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Chuck Conner became president and CEO of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives on Jan. 22, 2009. As president of NCFC, Conner oversaw the organization’s work to promote and protect the business and public policy interests of America’s farmer-owned cooperatives. Conner retired from NCFC on July 14, 2025, after more than 16 years leading the organization

Prior to joining NCFC, Conner had served as the deputy secretary at the U.S. Department of Agriculture since mid-2005. In this capacity, he was the chief operating officer overseeing day-to-day operations of the department. Conner interacted directly with President George W. Bush and his senior staff to formulate domestic and international food, trade, security and energy policy.

From August 2007 to January 2008, Conner served as both USDA secretary and deputy secretary. He played a key role in developing the administration’s immigration policy, including important changes to the H2A program.

Conner’s experience also includes the assignment of special assistant to the president in the executive office of the president from October 2001 to May 2005, working on the 2001-02 Farm Bill to develop the strategy behind the transfer of several USDA agency functions to the newly formed Department of Homeland Security.

From May 1997 to October 2001, Conner served as president of the Corn Refiners Association. He also served for 17 years as an adviser to Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana.

Conner is a graduate of Purdue University with a Bachelor of Science degree and is the recipient of Purdue’s Distinguished Alumni Award. He and his wife, Dru, have four grown children and seven grandchildren.

Matthew (Matt) Diersen is the Griffith Chair in Agricultural Finance in the Ness School of Management and Economics at Ģ����ý. He teaches courses on commodity trading and agricultural finance.

His scholarly work is focused on pricing mechanisms and financial risks across extreme timespans. His SDSU Extension programming focuses on the interaction of commodity marketing and insurance tools and on changes in the agricultural economy. He actively shares commodity market and agricultural sector analysis with producers, lenders and the agribusiness community in the Northern Plains. He enjoys applying portfolio theory and economics principles to everyday life.

Diersen earned a B.A. in economics at the University of Minnesota – Morris, an M.S. in agricultural economics at North Dakota State University and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics at the University of Illinois.

Originally from Minnesota, he lives in Brookings with his family.

Rick Dusek is executive vice president at CHS Inc. He leads ag retail, distribution and transportation for CHS, the nation’s leading farmer-owned cooperative and a global agronomy, energy, grains and food company. Having spent his entire 34-plus year career with CHS, Dusek has held several leadership roles with the company. He was promoted to join the company’s strategic leadership team and to lead retail operations in 2017, and his role recently expanded to encompass retail and wholesale distribution and transportation.

As executive vice president, Dusek has led the company’s retail and wholesale distribution assets and operations and developed an enterprise transportation center of excellence to advance critical distribution capabilities for the company’s integrated enterprise supply chain for energy, agronomy, animal nutrition and grain product lines.

Dusek and his team are helping create and drive efficiency to deliver excellence and enable profitable growth on behalf of owners and customers. In his previous role as vice president of CHS agronomy, Dusek was instrumental in transforming the company’s wholesale crop nutrients business, including investment in domestic nitrogen production and led his team in implementing a market research function to advance supply, trading and risk management strategies. Dusek has also served as vice president of grain marketing where he led all aspects of North American grain and strategically expanded the platform.

Originally from North Dakota, Dusek joined CHS in 1988 and spent his early days with the cooperative merchandising grain. Dusek is a past board member of the Minneapolis Grain Exchange and The Fertilizer Institute. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in agricultural economics from North Dakota State University and is a graduate of the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program.

Tom Halverson is the chief executive officer of CoBank. Halverson is responsible for implementing the bank’s strategic and business direction as set by the board of directors. Previously, he served as CoBank’s chief banking officer where he was responsible for the bank’s Agribusiness and Rural Infrastructure Banking Groups as well as the Banking Services Group and corporate communications. Halverson is the chair of CoBank’s Management Executive Committee.

Prior to joining CoBank in 2013, Halverson spent more than 15 years with Goldman Sachs, where he was most recently managing director and chief of staff for Goldman Sachs Bank USA, a $120 billion commercial bank subsidiary of the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Prior to that he served in a variety of executive positions at the firm, including head of credit risk management for Goldman Sachs in Asia (ex-Japan) and executive director of credit risk management and advisory in London. Before joining Goldman Sachs, Halverson served as principal credit officer for country risk at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development in London.

Eric Lynch is an economist in the Survey Ģ����ý group at the National Association of Home Builders, where he is responsible for conducting and assisting with surveys, including NAHB’s sentiment indicators for multifamily and remodeling, and other related housing topics. In addition, he provides data and information on housing topics related issues to NAHB members, staff, financial institutions and other stakeholders. Prior to joining NAHB in 2022, he worked as a senior associate in the research and knowledge department at the American Society of Interior Designers, gaining industry knowledge on the built environment and residential market. He has a B.A. in political science/economics, and a B.A. in Spanish from Towson University and an M.S. in applied economics from the University of Maryland.

Lynch is also a certified business economist, the certification in business economics and data analytics developed by the National Association for Business Economics. The CBE documents a professional's accomplishment, experience, abilities and demonstrates mastery of the body of knowledge critical for a successful career in the field of economics and data analytics. CBE and Certified Business Economist are certification marks owned by the National Association for Business Economics.

Jake Mortenson is a native of Fort Pierre and a tax economist with 15 years of experience in federal tax policy. His research, published widely in academic economics journals, focuses on how individuals and businesses respond to income tax changes and has examined many of the tax provisions that shape real estate investment decisions. He earned his Ph.D. and master's in economics from Georgetown University and his bachelor's in economics and political science from the University of South Dakota. Mortenson is an economist on the staff of the Joint Committee on Taxation, the U.S. Congress's nonpartisan in-house tax policy office, and is participating in the conference in his personal capacity.

Hunter Roberts currently serves South Dakota as the cabinet secretary of the Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The department's mission is to protect and preserve agriculture, environment and natural resources through effective regulatory services, natural resource conservation and financial and technical assistance.

Hunter is an active member of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture and the Environmental Council of States. NASDA represents all the state departments of agriculture whereas ECOS represents all the state environmental agencies and industry resources to help U.S suppliers increase product sales overseas. He also serves on the boards of Food Export-Midwest and SDARL.

He began his career in public service with the Governor’s Office of Economics Development in 2007 focused on energy policy and development, then later transitioned to serve as a policy adviser to Gov. Dennis Daugaard. Through service communication collaboration and hard work Hunter strives to lead by example and truly believes in the power of a “can-do” attitude.

Hunter holds a master’s degree in business administration and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of South Dakota. A South Dakota native, Hunter resides in Pierre with his two children. He is a fifth generation South Dakota farmer and rancher who owns and operates a diversified grain and cow-calf farm and ranch southeast of Fort Pierre with his family.

Natasha Sarin is a professor of law at Yale Law School with a secondary appointment at the Yale School of Management in the finance department. She is also the president and co-founder of the Budget Lab at Yale.

Previously, Sarin served as deputy assistant secretary for economic policy and later as counselor to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen at the U.S. Treasury Department. Her work focused on narrowing the gap between the taxes owed by the American public and those collected by the Internal Revenue Service.

Prior to her government service, Sarin was a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School and the Wharton School. Her research centers on public finance and financial regulation, with work on tax policy, household finance, insurance and macroprudential risk management. Her scholarship has been covered in The New York Times, The Washington Post and the Financial Times, among other publications.

Sarin received a Bachelor of Arts from Yale University in 2011 and was awarded a J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2014 and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard University in 2019.

Sarin is a New York Times contributing columnist. She is a frequent guest on CNBC's "Squawk Box," CNN and MS Now.

Co-Anchor, Squawk Box, CNBC; Founder, DealBook, The New York Times; Author, 1929 and Too Big to Fail

Andrew Ross Sorkin is an award-winning journalist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of Squawk Box, CNBC’s signature morning program. He is also the founder and editor-at-large of DealBook, an online daily financial report published by The New York Times that he started in 2001.

Sorkin is the author of 1929: The Inside Story of the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History — and How It Shattered a Nation, which The Wall Street Journal calls "one of the best narrative histories [we've] read." It was named a Best Book of 2025 by TIME, The Economist, the Financial Times and Bloomberg.

Sorkin's first book, Too Big to Fail: How Wall Street and Washington Fought to Save the Financial System — and Themselves, won the 2010 Gerald Loeb Award for Best Business Book and was shortlisted for the 2010 Samuel Johnson Prize and the 2010 Financial Times Business Book of the Year Award. It spent more than six months on The New York Times bestseller list in hardcover and paperback and was adapted as a movie for HBO Films.

Paul TenHaken became the 32nd mayor of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, in May 2018. His leadership focuses on innovation, public entrepreneurship, strong workplace culture and fiscal responsibility. He introduced the One Sioux Falls framework, guiding strategic investments in public safety, health, housing, workforce development, and support for children and families.

During his tenure, Sioux Falls has strengthened its urban appeal through projects like the State Theatre renovation, expanded arts funding and early adoption of 5G technology. He has advanced major public-private partnerships for parks and development while maintaining the city’s lowest debt per capita in more than a decade.

Public safety has been a key priority, with increased police staffing, enhanced training and new resources leading to record drug seizures and the creation of a triage center for mental health and addiction crises. He also secured funding for a Public Safety Campus and modern dispatch center. Improvements to public transit, including micro-transit options, have expanded access and increased ridership.

TenHaken has championed youth engagement and wellness through initiatives like Sioux 52, the Mayor’s Youth Council, and the 100 Workouts challenge. Reelected in 2022, he continues to guide Sioux Falls through significant growth, which was named one of America’s Best Run Cities in 2025.

He lives in Sioux Falls with his wife, Jill, and three children.

Sean C. Turgeon is a partner at Rogers Appraisal Service Inc., an independently owned real estate appraisal and advisory firm specializing in commercial real estate throughout the Sioux Falls metropolitan area and surrounding region.

Since 1998, Rogers Appraisal Service Inc. has provided trusted appraisal insights to financial institutions, law firms, family offices and individuals relating to mortgage origination, estate planning, acquisition/divestiture, divorce settlements and foreclosures.

As a state certified general real estate appraiser, the highest level of appraisal certification, Turgeon’s practice areas include, but are not limited to: development land, commercial land, general and medical office, general retail, retail center/malls, restaurants, light/heavy/flex industrial, mini-storage warehousing, automotive and implement dealerships, car wash facilities, convenience stores, grocery stores, laundromats, hotel/motels, event centers, multifamily apartments, affordable housing, manufactured housing communities and more.

A Sioux Falls native, Turgeon holds a Bachelor of Business Administration in economics and Master of Business Administration from the University of South Dakota.

David Widmar is an agricultural economist specializing in trends and conditions across the farm economy. He is the managing partner of Ag Economic Insights, which he co-founded with Brent Gloy in 2014. AEI is a trusted source of insight for thousands of ag professionals who subscribe to the free weekly newsletter, AEI Premium, or various data offerings.

Before founding AEI, Widmar was a researcher at Purdue University. He holds degrees from Kansas State University and Purdue University.