2025 Virtual Midwest Ag Conference

Lynn Paulson, Senior Vice President, Agribusiness Development, Bell Bank

Lynn Paulson will be the first person to tell you that he couldn’t have picked a more difficult time to enter banking.

In the early 1980s, after graduating from North Dakota State University and working for several years on his family’s small grain, cattle and dairy farm, Lynn joined the Farm Credit System as an ag loan officer. In the middle of the biggest credit crisis since the Great Depression, he quickly learned about risk and how to work through difficult situations with financially stressed farmers and ranchers, some of whom would not make it through the crisis.

“It was a tough time in the ag banking world,” Lynn said. “It was sink or swim.”

Those challenging years set the stage for more than four decades to come in the banking industry. Now SVP/director of agribusiness development at Bell Bank, Lynn has cultivated a unique perspective on agriculture and banking that helps him support Bell’s ag customers and correspondent banking partners.

Mark K. Scanlan, Senior Vice President, Agriculture Rural Policy, ICBA

Mark leads the association’s advocacy with members of Congress and federal regulators for all issues related to agriculture and rural America.

Scanlan has more than 30 years of agricultural policy experience and also serves as the secretary for ICBA’s Agriculture-Rural America Committee, which includes agricultural bankers from virtually every geographic region in the United States.

Prior to joining ICBA in 1994, Scanlan worked for the Department of Agriculture in the Office of Congressional Relations under Secretaries Yeutter and Madigan. For eight years prior, he handled agricultural issues on Capitol Hill for Sen. Bob Dole (Kan.), the former majority leader of the U.S. Senate. Scanlan also worked for the Drovers Journal, a national livestock publication.

Scanlan’s family owned a Holstein dairy farm in Abilene, Kansas. He holds a Bachelor’s of Applied Science in agronomy and business from Kansas State University. 

Kent Thiesse, Senior Vice President, Chief Ag Loan Officer, Minnstar Bank

Kent Thiesse is a Farm Management Analyst and currently serves as Senior Vice President and Chief Ag Loan Officer for MinnStar Bank in Lake Crystal, Minnesota. In 2003, Kent retired from the University of Minnesota Extension Service, after a 28-year career as an Extension Educator in Agriculture. He has a Master's and Bachelor's Degree in Agriculture from the University of Minnesota.

Kent writes a weekly column titled “FOCUS ON AG” that is distributed to several Midwest agriculture publications and web sites, as well as to a large weekly e-mail list. In addition, Kent is a frequent speaker on farm management topics, and serves as the Coordinator for the Feature Forums at FARMFEST each year.

Holly Cook Anderson, Economist, National Pork Producers Council

Holly is responsible for providing economic support to NPPC staff. She collects and analyzes data related to hog prices, production, profitability, inventories, pork price spreads, national employment, food prices and exports. Anderson also conducts economic research related to the impacts of proposed policies and regulations on the pork industry and develops resources for staff and stakeholders.

Before joining NPPC in 2021, Anderson worked for Decision Innovation Solutions during graduate school as an economic research intern. She also completed several internships within the pork industry, including working as an International Marketing Intern for the National Pork Board and the Legislative Intern for the Iowa Pork Producers Association.

Anderson grew up on a farrow to finish swine operation in Winthrop, Iowa and has been involved in the pork industry her entire life. In addition to her agriculture background, Anderson holds a M.S. in agricultural economics from Iowa State University and a B.S. with double majors in agricultural business and economics, also from Iowa State.

Dr. Patrick Westhoff, Director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute, University of Missouri

Dr. Patrick Westhoff is the director of the Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute at the University of Missouri (FAPRI-MU) and the Howard Cowden Professor of Agricultural and Applied Economics in the MU Division of Applied Social Sciences.

He is a native of Manchester, Iowa, where he grew up on the family dairy farm. He has a B.A. in political science from the University of Iowa, an M.A. in Latin American studies from the University of Texas, and a Ph.D. in agricultural economics from Iowa State University.

Dr. Westhoff served in the Peace Corps in Guatemala from 1979-81 and later worked with FAPRI at Iowa State University. From 1992-1996, he served as an economist with the staff of the U.S. Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry.

He joined FAPRI-MU in 1996 and has worked on a range of projects in the United States, Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

Dave Muth, PhD, Director of Capital Markets, Peoples Company

Dave Muth leads the Capital Markets team as the Director of Capital Markets by overseeing asset management strategy and execution, integrating technology into workflow processes, and publicly representing the company through industry presentations. He utilizes his extensive experience with farmland investing and operations across the United States to acquire and manage investment grade assets on behalf of clients and capital partners.

Dave is responsible for ensuring assets are managed according to investment structures as well as optimizing farm revenue potential and mitigating risks when possible.

Dr. Ernie Goss, PhD, Director, Institute for Economy Inquiry, Creighton University

Dr. Goss is the director of the Institute for Economic Inquiry and a professor of economics at Creighton University Heider College of Business where he holds the Jack A. MacAllister Chair in Regional Economics. He is also director of The Goss Institute for Economic Research in Denver, Colorado, a bipartisan think tank conducting business and economic research and providing innovative, practical recommendations that affect change and public policy.