Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40 Page 41 Page 42 Page 43 Page 44 Page 45 Page 46 Page 47 Page 48 Page 49 Page 50 Page 51 Page 52 Page 53 Page 54 Page 55 Page 56 Page 57 Page 58 Page 59 Page 60 Page 61 Page 62 Page 63 Page 64 Page 65 Page 66 Page 67 Page 68 Page 69 Page 70 Page 71 Page 72 Page 73 Page 74 Page 75 Page 7648 / SEEDWORLD.COM FEBRUARY 2017 48 / SEEDWORLD.COM FEBRUARY 2017 R.C. Thomas Company President ROD OSTHUS During the 17 years Rod spent selling seed, he orchestrated 17 consecutive years of sales increases, supervised more than 1,200salesrepsand42dis- trict and regional managers. Today, based in Olivia, Minnesota, Rod oper- ates the top seed sales training and consulting firm in North America and provides 21st  century sales and marketing strategies to agricul- tural companies worldwide. He helps salespeople achieve sales increases regardless of markets, weather, or product performance. His extensive background in research, production, sales, and marketing gives him an in- depth understanding of the agricul- tural business that few people have. Gro Alliance President JIM SCHWEIGERT A third-generation seedsman, Jim Schweigert grew up in the business. Heearnedadegreeinpublicrelations from the University of Minnesota and worked for corporate public relations firms before joining the family busi- ness full time in 2003. He has since been active in the American Seed Trade Association, the Independent Professional Seed Association and earned his master’s in seed technol- ogy and business from Iowa State University. Cultura Seed Solutions Product Manager VINCENT VENEZIALE Vincent led the design and develop- ment of Generation, the specialized software solution for the seed pro- duction and processing industries. He has over 25 years’ experience delivering software solutions to the seed industry and collaborating with seed businesses to build the most advanced software solution designed specifically for the pro- duction and processing industry. Generation enables seed businesses to manage all operational aspects of their business within one system, providing better inventory position and availability reporting, enhanced customer service and regulatory compliance, improved data quality and information with overall control of the business processes. Vincent continues to work closely with seed businesses both in the U.K. and North America to develop and deploy soft- ware solutions that deliver real value. Syngenta Commercial Product Lead Seedcare, Cereals & DFC KRIS PAUNA Kris is responsible for managing Syngenta’s North American seed treatment portfolios for sugarbeets and sunflowers and the company’s U.S. seed treatment portfolios for cereals, canola, pulse crops and potatoes. He also is the overall North American product lead for Vibrance. Kris has been with Syngenta for five years and joined the Seedcare team in early 2014. Prior to that, he was a business partner with the soybean and diverse field crops teams. Before joining Syngenta, Kris held various marketing and finance positions throughout the Twin Cities. KETTY NILSSON NoroGard President Ketty Nilsson has her agricultural roots in southern Sweden, and spe- cializes in chemistry engineering. She started her career as a scientist, and then pursued more technical and business development exper- tise. After earning an MBA, she was recruited as the president of NoroGard, where she has been able to combine her scientific background and business savviness. NoroGard has been engineering and manufac- turing seed treatment equipment since 1965, with a focus on quality. Agronomix President, CEO and founder DIETER MULITZE Drawingonhisexperienceindevelop- ing plant breeding software since the 1970s and working as a plant breeder, Dieter Mulitze, Ph.D., released the first versionof“AGROBASE”andincorpo- rated Agronomix Software in 1990. In 2001, AGROBASE Generation II, a fully relational software system, was released. Then in 2009, a more powerful version was released. Seed companies, government research centers and universities in more than 40 countries now use AGROBASE Generation II.