Trish Botter, Business Development Manager, FCC

Trish works at Farm Credit Canada and is located at the Guelph office.  Her job entails her to be a sales coach to a group of 10 Relationship Managers.

Trish started at FCC 7 years ago as a Relationship Manager in the Guelph district.  She has also worked for two other Financial Institutions as well as a large poultry processing company.

Trish obtained Masters in Agriculture from University of Guelph in 1996 and she also has a Bachelor of Arts in Management Economics and a Diploma in Agriculture.

She was born, raised and presently lives in Guelph.

Jeff Sawyer, Chartered Accountant, BDO Dunwoody

Jeff is a Chartered Accountant and partner at BDO Dunwoody LLP in Strathroy.

Jeff works with his farm clients providing tax, accounting and assurance services, as well as advising on succession planning and government stabilization programs.  Jeff’s agricultural clients represent a wide range of Commodities including cash crops, livestock, horticulture and orchards.  His agricultural clients include primary producers, processors and grain trading companies.  They range in size from small sole proprietors to large corporations. 

Jeff obtained his Bachelor’s of Business Administration Degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in 1997 and obtained his Chartered Accountant designation in 1999.

Jeff lives on a farm near Alvinston, Ontario with his wife and three children, where they grow mainly IP soybeans and wheat on 400 acres of family-owned land.

Amanda Hammell, Senior Agriculture Account Manager, RBC Royal Bank

Amanda is a Senior Agriculture Account Manager with RBC Royal Bank in Hanover.  Her focus is on developing solutions to help clients achieve their business, financial and operational objectives.

She earned a Bachelor of Commerce Degree specializing in Agricultural Business with Honours at the University of Guelph.  Amanada has been very active in the agriculture community having sat on the boards of the Ontario Farm Animal Council and the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors (CAFA).

Amanda currently resides in Bruce County, just outside of Tara on an active dairy operation with her husband Steve. 

Don McGugan, Coordinator, OYFF; Investment Advisor, BMO Nesbitt Burns

Don McGugan, MBA, BBA, CFP is an Investment Advisor at BMO Nesbitt Burns in Chatham and Sarnia.  Don has over 10 years of experience in working in a variety of corporate and personal financial service roles.  Don’s previous work experience includes positions as a commodity trader at CanAmera Foods, foreign exchange trading, commercial and corporate banking at HSBC Bank Canada.

Don works principally with rural clients and famers on developing investment and wealth management strategies involving securities, insurance, pension plans, and real estate.  He has also made numerous farm succession and financial planning seminars and is a member of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors. 

Don graduated with an Honours Bachelors of Business Administration degree from Wilfrid Laurier University and graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Schulich School of Business at York University with a Masters Degree in Business Administration.  He received his Certified Financial Planning Designation in 2007.

Don lives close to his family’s farm near Alvinston and grows IP soybeans, corn and wheat on a 450 acre cash crop farm.

Betty Hansen, President, Crossroads Planning Group Inc

Betty G. Hansen CA, CFP is a family business advisor, professional accountant and financial planner with more than 25 years experience in both large and small, private and public sector organizations as well as extensive involvement with family business consulting including financial, retirement, succession and estate planning primarily within the agricultural community.

As a senior manager in a national audit and accounting firm, she provided professional practice advice, performed field audit assignments and managed a national quality assurance program. As a sole practitioner, she developed and maintained a professional practice that provided audit, accounting, tax planning, debt restructuring and pay equity consulting to individuals, family businesses and government organizations.

These services include succession, exit and strategic business planning as well as programs to formalize operations and to develop and train family members and employees. In her role as a family business facilitator, she also provided guidance for establishing and conducting effective and efficient family meetings and councils.

In addition, she has been active in a number of community and public service organizations and on the part time Business Faculty of Fanshawe College.

Joe Dickenson, Director, Ontario Federation of Agriculture; Ontario-Quebec Representative, Canadian Young Farmers Forum

Joe Dickenson comes from a dairy, beef and cash crop farm in Sarnia Ontario. He started his own beef herd when he bought his 4-H calf in 1993 and it has since grown to a herd of 50 Simmental and Simmental cross cows.  Joe’s farm, Dickenson Farms has grown steadily since his graduation in 2003 when he bought out the beef herd from his parents and assumed responsibility. The farm also includes a seed dealership, a custom haying business, 100 acres of organic cash crop, 125 acres of pasture and 100 acres of transitional crop land.  Joe is still active working on the family dairy farm and is doing experimental trials on Milking Simmentals using European genetics.

Joe graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the University of Guelph (2003) with one year at the University of Alberta on exchange.

Joe has an extensive involvement with agriculture serving as Provincial President of JFAO in 2006 and also being elected as a director to the Ontario Federation of Agriculture in 2008   

Joe lives outside of Oil Springs, Ontario.

Maurizio Agostino, Head of Farms.com Risk Management Division

Moe has over 7 years of experience in commodity trading and marketing and is the head of the Farms.com Risk Management division within Farms.com and is the Managing Commodity Strategist. His primary areas of expertise include the feed, grain and livestock industries.

Moe has made numerous presentations to groups across the USA and Canada and is a sought-after speaker who possesses considerable experience when it comes to explaining and sharing his knowledge of marketing price risk and hedging strategies. Moe is qualified as a Canadian Commodity Broker, is a Fellow of the Canadian Securities Institute (FCSI) one of highest designation that the Institute confers; he also holds a Derivatives Market Specialist (DMS) designation as well as an Honors Degree in Business Administration.

Petra Cooper – Founder and CEO, Fifth Town Artisan Cheese

Petra Cooper is relishing her second career. The former publishing executive is already an award-winning cheese producer as founder and CEO of Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company and Fifth Town Productions, both branches of a company she incorporated in 2002. She says she moved to Prince Edward County with her husband and young daughter for a country lifestyle and the abundant business opportunities. The company has won international recognition for not only its cheese products but its remarkable building. Fifth Town opened the doors to its very own LEED certified factory in the spring of 2008. It is the first certified platinum LEED manufacturing facility in Canada and the first dairy in North America with the certification.

Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company is combining tradition with innovation - the fine craft of artisan cheese-making, in a modern, green environment. The dairy is the largest cheese manufacturing facility in Eastern Ontario to process goat and sheep milk. It’s also Canada’s only certified Platinum LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) dairy.

This state-of-the-art facility’s solar, wind and geothermal technologies have helped reduce its energy consumption by 60 per cent. The dairy’s sustainability theme is carried throughout the entire enterprise, from environmentally-friendly waste processing to green cleaning agents and biodegradable packaging. Their chevre (goat cheese) packaging, for instance, is a corn-based container that is 100 per cent biodegradable. The dairy has also created subterranean caves crafted out of poured cement to age its cheese. The walls are left unfinished and natural, providing a steady, cool environment with little energy required.

Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company has received multiple industry ‘green building’ awards for using environmentally friendly materials, such as sustainable wood and an innovative, green concrete mix. The dairy has also garnered top wards for its products, and promotes cheese education by offering regular cheese tasting seminars, courses and summer internships.

Fifth Town Artisan Cheese Company was the Winner of the Premier's Award Winner for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence in 2008.

Jennifer VanDeVelde, Owner, Wholesome Pickins 

Jennifer, along with her husband Dave, are the owners of Wholesome Pickins located close to Delhi. The farm market is moving into its third growing season

The farm has thrived growing tobacco through the years and as David looked to continue in the family business he chose to use his education in horticulture to take the farm in a different direction.  He and his wife began growing strawberries in 2005 and have quickly added many other fruits and vegetables to their fields.

With the help of the rich, sandy Norfolk soil, we have been able to grow a wide-variety of other fruits and vegetables.  This season the stand will carry raspberries, tomatoes, green and red peppers, green and yellow beans, pickling cucumbers, watermelon, and pumpkins all from our fields.

David and Jennifer VanDeVelde’s idea for converting their tobacco farm is bearing fruit and incomes well beyond their expectations.  By planting ever-bearing strawberries and raspberries, and retrofitting the equipment they already had, these innovative growers built a business that has three part-time student employees and several part-time and full-time labourers.

Winner of an Regional Award Winners for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence in 2008.

Ron Van Bakel, Owner,

Ron Van Bakel designed, built and marketed a successful heat exchanger for barns. His innovative design has overcome conventional challenges of heat-exchangers and is being successfully demonstrated on a number of barns in the province. The low maintenance system has definite benefits for use in the swine sector. It helps to lower supplemental heating costs and ensures that minimum ventilation rates in barns are maintained.

Winner of an Regional Award Winners for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence in 2007.