CHS Inc. owners elect five board members

January 10, 2020 By Brian Richesson

CHS Inc. owners elected five board members to three-year terms during the cooperative’s 2019 annual meeting in December. CHS is a global agribusiness company owned by farmers, ranchers and cooperatives across the United States.

Newly elected to three-year terms are:

• Hal Clemensen succeeds former director Randy Knecht, who retired from the CHS board of directors on Dec. 6. Clemensen represents Region 4, covering South Dakota, and has been the president of the board of directors of Agtegra Cooperative since its formation in 2018. He was president of the South Dakota Wheat Growers Association from 2005 until its merger with North Central Farmers Elevator in 2018. He is a past director and is an active member of the South Dakota Soybean Association and an active member of South Dakota Corn Growers. In 2015, the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives named him Farmer Cooperative Director of the Year. He raises corn, soybeans and wheat near Conde, South Dakota.

• Kevin Throener succeeds former director Dennis Carlson, who retired from the board on Dec. 6, and represents Region 3, which covers North Dakota. Throener has been a director of CHS Dakota Plains Ag since 2014 and served as vice president of the Sargent County Farmers Union board of directors since 2007. He has also served on the Cogswell, North Dakota, Volunteer Fire Department since 1997 and was its chief from 2010 to 2018. Throener raises corn, soybeans and alfalfa and operates a feed lot and cow/calf business near Cogswell, North Dakota.

Reelected to three-year terms are:

• Mark Farrell, who operates a corn, soybean and wheat farm in Dane County, Wisconsin, representing Region 5.

• Alan Holm, who operates a corn, soybean, sweet corn, peas and hay operation and has a cow/calf herd near Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, representing Region 1.

• Steve Riegel, who raises corn, soybeans, alfalfa, dryland wheat and milo near Ford, Kansas, representing Region 8.

Following the annual meeting, the board held its annual reorganization meeting. Each of the following board members was elected to one-year officer terms:

• Dan Schurr, chair.
• C.J. Blew, first vice chair.
• Jon Erickson, second vice chair.
• Russ Kehl, secretary-treasurer.
• Steve Riegel, assistant secretary-treasurer.

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