In this deep-dive webinar following our Agriculture focused event in May (U.S. China Trade & Future of Agriculture in the Heartland), Dr. Wendong Zhang will review longer-term changes especially in Chinese agricultural markets and policies that would have major impact such as China’s rural land reform, rising per-capita meat consumption, modernization of the livestock industry post ASF, crop insurance, and futures markets increasingly like the U.S.

Dr. Wendong Zhang
Assistant Professor - Department of Economics at Iowa State University
Dr. Wendong Zhang
Dr. Wendong Zhang is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics at Iowa State University since August 2015. His research seeks to better understand U.S. farmland market, agricultural water conservation, and Chinese agriculture. Dr. Zhang is also affiliated with Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD).
Wendong leads the annual Iowa Land Value Survey, and co-founded the new ISU China Ag center jointly with Dr. Dermot Hayes in collaboration with Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.
Dr. Zhang received his Ph.D. in Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics from the Ohio State University in July 2015, and he also hold a BSc in Environmental Science from Fudan University in China.
Moderated by

Jim Schultz
Founder and Managing Partner of Open Prairie and USHCA Board Member
Jim Schultz
Jim is the Founder and Managing Partner of Open Prairie and a fifth generation agriculture investor and entrepreneur with over 30 years of investment experience and has been instrumental in starting and providing capital to companies throughout the country. Jim has a diverse background in venture capital and private equity, investment banking and other entrepreneurial ventures.
Before founding Open Prairie, Jim was active in negotiating investment agreements in numerous equity and mezzanine financings for start-up and growth-stage companies in the Midwest. In 2015, Jim was appointed by the Governor of Illinois as Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity. In career prior to private equity, Jim held executive level management positions and served as the Chairman of the Board of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago Small Business Advisory Council on Agriculture, Labor and Small Business.
Jim is a graduate of the National Venture Capital Association Venture Capital Institute. He received an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and a Juris Doctorate from DePaul University College of Law. Jim graduated cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with an emphasis on entrepreneurship from Southern Methodist University.