We are excited to bring some fantastic speakers to the 2022 Farmer's Showcase. Attendees will leave the event armed with new insights to help them make better decisions for their farm operations.
Brian started his career in the insurance business in 2000 when he joined his parents at Loman-Ray Insurance. Brian has grown the agency from a single location in Broadlands to fourteen offices today across Central Illinois. Brian's development of the Farmer's Association helps fill a great need in the farming community for affordable healthcare and other ancillary services built specifically for those in the farm industry.
Eric Snodgrass is a Science Fellow and Principal Atmospheric Scientist for Nutrien Ag Solutions, where he develops predictive, analytical software solutions to manage weather risk for global production agriculture. He provides frequent weather updates that focus on how high-impact weather events influence global agriculture productivity. His current research uses machine learning to better understand field-level weather impacts on yields in the US and to increase confidence in long-range weather prediction. He presents his research as a featured speaker at over 120 conferences annually where he provides logistical guidance and solutions to weather sensitive financial institutions, farmers, commodity traders, and other stakeholders. Snodgrass is a co-founder of Global Weather and Climate Logistic, LLC and Agrible, Inc which were both acquired by Nutrien Ag Solutions in 2018.
Steve is not your average cookie cutter run of the mill presenter, but strives to be a motivational speaker that educates and informs audiences on what is happening today to help prepare for what is next. His focus is on Agribusiness, technology, the future, risk management, interpreting global macro trends and grain marketing with crop insurance. His expertise is not limited to Agriculture but also includes global markets, insurance, lending, capital markets, energy, and finance. He has 37 years of vast experience that includes being the managing director for a multi-million dollar, Global Trading Company with operations in 62 countries, over 2000 employees and profitability in the hundreds of millions. Today, he is part of an executive team that manages a division of AIG that focuses on helping innovative Ag Producers manage risk and link up with the right partners to maximize profitability. He has lived in South America and the European Union and today resides in Central Illinois with his wife and family.
Ryan joined the family insurance agency after graduating from college in 1997. In 2013, Pekin Insurance inquired with Ryan about joining their Sales Team. Since that time, he has been a Life Specialist with Pekin Insurance. Ryan has previously worked with clients in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. His current territory is the state of Illinois. He works with farmers and business owners on complex life cases. His goal is to help each of them develop a solution for the perpetuation of their farm or business with the use of Life Insurance. Ryan’s other focus is to help provide Long Term Care Insurance for individuals. The last thing Ryan wants to see is that a family farm will have to be sold to pay for LTC needs! Ryan resides in Southern Illinois with his wife and 3 kids.
Andrew Weintraub is the VP of Sales & Retention at Health Alliance Medical Plans. Andrew has served in this role since 2019. In Andrew's role he has oversight of Sales, Retention and Product Innovation for Health Alliance, a subsidiary of Carle Health.
Prior to Health Alliance, Andrew’s experience includes executive leadership with other vertically integrated and provider related health plans, including Health First in Florida, Coventry’s HealthAmerica division in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, Family Health Plan in Ohio and Kaiser Permanente in Georgia. Andrew also served in executive roles with Aon and KePRO.
Andrew is deeply involved in the communities in which he has lived and worked, serving as board chair of the Alzheimer’s Association of the Florida Gulf Coast and Brevard Cultural Alliance. He has served as a board member for the Titusville Area Chamber of Commerce, Georgia State Chamber of Commerce, the Economic Development Council of Brevard County and the Alzheimer’s Association of Northwest Ohio. Additionally, Andrew and his wife, Diane, have been personally involved with animal emergency adoption and rescue in Illinois and past locations, as well as volunteer counseling of incarcerated youth. Andrew is a board member for the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce and member of the Champaign West Rotary.