Bengt ‘Skip’ Hyberg, is President of H&H Conservation, an economic and policy consulting firm. He formerly served as a senior economist, scientist, and senior advisor to the Chief Scientist with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). During a 32-year career with USDA he worked with the Farm Service Agency, Natural Resources Conservation Service, Economic Research Agency, and as a Exchange Officer with the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics.
He earned degrees in Forest Management (BS Rutgers University, MS and Ph.D. North Carolina State University) and Economics (Ph.D. North Carolina State University). He has published extensively and is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including the Economist of the Year award, the Fred Woods award for sustained excellence in policy leadership and the John E. Lee Award from the USDA Economist Group, the Honors Silver Metal from the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Wetland Conservation Achievement Award from Ducks Unlimited. He recently published a textbook, “A Guide to Understanding the Fundamental Principles of Environmental Management – It Ain’t Magic: Everything Goes Somewhere.”
Jay Vroom chairs the America’s Conservation Ag Movement Board of Advisers, guiding the largest public-private conservation partnership in American agriculture. Jay is a long-trusted voice in agribusiness, having served 30 years as CEO of CropLife America, the trade association for companies that produce, sell and distribute crop protection and biotechnology products used by farmers, ranchers and landowners.
Jay served as chairman of the FFA Foundation’s Individual Giving Council and continues as a member of FFA’s President’s Advisory Council. Jay also sits on the boards of the Soil Health Institute and Alpha Gamma Rho fraternity. He also has served in leadership positions on the U.S. Production Ag CEO Council, the Coalition to Advance Precision Agriculture, the Agricultural Retailers Association and Asmark Institute.
An agriculture honors graduate from the University of Illinois, Jay still owns the crop farming operation he grew up on in north-central Illinois.
Chad Ellis is the Chief Executive Officer for Texas Agricultural Land Trust (TALT) and the founding chair of Trust In Beef. He brings a wealth of land conservation experience, most recently in his work for the Noble Research Institute, the largest nonprofit agricultural research organization in the U.S. Mr. Ellis has over 20 years of experience working directly with producers and land managers implementing stewardship focused management.
Ellis not only promotes and advocates land stewardship principles, he also implements it within his own family operation in Lohn, Texas. Mr. Ellis is passionate about helping empower the producer to be better tomorrow than they are today. Ellis brings deep connections and experience with USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, where he served in increasingly responsible roles for a decade. He also currently serves on an executive advisory board to the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture.
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