(January 28,2020) - The 2020 Leadership At Its Best class began their training last week in Raleigh, North Carolina, before heading to Washington, D.C., for additional advocacy training and Hill visits. The Leadership At Its Best (LAIB) program, sponsored by Syngenta, is designed to promote a cross-cultural exchange from several different commodity and trade associations into one robust conference. LAIB participants experience training and development modules based on today’s leading thoughts, ideas and techniques. The program focuses on various aspects of leadership training and the priority issues facing agriculture with the goal of empowering today’s leaders for tomorrow’s future challenges and opportunities.

ASA Leadership At Its Best alumni Dave Walton (IA) and Mark Jackson (IA) presented on different ways farmers can advocate for the industry in Washington and in their local communities. Christy Seyfert, ASA executive director of government affairs, spoke on a “Lobbying 201" panel.

Thanks to Syngenta’s commitment to leader development, the Leadership At Its Best program has trained hundreds of soybean farmer-leaders and has been going strong for over 30 years now.  Under a new format that Syngenta created for the program last year, ASA and affiliated state soybean associations are now invited to nominate a total of eight farmer-leaders to participate each year. The members of this year’s class are:

Kevin Cox (IN)                    Jason Creamer (SC)

Scott Gaffner (IL)             Mauricio Garcia (TX)

Klinton Holliday (MO)     Jean Lam (OK)

Quint Pottinger (KY)        Sara Stelter (WI)

For more information on Leadership At Its Best, visit syngenta-laib.com.