Speaker Bios

Andrew R. Biebl, CPA is a principal with LarsonAllen, CPAs, Advisors and Consultants, in New Ulm, Minnesota. He is a member of the AICPA and the Minnesota Society of CPAs. Mr. Biebl is a past-president of the Minnesota Society of CPAs.

Mr. Biebl has co-authored the Farm Taxation: Planning Opportunities and Pitfalls seminar, previously co-authored the AICPA seminar Planning Opportunities in Farm Taxation, and is a frequent speaker on agricultural taxation issues before CPA groups nationally. He authors a column on taxation issues in Top Producer magazine, and co-authors Farm Tax Network, an email subscription service that addresses farm tax issues. In addition, he maintains active involvement with his CPA firm's agricultural and small business clients.

Mr. Biebl has co-authored the AICPA’s Individual Income Tax Workshop and Corporate Income Tax Workshop seminars, and is also co-author of Practitioner’s Publishing Company’s (PPC's) Federal Tax Update, Complete Tax Update for Individuals and Sole Proprietors, Complete Tax Update for Corporations and Pass-Through Entities, Controller’s Federal Tax Update, PPC's Tax Planning Guide - S Corporations, Practitioner's 1040 Deskbook, and Practitioners 1120S Deskbook. With his partner, Bob Ranweiler, he has co-authored the PPC Biebl-Ranweiler Portfolio Series.

In addition to authorship activities, Mr. Biebl has spoken at numerous seminars and conferences throughout the country. He is a past recipient of the AICPA's Outstanding Discussion Leader Award, and also a past recipient of Outstanding Discussion Leader Awards for Minnesota and Iowa CPA Societies. Mr. Biebl also lectures in the University of Minnesota Masters in Business Taxation program.

Tim Biewer, Marketing Director for CNH Capital, is the financial services liaison to the Case IH brand in North America. In this role, Tim develops marketing programs and offers for Case IH, and works closely with the Case IH sales force in structuring and executing customer transactions at Case IH dealerships.

Previously, Tim served as Director of Asset Management for CNH Capital in North America, working with Case IH, Case Construction, New Holland, New Holland Construction and Kobelco dealers, as well as other manufacturers and their dealers, to remarket used equipment. Tim also has served as New Product Development Manager, Lease and Marketing Manager for New Holland Credit, Marketing Analyst for Ford New Holland Credit, and Area Sales Manager for Ford Credit.

Prior to 1991, Tim worked for Citicorp Dealer Finance and Deutz Allis Credit Corp. as Area Sales Manager. He also managed an equipment dealership and worked on a farm in the Midwest.

Tim holds a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics and business administration from North Dakota State University in Fargo, ND, and a master's degree in Business Administration from Minnesota State University in Moorhead, MN.

Don Buhl of Tyler, Minnesota, is a feeder pig finisher who markets 30,000 hogs annually. Don and his wife, Susan, own Buhl's Ridge View Farm, which includes 550 acres of corn, soybeans and oats. They have four children: Anne, Chris, Curt and Amanda.

Don graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in Agricultural Education. He is a member of FarmHouse Fraternity and received the Doane Award. He worked for Ralston Purina for four years as a salesman and then returned to the family farm near Tyler. Throughout their farming career, Don and Susan have kept detailed farm business records and have used those record analyses to determine how their operation would change, and they are enrolled in the adult farm management program at Tyler. Don and Susan are very involved in their church and community.

Don has been a member of the Minnesota Pork Producers Association since 1977. He has served at the state level of this organization since 1989, including serving as their president in 1996. In addition, Don served as state legislative committee chair for three years and state director from 1990 to 1996.

At the national level, Don has been involved with the Networking Task Force, Animal Welfare Committee, a long range planning committee and the Pork Industry Nominating Committee. He has been on the National Pork Producers Council Board of Directors since 2001, and served as NPPC President in 2005-2006. During that year, he was very involved in working on passage of the Central America - Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement. Currently, he is one of the people representing the pork industry on the U.S. Meat Export Federation.

In other leadership positions, he's been involved with the Minnesota Farm Bureau, the Minnesota Corn Growers, and Minnesota Soybean Growers, and was a charter member of the Minnesota Corn Processors. Don firmly believes all agricultural producers can benefit themselves by working together to improve their individual operations and in the task of helping our nation’s citizens understand and appreciate how American agriculture benefits our entire country.

Pete Kappelman is a dairy producer, farming in partnership with his brother, John. Their herd of 420 cows is primarily registered Holsteins with a few Brown Swiss, with a herd production average of 30,000+ lbs. milk per cow. They also crop 1200 acres. Pete and his wife, Shellie, have three children: Beth, 18; Mitch, 16; and Erin, 14.

Pete’s current off farm involvements include serving on Land O’Lakes Inc. Board of Directors since 1995. He has served as Chairman since 2004, 1st Vice Chairman from 1999 - 2004, and Secretary from 1997 - 98. He has also been serving on the Executive Committee since 1997.

He is also has been serving as a Board member of two other organizations. One organization is the National Milk Producers Federation since 2001, where he is Chair of the International Trade Committee. The other is the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, of which he has been a member since 2006.

His activities with the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin-Madison include the Board of Visitors, 1999 – present; Chair Elect from 2002 - 2003; Chairman from 2004 - 2006; and is currently the Past Chair in 2007.

Pete’s community activities include serving on the Board of Education and Church Council at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Manitowoc, WI, the Board of Economic Development Corporation for Manitowoc County, and as a 4-H Dairy Leader. He has also been a basketball coach at the elementary, and junior high and high school levels since 2000.

In the past, he has been involved with the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin as a Board Member and President, and has served as a Board member and Chairman for UW Center for Dairy Profitability.

In 1991, Pete was the recipient of the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation Young Farmer Achievement Award. Other achievements include receiving the 1995 Wisconsin Dairy Farm Family of the Year Award and the 1998 Wisconsin Outstanding Young Farmers (Jaycees) Award.

Ron Litterer serves as First Vice President of the National Corn Growers Association, a producer-directed trade association headquartered in St. Louis with a second office in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to create and increase opportunities for corn growers in a changing world and to enhance the profitability and usage of corn.

Litterer farms near Greene, Iowa, growing corn and soybeans along with a hog finishing operation. At the national level, he serves as a member of the Finance Committee and as a liaison to the Sweetener Coalition. He has served as chair of the Public Policy Action Team. Litterer has been active in Iowa Corn Growers Association activities, including the Production and Environmental Issues Team, Livestock Task Force and the Political Action Committee.

He is a member of the Iowa Farm Bureau, the Iowa Soybean Association, and the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

Litterer is a graduate of Iowa State University and taught vocational agriculture at Starmont and Webster City Community Schools prior to farming. He has traveled to the Czech Republic and Russia on agricultural projects sponsored by Iowa State University.

Litterer and his wife, Janice, have two daughters. He has been farming for 28 years.

NCGA is a federation of state organizations, corn boards, councils and commissions that develop and implement policies and programs on a state and national level to help protect and advance the corn producer’s interests. NCGA represents more than 32,000 individual members in 48 states, 45 affiliated state organizations and hundreds of thousands of growers who contribute to state checkoff programs.

Dean Prokos, National Accounts Manager for CNH Capital, is responsible for developing and implementing leading-edge leasing solutions and strategies for the company’s large, national accounts. In this role, Dean works closely with the National Accounts Managers for the CNH brands to structure and execute leasing solutions for large businesses.

Dean, who joined CNH Capital in March, 2007, is an accomplished professional with a proven track record of success in structuring leases and servicing major accounts. He served as Regional Vice President for Relational Technology Solutions in Rolling Meadows, IL, where he led the firm’s IT leasing and supply business for the Midwest region. Prior to that, he served as Senior Vice President of Business Development for Netwolves, Inc., a Tampa, FL-based network security firm.

Dean also has served in a variety of roles of increasing responsibility, including Senior Vice President and District Manager, during a 14-year span with Comdisco, Inc., a technology service firm based in Rosemont, IL.

Dean also owns and operates Green Lake Marina LLC & Shoreline Inc., a full service marina and boat dealership based in Green Lake, WI. He holds a bachelor's degree in business from Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, IL.

Gerry Salzman, Senior Director, Global Product Marketing Management, Harvesting Equipment CaseIH oversees all worldwide product and marketing activities for Case IH harvesting equipment. Those responsibilities include defining product positions, coordination of future product needs, and consolidation of commercial objectives globally. He also is a patent award recipient.

Salzman previously served as Senior Director, Cash Crop Marketing for North America.

His background in the industry goes back to the early 1970s. Initially, he worked 14 years for International Harvester in sales, marketing and product management. Salzman was involved in the launch of the first Axial-Flow combines, as well as subsequent combine lines.

In his 20 years with Case IH, he has held positions in product development of combines, grain platforms and cotton pickers, marketing and product management of crop harvesting, hay and forage, and construction equipment. He is active, too, in the industry. He has served as chairman of the Public Relations Committee of the U.S. Grains Council and also the Agri-Business Forum of the Council. In 2003, he was elected to the Board of Directors of the USGC and was reelected in 2005.

Salzman holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Western Illinois University in Macomb. He also has served six years in the U.S. Army Reserves. He is a member of Alpha Gamma Rho and Alpha Zeta fraternities and is a graduate of the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Program.

Professor Robert L. Thompson holds the Gardner Endowed Chair in Agricultural Policy at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In addition to his on-campus teaching and extension outreach responsibilities, he is active in the national debate on future farm policy and the global debate on WTO agricultural trade issues. He serves on the USDA-USTR Agricultural Policy Advisory Committee for Trade and the International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council.

From 1998 through 2002 he was at the World Bank where he served as Director of Agriculture and Rural Development. Prior to joining the World Bank, he served as President and CEO of the Winrock International Institute for Agricultural Development (1993-98); as Dean of Agriculture (1987-93) and Professor of Agricultural Economics (1974-93) at Purdue University; as Assistant Secretary for Economics at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (1985-87) and as Senior Staff Economist for Food and Agriculture at the President's Council of Economic Advisers (1983-85).

Dr. Thompson grew up on a northern New York State dairy farm. He received his B.S. degree from Cornell University and his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Purdue University.

Dr. Eric Wieben is Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, and Director of the Mayo Genomics Research Center.

He received his undergraduate education in Biological Sciences at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, and his graduate education in Biology at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut. After being awarded the Ph.D. degree, he completed a four-year post-doctoral fellowship in Molecular Biology at the Worcester Foundation for Experimental Biology in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts. He moved to Mayo Clinic in 1983, and was Chair of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 1994-2001.

Throughout his career, Dr. Wieben’s research has focused on studies of gene structure and function in both humans and animal experimental models. This work has been funded by the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation. His current work focuses on genomics technology development and the emerging field of pharmacogenomics. He currently serves as the Co-Principal Investigator of Mayo’s component of the national NIH-funded Pharmacogenomics Research Network (currently chaired by Mayo’s Dr. Richard Weinshilboum). Dr. Wieben is also Mayo’s Project Director for the Minnesota Partnership for Biotechnology and Medical Genomics, a joint research collaboration with the University of Minnesota funded in part by appropriations from the State of Minnesota. He was recently appointed to the Board of Directors of the BioBusiness Alliance of Minnesota, which seeks to position Minnesota as a global leader in biobusiness.

Dr. Wieben has also been very involved in the education mission at Mayo Clinic throughout his career. He has trained numerous predoctoral and doctoral students, served as the Graduate Program Director in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology for five years and he has been recognized for his excellence in teaching with Mayo’s Distinguished Educator award and four Teacher of the Year awards. He is the recipient of both the Mayo Graduate School Dean’s Recognition Award and the Mayo Medical School’s Dean’s Recognition award. Nationally, he served four years on the National Board of Medical Examiner’s Step 1 Biochemistry Test Development Committee.