John is the founder of BEI, creating the company in 1989. John received his bachelor’s degree in Agronomy and Plant Genetics/Agricultural Economics from the University of Minnesota.  He served as Minnesota’s Assistant Commissioner of Agriculture during the Quie Administration and was appointed by President George Herbert Walker Bush as the Midwest Area Director of the Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Service of the USDA.  He served in that capacity from 1993 through 1995.  John has acquired over 30 years of management, agricultural and regulatory experience and has a solid understanding of the agricultural industry and an in-depth working knowledge of governmental regulatory activities. 

John currently serves on the Environment Committee of the National Pork Board and is Secretary of the Board of the Great Plains Institute, a non-profit organization working to help the world emerge from a fossil fuel society to a renewable energy society.  He is also a Certified Assessor of the Validus, LLC On-Farm Assessment and Environmental Review program.  He is certified by the NRCS as a Technical Service Provider (TSP) and he is a Certified Crop Advisor.  He is also a member of ASBE, the Society for engineering in agricultural, food and biological systems; The National Groundwater Association and The Soil and Water Conservation Society.