The Farm Bureau of Ventura County Board of Directors list, Director biographies, CEO biography and list of past Presidents.

Board of Directors 2012-2013

President	1st Vice President
Josh Pinkerton	Fred Van Wingerden
P.O. Box 4099	3813 W. Doris Ave.
Ventura, CA 93001	Oxnard, CA 93030
647-2121	382-8070

2nd Vice President	Treasurer
Scott Klittich	Ed McFadden
1835 E. Guiberson Road	P.O. Box 517
Fillmore, CA 93015	Fillmore, CA 93016-0517
524-2123	524-0107

Secretary	Director
Jan Berk	Scott Deardorff
11183 Foothill Road	P.O. Box 1188
Santa Paula, CA 93060	Oxnard, CA 93032
488-0981, ext. 131	487-7801 ext. 112

Director	Director
Chris Sayer	David Borchard
19867 E. Telegraph Road	1400 La Loma Ave.
Santa Paula, CA 93060	Somis, CA 93066
320-2157	444-3283

Director	Director
Gus Gunderson	David Schwabauer
1141 Cummings R d.	12598 Broadway
Santa Paula, CA 93060	Moorpark, CA 93021
525-5541 ext. 259	529-1608

Director	Director
Phil McGrath	Danny Pereira
1012 West Ventura Blvd.	1051 S. Pacific Ave.
Camarillo, CA 93010	Oxnard, CA 93030
485-4210	240-1979

Director	Chief Executive Officer
Katie Brokaw	John Krist
117 N. 10th St	5156 McGrath St., Ste. 102
Santa Paula, CA 93060	Ventura, CA 93003
525-7251	289-0155

Farm Bureau Director Biographies

Jan Berk
Jan Berk is vice president at San Miguel Produce. She joined the company in 2002, and initially focused her efforts on re-branding Cut ‘n Clean Greens and directing its sales growth as the No. 1 brand for cooking greens in North America. In 2008, she developed a new product line of Asian value-added greens under the label Jade. Jan continues to develop sales and marketing strategies to increase sales, improve customer loyalty and develop important consumer data. Jan became a partner at San Miguel with its founder, Roy Nishimori, in 2006. She serves on a number of organization boards, including those of the 31st District Agricultural Association/Ventura County Fair, Ventura County Fair Foundation, California Leafy Greens Marketing Agreement, and the United Fresh Produce Association.

David Borchard
David has been a Farm Bureau board member since 2000, and serves as the agricultural representative on the board of the Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency. He is a graduate of California Farm Bureau Federation’s leadership training program, and serves on the Ventura Pacific Association Board of Directors. Raised in Oxnard and Somis, he is a member of a six-generation Ventura County farming family, producing lemons and avocados. He’s a 1986 graduate of Loyola Marymount University with a degree in communication arts and is a past president of the Mesa Education Foundation, a non-profit group that raises funds to support the arts, music, technology and science at Mesa Union School. He lives in Somis with his wife and two children.

Katie Brokaw
Katie Brokaw works in the Agricultural Industries Department of Wells Fargo Bank in Santa Paula, evaluating the business risk profile of borrowers involved in tomato and fruit processing, citrus and nut handling, nursery operations, and produce and meat distribution. Before joining Wells Fargo in October 1994, she worked in the economic forecasting and marketing department of Cryovac, a major food packaging company. Previously, she was an agricultural policy analyst for Economic Perspectives Inc., a consulting firm in Washington, D.C.. She has a master’s degree in agricultural economics from UC Davis and a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from Cornell University. She is a graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Program (Class 27) and is a member of the Ventura County Ag Futures Alliance.

Scott Deardorff
Scott was first elected to the Board of Directors in 1997. He is the organization’s immediate past president, having previously served as first vice president, second vice president, treasurer and secretary. He is a member of the management team for Deardorff Family Farms, which grows and packs tomatoes, celery and other vegetables.

Gus Gunderson
Gus has been a member of the Farm Bureau Board of Directors since 2002. He is a graduate of Santa Paula High School, Ventura College and California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo, where he received a bachelor of science degree in agronomy. He’s been director of Southern Operations for Limoneira Co. for 18 years. He is a member of the Ag Futures Alliance, the steering committee of the Ventura County Agricultural Irrigated Lands Group, and the boards of San Cayetano Water Co. and Associates Insectary. He lives in Ventura with wife Helen and sons Neil and Quinn.

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Scott Klittich
Scott Klittich and his wife, Cindy, are the owners of Otto & Sons Nursery in Fillmore, where they specialize in growing container roses and fruit trees for retail garden centers throughout Southern California. Scott received his bachelor's degree in ornamental horticulture from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. He has worked at Otto & Sons for more than 25 years and is currently general manager. He serves on the State Board of Directors for the California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers, and has been on the local board for many years. Scott is the Scoutmaster of Boy Scout Troop 406 in Fillmore. He is active in Bardsdale 4-H as a project leader for farm machinery and beef, and he led the swine project for eight years. Scott has been on the Ag Advisory Committee for the Fillmore High School farm for 20 years. He and his wife have three children.

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Ed McFadden
Ed was first elected to the Board of Directors in 1999 and is the organization's treasurer. He grows citrus and avocados for Rancho Simpatica, a company he manages, and McFadden Ranch, a family-owned farm. He was raised on a family orange and avocado grove in Orange County and moved his family to Ventura County in 1992. Ed and his wife Viki have two children; a daughter who graduated from Pomona College in 2006, and a son who graduated from Stanford in 2011. Both Viki and Ed are graduates of Pomona College. Ed is a member of Class 25 of the California Agricultural Leadership program, serves on several local boards, and is chairman of the California Avocado Commission.

Phil McGrath
Phil McGrath is a fourth-generation family farmer in Oxnard, growing mainly row crops and some lemons. His McGrath Family Farms delivers its products directly to restaurants, operates a Community Supported Agriculture program and a roadside market, and sells its fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops at seven farmers markets each week throughout the region. Phil has served on the boards of many agricultural, marketing andcommunity organizations, including the California Farmers Market Advisory Board, the Ag Futures Alliance, the Sustainable Ag Working Group and the Southland Farmers Market Association board.

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Danny Pereira
Danny Pereira is general manager of Rio Farms, where he has worked since 1988. He is a 1988 graduate of California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo, with a bachelor's degree in crop science and a minor in plant protection. He has been a member of the Celery Research Advisory Board since 1992, and is currently serving as board vice chairman and chairman of the Research Committee. He is an alternate member of the California Pepper Commission, and served on the Board of Directors of the Ventura County Agricultural Association from 2001 to 2004, serving as chairman for 2003-2004. He is a member of the Ventura County Spray Safe Committee.

Jonathan “Josh” Pinkerton
Josh joined the board in 1999 and is currently the organization’s president, having previously served as first vice president, second vice president and secretary. He’s a member of a multi-generation Ventura County farming family, and grows lemons and avocados. He grew up in Ventura and Idaho, and is a graduate of the University of San Diego with a bachelor’s degree in international relations. He was a member of Leadership Farm Bureau Class #1 and California Agricultural Leadership Program Class 32. He lives in Ventura with his wife and two daughters.

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Chris Sayer
Chris joined the Farm Bureau Board of Directors in 2008. He was raised on a family farm in Saticoy. He served as an officer in the Navy, and qualified as an aircraft commander in P3C patrol aircraft. He subsequently worked in Silicon Valley for several years, before returning to Ventura County and purchasing a 23-acre avocado ranch east of Santa Paula. Chris also is engaged in lemon and avocado operations at the family’s Saticoy home ranch, and is a partner in Petty Realty, specializing in agricultural properties. He serves on the boards of Associates Insectary and the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce. He and his wife, Melissa, live in Santa Paula with their two sons.

C. David Schwabauer
David was elected to the Farm Bureau board in 1987 and has served as the organization’s treasurer, secretary, second vice president and first vice president. He served as president in 2003-2005, and was a district director from 2004 to 2012, representing Region 4 (Ventura and Santa Barbara counties) on the California Farm Bureau Federation Board of Directors. He is the Farm Bureau representative on the board of directors of the Association of Water Agencies. David is a managing partner of Leavens Ranches, overseeing lemon and avocado operations in the Moorpark area.

Fred Van Wingerden
A native of the Netherlands who immigrated to Carpinteria with his family in 1967, Fred came to Ventura County in 1979 to grow flowers after graduating from California Polytechnic State University at San Luis Obispo. He is the president and chief executive officer of Pyramid Flowers, which grows greenhouse and field flowers for the wholesale trade as well as selling bouquets in the mass market. He began his current tenure on the Farm Bureau Board of Directors in 2002, his previous term on the board having ended in 1996, and currently serves as the organization’s first vice president. He and his wife, Edith, have been married since 1982 and have two children, Marcos and Silvia.

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CEO’s Biography

John Krist
John Krist was hired in February 2008 to serve as the chief executive officer of the Farm Bureau of Ventura County, the region’s oldest and largest agricultural association. As CEO, he is responsible for managing the nonprofit organization’s staff, daily operations and finances. He recommends policy to the organization’s Board of Directors, implements board directives, and represents the interests of the membership at legislative and regulatory hearings. He also serves as the organization’s liaison with the news media, as well as with numerous community organizations and groups. Before joining the Farm Bureau, Mr. Krist worked for 24 years as a reporter, editor and Opinion-page columnist at the Ventura County Star. During that time, his commentaries on land-use policy, natural resources and environmental issues were distributed by Scripps Howard News Service and published in newspapers throughout the United States. His work has also appeared in California Planning & Development Report, a statewide newsletter for land-use and public-policy experts, and Planning, the magazine of the American Planning Association. The winner of numerous writing awards and journalism fellowships, he is the author of three books about California’s parks and wilderness areas, as well as Voyage of Rediscovery, based on his experiences retracing the Lewis and Clark trail. He also has contributed to books on urban renewal and wildfire policy. His newest book is “Living Legacy: The Story of Ventura County Agriculture.”

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Past Presidents
1914-15 T. A. Rice
1916 E. S. Thacher
1917 Walter Sexton
1918 H. H. Neel
1919 C. E. Hawley

1920’s
1920-21 E. W. Gerry
1922 E. G. Laubacher
1923 D. Felsenthal
1924 J. P. Thille
1925 C. E. Kelsey
1926-27 G. E. Harlan
1928-29 J. N. Thille

1930’s
1930-31 C. A. Pope
1932-34 E. C. Kimball
1935-36 W. P. Daily
1937 P. M. Hendrickson
1938-39 B. D. Laubacher

1940’s
1940-41 R. W. Wright
1942-44 Robert Beardsley
1945-46 B. L. Hawley
1947-48 Ernest R. Nichols
1948-49 Robert Maulhardt

1950’s
1950 Robert Maulhardt
1951-52 F. R. Jewett
1953-54 Stewart Abercrombie
1955-56 Robert Hardison
1957-58 Frank McGrath
1958-59 Robert Pinkerton

1960’s
1960 Robert Pinkerton
1961-62 Kenneth Glenn
1963-64 Leonard Warren
1965-66 Robert Dudley
1967-68 Robert Miller
1968-69 Lawrence Everett

1970’s
1970 Lawrence Everett
1971-72 Paul Leavens
1973-74 Al Cavaletto
1975-76 Charles Schwabauer
1977-78 Donald E. Armstrong
1978-79 Joe Terry

1980’s
1979-81 Sam McIntyre
1981-83 Tom McGrath
1983-85 Darrell Nelson
1985-87 Link Leavens
1987-89 Randy Axell

1990’s
1989-91 Don Reeder
1991-93 Chris Taylor
1993-95 Tom Pecht
1995-97 Mike Mobley
1997-99 Richard Pidduck

2000’s
1999-01 Bob Pinkerton
2001-03 Edgar Terry
2003-05 David Schwabauer
2005-07 Henry Vega
2007-09 Scott Deardorff
2009-11 Leslie Leavens-Crowe

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