named Lucas Lentsch as its new CEO.

Lentsch, who grew up on his family’s farm, previously served as CEO of Midwest Diary, was the South Dakota Secretary of Agriculture, and is a U.S. military veteran.

He tells Brownfield he’s looking forward to serving U.S. soybean farmers and ensuring growth and success of the US soybean industry, “You don’t have to look any further than the quality of what we produce, maintaining the quality of what the soybean is, ensuring that the innovation pipeline is ready for it. Beyond that, I think it’s research.”

Missouri farmer Meagan Kaiser is the outgoing chair of USB and chaired the CEO Selection Committee.  She says Lentsch is the right candidate to execute the vision of farmer leaders, “All of our programming starts with farmers around the table, saying this is what we want to prioritize, we want to build this and then our team, our staff, says okay, here’s the options. That is how this organization is farmer led and farmer driven.”

The United Soybean Board made the announcement during its December meeting.  

USB also elected its new Executive Committee.  Steve Reinhard of Ohio will serve as chair, Ed Hammers of Nebraska will serve as vice chair, Philip Good of Mississippi has been elected secretary, and Brent Gatton of Kentucky will serve as treasurer.  

Also elected to the committee:

April Hemmes of Iowa

Matt Gast of North Dakota

Gary Berg of Illinois

Don Wyss of Indiana

Susan Watkins of Virginia

Lawrence Sukalski of Minnesota

Meagan Kaiser of Missouri will serve as the past chair