|
Meet Your Workshop Instructor
Learn from agriculture and business management experts with AgriSuccess. Your workshop instructors share their real-world experience in farm management. As trained presenters and topic specialists, they present the information you need in a way that’s easy to understand. And they’ll help you develop your own action plan.
Learn more about your instructor.
Manon Adam
Manon works for the notary office of Joyal, Adam & Landry in Drummondville, where she has been practicing for over 26 years. Her speciality is, without a doubt, agriculture.
Manon is well aware of the needs of producers and the importance of supporting them to ensure the survival and sustainability of their business. As a speaker, professor, lecturer and contractual draftsman, Manon has become well-known in agricultural circles, and considers it a privilege to partnering with producers.
Victor Aideyan, MBA
 Victor has over 12 years of experience in commodity trading and marketing. He received a master’s degree in business administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario. A derivative specialist, Victor leads in risk management at Farms.com, serving as senior consultant.
Since 2000, Victor has managed commodity marketing projects for Farms.com’s trading arm. He works with clients across North America in swine and grain marketing, specializing in marketing and price risk for pork, corn and soybean producers.
Victor is also a Visual Basic Programmer, an avid chess player and novice fisherman.
Leonard L. Davies, CFP CLU EPC CAFA CIP
 Len has been a cash crop farmer since 1980 and has more than 20 years of experience delivering training to the agriculture and financial industries. As a Certified Financial Planner, Len brings knowledge and experience on issues including government programs, the commodity loan program, taxation, risk management and estate planning, financial planning for retirement, investment products and wealth accumulation.
Len is a founding member of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisers (CAFA) and is a Chartered Life Underwriter who specializes in estate and succession planning for retiring business owners.
Pierrette Desrosiers, M.Ps., CHRP
 Pierrette is an industrial psychologist and a certified trainer with Emploi Québec. Together with the Beauce section of the Union des Producteurs Agricoles and Emploi Québec, she co-founded the first coaching club in Quebec dealing with agricultural human resource management issues.
She has facilitated at sessions throughout Quebec, Ontario and New Brunswick on topics including stress, happiness, emotional intelligence, communication, conflict resolution and human resource management.
Mario Dumas
Mario is a farm tax specialist with expertise in farm transfers and accounting. Since 1993, he's been serving a mostly agricultural clientele from his base in Ormstown, Que.
Mario is a graduate of McGill University and a member of l'Ordre des comptables agréés du Québec.
John Fast, BA, M.Div., PhD
 Dr. John Fast is a leading authority on family business. He’s the founder of the Centre For Family Business, affiliated with University of Waterloo, where he co-authored the Succession Edge curriculum for professionals serving family businesses. His experience as a business owner, and his training in business ethics and education have made him an effective counsellor to families and businesses throughout Europe, the U.S. and Canada.
Dr. Fast co-authored “Working Together: Building Confidence in Family Farm Succession,” published by the Canadian Farm Business Management Council.
Elaine Froese
 Elaine Froese is a Certified Hudson Institute Coach and professional speaker. She is a home economist, and has certification in conflict resolution from Mediation Services. Elaine works as a farm family business coach, and is a member of the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors. In her practical approach, gleaned from life on the farm, she passionately encourages people to live intentional lives.
Elaine's column, “Seeds of Encouragement,” appears regularly in Grainews. Her new book is “Planting the Seed of Hope.” She and her husband operate a seed farm near Boissevain, Manitoba.
Sylvain Gaudreault (CRIA)
Sylvain was born and raised in rural Canada and spent his summers working on a farm. A graduate of Laval University's Industrial Relations program and a human resources management consultant, Sylvain works almost exclusively with small and medium-sized businesses. His expertise includes motivation, conflict management, harmonious management of interpersonal relationships and production of employee handbooks. Sylvain also works in the areas of recruitment and performance evaluation.
Martin Gooch, BA, M.AgriBus
 Martin Gooch is Research Associate - Value Chains at the George Morris Centre, a national agri-products think tank. Martin’s career spans the agri-food sectors of Britain, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. He has assisted a diverse range of agri-food companies in developing value chains and marketing initiatives, some of which have won national and international awards of excellence.
Martin possesses qualifications in farm management; an undergraduate degree in International Business; and a Masters degree from the University of Queensland. Martin’s Masters thesis analyzed the critical success factors of forming and managing value chain alliances within the perishable food industry, an area that he is continuing to research through his recently commenced PhD.
Prior to joining the George Morris Centre, Martin was responsible for developing and leading Ontario's Value Chain Initiative, which was supported through funding provided by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC).
Jenny Hughes
 Jenny focuses her law practice on estate administration and estate planning, including will planning, trusts, powers of attorney, corporate succession planning and capacity issues under the Substitute Decisions Act.
She is a member of the Canadian Bar Association and earned an honours degree in environmental studies (geography) from the University of Waterloo.
Julia Christensen Hughes, M.B.A., Ph.D.
 Julia facilitates workshops and management retreats for agribusiness and the hospitality industry. An Associate Professor in the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Faculty of Management at the University of Guelph, she has an MBA and PhD in organizational behaviour from York University’s Schulich School of Business.
Julia focuses on strategic human resource management, leadership, empowerment, recruitment, selection and organizational culture.
Larry J. Martin, M.Sc., Ph.D.
 As CEO of the George Morris Centre, Larry relies on his experience in agri-food marketing and policy, farm and agribusiness management and international agri-food trade. He has provided industry and government decision-makers with critical insight on issues affecting the Canadian agri-food sector.
Larry is an expert on competitiveness and has facilitated strategic visioning and planning for many organizations. He was named Fellow of the Canadian Agricultural Economics Society in 2003.
Allen McWilliam, C.A.
 Allen is a chartered accountant and partner with Meyers Norris Penny, specializing in family farm accounting, taxation and intergenerational transfer issues. Besides his accounting practice, Allen and his wife are active partners in Tannadice Farms Ltd., a commercial pork, beef and chicken operation that caters to local markets.
As a member of the George Morris Centre, the Canadian Association of Farm Advisors, as well as provincial and national Institutes of Chartered Accountants, Allen is a knowledgeable practitioner on farm taxation and estate planning.
Al Mussell, M.Sc., Ph.D.
 Al is a Senior Research Associate at the George Morris Centre and a Fulbright Scholar. His agri-food expertise covers farm and agribusiness management and agriculture marketing. He has extensive experience in livestock, value chain marketing, pricing mechanisms and agriculture policy.
Using knowledge gained through his PhD in agricultural and applied economics, and his project management experience, Al assisted in reviewing BSE recovery programs and crop insurance systems.
Michelle Painchaud
 Michelle is a performance consultant who specializes in training and leadership development. She grew up on a Manitoba farm, and now works with corporate executives to build individual and staff performance.
Michelle has consulted in curriculum development and has recently developed and launched a training centre in Tunis, North Africa. She speaks at seminars and workshops across North America. She is a director with Junior Achievement and the Canadian Cancer Society.
Reg Shandro, P.Ag
 Reg is the manager of agricultural and business advisory services for Meyers Norris Penny. Born and raised on a mixed farm/purebred cattle operation in northeast Alberta, Reg specializes in farm business and succession planning, and financial statement analysis.
In addition to his degree in agriculture and professional agrologist designation, Reg is a member of provincial and national agrologist associations. He also has several years of agriculture lending and management experience throughout Alberta.
Lance D. Stockbrugger, C.A.
 Lance is a Chartered Accountant and Senior Manager in Tax with PricewaterhouseCoopers. In addition to his expertise in tax and estate planning for high-net-worth agribusiness operators, Lance has experience in intergenerational transfers of business, Government Support Payment applications and tax reorganizations using partnerships, corporations and trusts.
He is the majority partner and operator of LD Stockbrugger Farms, a 2,000-acre cereal, pulse and oilseed farming operation at Leroy, Saskatchewan.
Doug Stroh, C.A.
 Doug Stroh is a chartered accountant and partner with Meyers Norris Penny. During his 21 years of experience working with small and medium-sized agriculture-based businesses, Doug has worked with primary producers and agribusiness operators.
Over the past nine years, Doug has worked closely with the Hutterian Brethren community and producers in southern Manitoba and southern Alberta. In addition to his experience in cost of production analysis, Doug is a consultant for the federal government under the Ag Policy Framework program.
Doug is the regional ag co-ordinator for MNP and has been a presenter for the FCC AgriSuccess program since its inception.
|
