The University of Minnesota Crookston is set to host its next Bergland Lecture Series event with guest speaker Jay Debertin, president and CEO of CHS, the nation’s leading farmer-owned cooperative. Debertin will speak about opportunities and challenges ahead for the ag landscape. The event will take place March 26 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. in Bede Ballroom on campus. Those who are interested in attending may RSVP with Chris Winjum by email cwinjum@crk.umn.edu or call 218-281-8343.
With over 30 years of leadership at CHS, Debertin drives the company’s strategies and strengthens its supply chain to support farmers and cooperatives nationwide. He previously held the positions of executive vice president and chief operating officer for CHS energy and processing and food ingredients. Debertin is a native of East Grand Forks, Minn., and holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Dakota as well as an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He also serves on several corporate and industry boards including Ventura Foods, LLC, a joint venture of which CHS is part owner; the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis, and Securian Financial.
The inaugural lecture series event, in tribute to former United States Secretary of Agriculture and Minnesota House of Representatives member Robert ‘Bob’ Bergland, was held in December 2024.
About the Bergland Lecture Series
The Bergland Lecture Series has been created to ensure ongoing interaction with all members of the agriculture ecosystem. It is a future-oriented presentation designed to spark thinking and an ideation session encouraging co-creation of new ideas to advance agriculture and rural communities.
About Bob Bergland
Bob Bergland studied agriculture at the University of Minnesota and later, as a farmer, served as a member of the House of Representatives for Minnesota’s seventh congressional district from 1971 to 1977. He served as the United States Secretary of Agriculture from 1977 to 1981, and, after retiring, Bergland was elected by the Minnesota State Legislature to a term on the University of Minnesota Board of Regents. U of M Crookston’s laboratory building is named after Bergland, and was a collaborative effort among U of M Crookston, the Northwest Research and Outreach Center (NWROC), and the Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI).
