b'TOP 10 NEXT GEN LEADERSSAMANTHA BOCKSamantha Bock, marketing manager at Inari, grew up in Danville, Ind., where she developed a love of production agriculture through 4-H. After broaden-ing her scope of agriculture in FFA and continuing her education in the agriculture communications department at Purdue University, she was really given the chance to fall in love with the industry through study abroad trips, immersive leadership training and valuable summer internships. As part of the Inari team, shes helping to design customer experiences for the commercial seed business while reinforcing that the seed industry was where shes meant to be. And her favorite part of the industry? The competitiveness. What I love about the seed industry is the competitive nature of the business, she says. Uniquely, that competition comes with this underlying current of unified progress. All seed companies are striving to earn a share of a farmers operation, but in doing so, theyre also striving to COREY BECKprovide higher yielding, more efficient products For Corey Beck, business analyst at Becks Hybrids, the seed industry hasthat help feed and fuel the growing population. always been a core part of his life. As he notes, It wasnt ever a breakthroughThis competitiveness motivates Bock to do her very into the seed industry, but more of a way of life. Whether he was helping hisbest, and it fuels her desire to challenge herself.father plant test plots, working in various roles at the company during theIn the future, Bock is really excited to think about summer months or playing sports outdoors, hes had a chance to establish athe potential progress for gene editing technolo-deep appreciation for agriculture and nature.gies, artificial intelligence, the use of data and more. The seed industry really caught his passion due to the foundationalTheres an unprecedented amount of opportu-significance of feeding the world. He felt a strong connection with national andnity in agriculture today, regardless of the specific global food security, which is all connected together by providing an adequatesector, she says. That opportunity also comes food supply. More so than that, Beck says, The seed industry gives us thewith a significant amount of responsibility for my unique opportunity to be stewards of the land and to honor God while generation and the next one to pursue and chal-doing so.lenge each other in finding ways to work differ-Before coming back to the family business, Beck actually had a stintently. In her mind, its going to require collaboration working as a graduate assistant football coach at Duke University. Comparingand innovative thinking to make real change. the two, he says that coaching a team is no different, whether youre inA fun fact about Bock is in 2009, she was business of or footballits all about culture and vision. Our family businessselected as an Indianapolis 500 Festival Princess. is a team game, with important functions performed across the company, heBased on scholastic achievement, leadership poten-says. However, it is the vision and culture that drive success. tial, and community involvement, 33 college-aged And just because hes back at the family business doesnt mean his love forwomen are selected from hundreds of applicants, sports has endedBeck and his wife were both involved in athletics duringand serve as ambassadors of the 500 Festival, their undergraduate years at Purdue and continue to stay engaged withculminating with the Indy 500. This was definitely Purdue sports; they even had their wedding reception in the football press boxa non-ag opportunity, but a truly unforgettable last October. experience, she says. 36/ SEEDWORLD.COMJUNE 2020'