Strategic Partners Conference 2023 – Speakers

Kendall Jones is the president and chief executive officer of ProAg. Before taking on the role in July 2017, she previously served as executive vice president and COO for eight years. She first came to ProAg in May 2006. Since then, she has demonstrated leadership in acquisitions and has been responsible for the Standard Reinsurance Agreement (SRA), Livestock Price Reinsurance Agreement (LPRA), commercial reinsurance, and private insurance product management, implementation and maintenance. Her responsibilities have included claims, training, reinsurance, named peril and crop hail products, underwriting procedures and controls, and the day-to-day operations of ProAg.

She also serves on the board of directors for the Producers Ag Insurance Group and National Crop Insurance Services.

In 1995, Kendall began her crop insurance career in the finance and underwriting departments of Rural Community Insurance Services. Kendall earned her Master of Business Administration and Bachelor of Science degrees from the University of South Dakota.

Russ Klein has served as CFO since November 2009. Prior to joining ProAg, Russ served as the product director for CUNA Mutual Group’s crop insurance business. During his 10 years with CUNA Mutual, he also held roles in accounting and finance. This includes time as the interim CFO for CUNA Mutual’s Australian operations.

Prior to joining CUNA Mutual, Russ worked for three years in public accounting at Clifton Gunderson LLC, specializing in insurance and agribusiness audits.

Russ is a CPA and holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, as well as a Master of Business Administration from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Grant Adams has served as the Chief Operating Officer for ProAg since July of 2017. Grant previously served as Executive Vice President and General Counsel for eight years. Prior to joining ProAg, he practiced law as a shareholder at the Underwood Law Firm in Amarillo, Texas, where his practice focused primarily on civil litigation, including a national practice comprised of representing clients in commercial, employment, and professional malpractice disputes, both individually and on a class-wide basis. Additionally, Grant’s private practice included the representation of numerous insurance clients, including several crop insurance AIPs, along with advising and assisting a wide variety of businesses in the formation of entities and plans designed to best manage risk. He is licensed to practice before courts in multiple jurisdictions. At ProAg, Grant oversees the day-to-day operations of the Regional Offices and their support teams, and with the other members of the executive team strives to ensure the success of ProAg, and thereby the success of its policyholders, agents, and business partners. Grant earned both his B.B.A. and J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas at Austin.

Becky has been in the insurance industry her entire career. Her experience ranges from personal to commercial lines within the property and casualty field as well as crop insurance. She has worked at State Farm, Travelers, CUNA Mutual, John Deere and most recently Farmers Mutual Hail. Her career has spanned areas from claims, product management, strategic development, business transformation and implementation to operations. Becky was impacted by farming from an early age since her father ran the local coop. She graduated from the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, MN where she earned a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing.

Maria Wintheiser-Lloyd started with ProAg in 2014. Before serving as chief information officer, she also served as manager of the project management office and director of software development and IT operations. She has a broad range of leadership experience, including software development and process improvement. Her industry experience includes crop insurance, direct sales and financial services. Maria graduated from Saint Cloud State University in Saint Cloud, Minnesota.

Cody Corbell joined ProAg in 2023. Before joining ProAg, Cody was held several roles with Indigo Agriculture. Most recently, he was vice president, commercial head of market + merchandise and source. He also served as vice president, buyer – source and market development for rice and specialty grains. He also held in several leadership roles with RiceTec, Inc. and worked as a rangeland management specialist at USDA–NRCS.

Cody brings more than 20 years of broad experience in production agriculture and its supply chain to ProAg, having worked with corn, cotton, rice, soybeans and wheat throughout his career. He has worked directly with farmers, ag retail, cooperatives, elevators, mills and consumer packaged goods companies. Cody has also worked in seed production, crop production, crop marketing ag technology and business development within the ag supply chain.

Joel Block started with ProAg in 2019. He has more than 35 years of technology and business experience working with global technology leaders, including Microsoft Corporation. He specializes in leadership and strategy, product management, brand and product marketing, and marketing science. Joel earned his Bachelor of Accounting and a minor in computer science from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Montana, Missoula.

Tim Rich joined ProAg in 2020, bringing more than 30 years of human resources experience. Prior to coming to ProAg, Tim was the chief human resources officer at the University of Northwestern/Northwestern Media for 17 years. His experience also includes serving as the director of human resources for the University of Minnesota, as well as HR leadership roles at Fingerhut Corporation and Northwest Airlines. Tim holds a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University of Wisconsin (Eau Claire) and earned his master’s degree in human resource management from Concordia University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Jacob Ingerslev has been with Tokio Marine HCC (TMHCC) since April 2022. Before then, he most recently worked at The Hartford where he was chief underwriting officer for the cyber risk and technology E&O business. Prior to The Hartford, Jacob was head of U.S. technology E&O, cyber and media liability at CNA.

At TMHCC, he is responsible for the open market cyber & tech E&O Underwriting team and products. Jacob has more than 20 years of experience in a wide range of underwriting disciplines across U.S., European and Lloyd’s insurance markets.

Steve Renter first came to ProAg in 2012, originally serving as director of software development. He then became the director of enterprise architecture and development before taking on his current role. He has a diverse background in information technology spanning nearly 30 years, most of which have been in the crop insurance industry. He has held roles in product management, development, architecture and design, and leadership. Most recently, his work has focused on helping ProAg develop a program and culture around innovation. This work has included scouting and networking with potential solution partners, developing proof of concepts and prototypes, and working directly with business leaders to explore, identify and find solutions for critical business problems.

Dominic (Dom) Edmunds is an experienced entrepreneur and CEO from the world of Big Data. Having built and grown a world-leading market business, he is now entirely focused on supporting innovation in the crop insurance industry. Dom has collected several awards in his 24 years of experience, including three Sunday Times Tech Track 100 and Best UK Technology Company to Work For (Business Insider & Glassdoor).

James Trammel previously held multiple positions, including lead and senior adjuster with a national approved insurance provider (AIP). Over his nearly 10-year career, he has covered territories in Eastern North Carolina and South Carolina, supporting America’s farmers. Occasionally, he assisted in high-claim volume areas, including Florida, Iowa, Kansas and Texas.

After leaving agriculture insurance, James focused his career on customer success, helping clients successfully implement products and their own business operations. That journey has come full circle with PlanetWatchers and getting to support AIPs in the agriculture insurance space.

Tom Flynn is the president and CEO of Lessing-Flynn, the longest-standing independently owned advertising agency west of the Mississippi. He is the fourth member of the Flynn family to hold the position. Before he took over as president in 2007, Tom worked as a print production manager, a copywriter and an account manager. He even had a brief stint as the office janitor in his youth.

In addition to leading day-to-day agency operations, Tom is involved in a number of marketing and nonprofit organizations in the community.

Ian Anderson brings more than 12 years of marketing and branding experience to his role as an account strategist at Lessing-Flynn (LF), an advertising agency based in Des Moines, Iowa. With a diverse background in B2B and consumer advertising, content creation and social media, he has worked with companies in a variety of industries, from travel to agriculture. At LF, Ian helps businesses develop impactful strategies to drive growth and brand awareness.

Dennis Breske has been active in the real estate industry since 1991, specializing in the leasing, sales and management of commercial properties throughout Sioux Falls and the surrounding area. In 1999, Dennis founded NAI Sioux Falls as a full-service commercial real estate company and was directly responsible for all aspects of the company’s business. He has been involved in completing over 1,000 commercial real estate transactions. Before starting in the commercial real estate industry, Dennis worked for three years for the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development as an industrial development representative, recruiting 13 new companies that employed in excess of 2,500 South Dakotans. Dennis has earned the designation of Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM). He has also been accepted into the prestigious Society of Industrial and Office Realtors (SIOR) which represents today’s most knowledgeable, experienced and successful commercial real estate brokerage specialists.

Greg “Boss” Wooldridge is the only commanding officer to lead The Blue Angels for three separate tours. He was first selected because of his demonstrated ability to build teams where communication, trust and teamwork took precedence over rank and status. His heart-driven approach proved a perfect match for the Blue Angel’s culture of excellence, and he was called back to lead two more teams through times of difficult transition. Since his success with the Blues, Greg has been inspired to share his methods to empower individuals and teams on their journey toward High Performance.

John served as a NATO peacekeeper in Kosovo in 2004 before volunteering for deployment to Iraq. On December 2, 2006, his team struck an improvised explosive device (IED). He was not expected to survive. He died three times in the operating room, but 35 surgeries and nine months later, he walked out of Walter Reed Army Medical Center. After 10 years in the Army National Guard, he retired as a staff sergeant, receiving the Combat Infantryman Badge, Purple Heart, Bronze Star and other awards.

In 2010, he was elected to the Minnesota House of Representatives but decided not to seek re-election when his family said they wanted to spend more time with him.

He is director of veterans’ services for a county in suburban Minneapolis, Minnesota, a part-time personality on KFAN Radio, a motivational speaker and co-author of the book, “Still Standing: The Story of SSG John Kriesel.” John’s book was republished in 2018 and is winner of eight national book awards.