At the American Seed Trade Association’s 132nd Annual Convention in Washington, D.C., the membership voted in the new officers for the year ahead. At the helm, serving as chair, is Risa DeMasi of Grassland Oregon. Mark Herrmann of Monsanto Vegetable Seeds serves as vice chair, and Tracy Tally of Justin Seed Company is second vice chair.
During her acceptance remarks, DeMasi recognized trailblazers of the industry, which is a play on the theme of the 2016 convention “Blazing Trails,” highlighting the progress that’s been made through the years and how far the association has come. Some of the trail blazers featured included Richard Robbins who was responsible for forming ASTA 132 years ago, Henry Wallace, Norman Borlaug, Dick Crowder and other industry leaders.
For her year as chair, DeMasi is tasked with establishing quantifiable measurements of success toward reaching the goals of ASTA’s Strategic Plan by 2018.
In doing so, DeMasi highlighted a few goals for her first 100 days as chair.
“First, I want to speak with all incoming regional vice presidents, division and committee chairs, directors at large, U.S. regional and Canadian and Mexican representatives, and ASTA senior staff,” she says. “Second is to determine what is measurable and to establish benchmarks. And third is to develop clear and quantifiable measurements of success.”
DeMasi says she’ll be prepared to report the progress made by the association at next year’s annual convention, which will be held June 18-22 in Portland, Oregon.
Regional vice presidents for the association include:
- Southeastern Region – Perry Bohn of BASF.
- Northeastern Region – Andy Ernst of Ernst Conservation Seeds.
- Central Region – David Pearl of The CISCO Companies.
- North Central Region – John Latham of Latham Hi-Tech Seeds.
- Northwestern Region – Rob Mitchell of Simplot.
- Southern Region – Alan Ostercamp of RiceTec, Inc.
- Western Region – Fred Fabre of S&W Seed Company.
- From the Canadian Seed Trade Association – Wayne Gale of Stokes Seeds.
- To Canada – Matt Hynes of GROWMARK, Inc.
- From the Mexican Seed Trade Association – Jose Luis Gastelum of Syngenta.
- To Mexico as interim – Jerry Monk of Warner Seeds.
