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2021 U.S. - China Agriculture Roundtable

The U.S. and China have a strong history of collaboration and friendship. The heartland is no exception to this, having its unique history linking the two nations together through community and agriculture. As the two countries have progressed, albeit, on very different paths, they have not forgotten their shared histories and the lessons they’ve learned from working closely. As we look to the future, the relationship between China and the US remains of high importance. Just as important is their shared spirit of community and partnership as they seek to build a better world together, capable of solving global issues such as food insecurity, climate change, and pandemic issues.

Hosted by Bob Holden and Ambassador Lin, this year’s US-China Agriculture Roundtable focuses on the rich history between the two nations as we invite participants to come together to reminisce on the nostalgic connection we’ve built over the past century. With remarks and statements from a variety of guests in both the US and China, USHCA is proud to share this dialogue on the shared history between the two countries, lessons learned, and the ways that the two countries can continue to grow together.

This event is sponsored by the Ford Foundation and Jobs Ohio.

Agriculture is more than just about trade and business.  It is the bedrock of a healthy U.S.-China relationship.

It is imperative that we support continued dialogue and collaboration in order to build a healthy U.S.-China relationship around agriculture and beyond.

Bob Holden
Chairman & CEO, US Heartland China Association
Former Governor of Missouri

In looking back four decades, it is clear that the American heartland played a central role in building a strong and mutually beneficial relationship between China and the United States, and particularly with senior-most Chinese leaders.

Now, after several years of turbulence in government-to-government relations, the key to restoring stability in the US – China relationship may once again be found in middle America rather than national capitals. As we enter a new political period, the US Heartland China Association is extremely well positioned to play a significant catalytic role in restoring and rebuilding the U.S. – China bilateral relationship.

Ambassador Kenneth M. Quinn (ret.)
President Emeritus, the World Food Prize
Strategic Advisor & Member of US Heartland China
Association

Event Agenda

WELCOME

SETTING THE STAGE

GOVERNMENT REPRESENTATIVES

PRIVATE SECTOR LEADER'S VIEW ON FUTURE

STATE and PROVINCIAL DIALOGUE

OUTLINE OF THE 3 DIALOGUES

CLOSING REMARKS

Participant Bios

Chairman and CEO USHCA

Gov. Bob Holden

Bob Holden served as Missouri’s 53rd Governor, 2001-2005. Prior to being elected Governor, Holden served two terms as Missouri State Treasurer and three terms as a Missouri State Representative.

Bob Holden has been in public service his entire adult life. In addition to holding elective office, Holden worked for State Treasurers James I. Spainhower and Mel Carnahan, United States Senator Thomas F. Eagleton, and Congressman Richard A. Gephardt.

During Governor Holden's term in office, he chaired the Midwest Governors Association; opened Missouri’s first trade office in China; created Missouri’s first Hispanic Outreach Committee; moved Missouri from 41st to 5th in terms of women in leadership positions; appointed over 200 African Americans to prominent leadership roles; established the state's first Youth Cabinet; and built the first LEED certified state office building in Missouri.

Bob Holden is currently the Missouri Co-Chair for the U.S. Global Leadership Coalition, and is an Executive Board member of the Missouri State NAACP Chapter. After leaving office in 2005, Holden founded the Holden Public Policy Forum and was a professor at Webster University for ten years. While at Webster University, he helped bring the first Confucius Institute to Webster University, St. Louis, Missouri.

For over 40 years, Bob Holden has been an active participant in the American Legion Missouri Boys and Girls State Program. He led efforts to bring the first delegations of Chinese students to be participants in this historic program. Since that first delegation to Missouri Boys and Girls State, he has lead the efforts to continue these student delegations of Chinese students to Missouri and Missouri students to China with plans to initiate delegations from other states.

Bob Holden believes that long term economic success for the United States and China must be built on mutual respect, clear understandings and honest dialogue. This can be achieved by expanding our cultural ties, creating more educational partnerships, and creating bridges of opportunities for successful business in both countries.

About Gov. Holden

former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia

Amb. Kenneth M. Quinn (ret.)

Dr. Kenneth M. Quinn, former U.S. Ambassador to the Kingdom of Cambodia, assumed the leadership of the World Food Prize Foundation on January 1, 2000, following his retirement from the State Department after a 32 year career in the Foreign Service.

Inspired by the vision of Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, the founder of the World Food Prize, Ambassador Quinn has endeavored to build this annual $250,000 award into “the Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture.” Held each October in Des Moines on or around World Food Day (October 16), the World Food Prize Laureate Award Ceremony, “Borlaug Dialogue” international symposium and Global Youth Institute have grown in size and stature under his direction.

With the support of the John Ruan family, Dr. Quinn has led the campaign which successfully raised over $30 million to restore the historic Des Moines Public Library and transform it into the World Food Prize Dr. Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates. He provided the personal leadership to have the building designed to achieve LEED Platinum certification, the highest possible level of energy efficiency and resource conservation.

During his diplomatic career, Ken Quinn served: as a Rural Development advisor in the Mekong Delta; on the National Security Council staff at the White House; as Narcotics Counselor at the U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Vienna; for four years as Chairman of the U.S. Inter-agency Task Force on POW/MIAs; and as Director of Iowa SHARES, the humanitarian campaign that sent Iowa doctors, nurses, medical supplies and food to starving Cambodian refugees.

A fluent speaker of Vietnamese, Dr. Quinn acted as interpreter for President Gerald Ford at the White House and personally negotiated the first ever entry by U.S. personnel into a Vietnamese prison to search for U.S. POW/MIAs. He was also a member of the first U.S. team to gain entry to a former Soviet prison in Russia.

Ambassador Quinn, a graduate of Loras College in Dubuque, Iowa, has a M.A. in Political Science from Marquette University and a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of Maryland. He and his wife Le Son have three adult children.

About Amb. Quinn

former Executive Director for Iowa Sister States

Sarah Dunkerton Lande

Sarah Dunkerton Lande is widely admired as a citizen diplomat who has advanced Iowa’s reputation around the globe – particularly in the People’s Republic of China.

Lande’s promotion of people-to-people diplomacy began with her first trip to China in 1984 with former Governor Robert Ray and his wife Billie who led the Friendship Force, and later with three other Iowa governors on separate trips to create new opportunities and understanding. From 1988 to 1998, she served as the first Executive Director for Iowa Sister States, a state supported, nonprofit organization that builds Iowa’s cultural, economic, and educational partnerships with the world. Through the program, Iowa has fostered connections with nine Sister States, including China’s Hebei Province.

Sarah has a passion for cultivating international friendships. In 2013 she was awarded the title of honorary Friendship Ambassador by the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries. She was the organization’s guest for it’s 2014 60th anniversary in Bejing to share the Xi Jinping – Iowa story at “The Gathering of 60 Years” celebration on China Central Television. Lande also spoke in 2014 about the value of friendship at the Sister Cities International Conference in Washington, D.C.

About Sarah Lande

CEO Syngenta Group

Erik Fyrwald

J. Erik Fyrwald joined the Syngenta Group, one of the world’s leading agriculture companies, in June 2016 as Chief Executive Officer.

Erik Fyrwald served as chief executive officer of Univar, a leading distributor of chemistry and related services, from May 2012 until May 2016. In 2008, following a 27-year career at DuPont, he joined the Nalco Company, a leading water treatment products and services company, serving as chairman and chief executive officer until December 2011, when Nalco merged with Ecolab Inc. Following the merger, Erik Fyrwald served as president of Ecolab, a global provider of water, hygiene and energy technologies.

From 2003 to 2008, Erik Fyrwald served as group vice president of the agriculture and nutrition division at the DuPont Company. From 2000 until 2003, he was vice president and general manager of DuPont’s nutrition and health business.

Erik Fyrwald attended the University of Delaware, where he received a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering in 1981. He also completed the advanced management program at Harvard Business School.

Erik Fyrwald serves on the boards of directors of Syngenta Group, Bunge, CropLife International, Eli Lilly, the Swiss-American Chamber of Commerce and the UN World Food Program Farm to Market Initiative. He is also Chairman of the Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture.

About Erik Fyrwald

Iowa Secretary of State

Paul Pate

Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate has dedicated his life to public service. Now in his third term as Iowa’s Commissioner of Elections, Secretary Pate is guided by three core principles: service, participation and integrity.

 Upon returning to the Secretary of State’s office in 2015, 20 years after he was elected to that post for the first time, Paul Pate immediately set out to increase participation in Iowa elections by instituting online voter registration. More than 100,000 Iowans utilized the system in its first three years and more than 250,000 newly registered voters joined the rolls by July 2018.

 Secretary Pate also worked with the Iowa Legislature to enact the Safe at Home program. Safe at Home is aimed at protecting survivors of domestic violence, sexual assault, trafficking and stalking by keeping their address confidential.

 Secretary Pate served as the President of the National Association of Secretaries of State from July 2019-July 2020.

 His voter education efforts have been recognized nationally by NASS, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission and the National/Student Parent Mock Election organization.

 Paul Pate is also a nationally recognized small business leader, a father of three and grandfather of five. He and his wife Jane live in Cedar Rapids. 

About Paul Pate

Chairman and CEO of ADM

Juan R. Luciano

Juan R. Luciano is chairman of the board of directors, president and chief executive officer of ADM.

Luciano joined ADM in 2011 as executive vice president and chief operating officer. He was named president in February 2014, and in January 2015 became the ninth chief executive in ADM’s 112-year history. He became chairman of the board in January 2016.

Under Luciano’s leadership, ADM has undergone a remarkable evolution, building on more than a century of heritage to create a global nutrition business, with an industry-leading array of ingredients and solutions that are opening the door to growth opportunities in key global macro trend areas. He has spearheaded the increased use of innovative technologies to meet customer needs, and led a strategic growth campaign that has expanded ADM’s global footprint, building capabilities and adding talent and expertise that allow it to create value at every part of the global value chain.

Before joining ADM, Luciano had a successful 25-year tenure at The Dow Chemical Company, where he last served as executive vice president and president of the Performance division.

Luciano serves on the boards of directors of Eli Lilly and Company and nonprofit economic development organization Intersect Illinois, and is an alternate member of the board for Wilmar International. He serves on the Global Advisory Board of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, and is a member of the Economic Club of Chicago, the Commercial Club of Chicago, the Business Roundtable, and the United States-China Business Council.

Luciano holds an industrial engineering degree from the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology.

About Juan R. Luciano

Alabama Secretary of State

John Merrill

Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill has dedicated his life to public service, from his youth as an Eagle Scout and SGA President at The University of Alabama to his professional career in the West Alabama Chamber of Commerce and Tuscaloosa County public schools. A native of Heflin, Ala., he was first elected to public office as a representative of Alabama House District 62 in 2010 with 87 percent of the vote. He was elected as Secretary of State in 2014 with 65 percent of the vote, and he has dramatically enhanced the efficiency of the office through a series of reforms and innovations.

Since he took office, Alabama has more than 1.8 million newly registered voters, setting new state records for voter registration and participation in elections.  Under his direction, Alabama has been nationally recognized as the premiere state in election administration. He was selected by the Republican State Leadership Committee to chair the National Commission on Election Integrity after the 2020 general election. This group introduced best practices in election administration throughout our nation. He is frequently requested to appear on local and national media networks. He serves as a church deacon and either leads or is a member of more than 30 civic, community and professional organizations.

John has traveled internationally and represented our state and nation in Canada, China, Germany, Israel, Russia and Taiwan. He and his wife Cindy, a native of Phil Campbell, Ala., and former public school educator, have two adult children and reside in Tuscaloosa. He is also the author of ALABAMA: THE BICENTENNIAL, a book on the State and some of its notable people throughout history. 

About John Merrill

President of Wanxiang America Corporation

Pin Ni

Mr. Pin Ni is the President of Wanxiang America Corporation, the company he started in 1994.  The company’s revenue grows from zero to $ 4.0 billion to date, crossing the area of automotive, clean energy, and real estate with operations in 27 states in USA. In January 2016, he was honored as “The Most Influential Business Person of the Year” by China General Chamber of Commerce – U.S.A. In November 2019, China Institute presented him the highest honor, the Blue Cloud Award, for his achievements as a “Bridge Builder” between China and the United States.

Mr. Ni is very active in community services. He serves as chairman of China General Chamber of Commerce – USA Chicago, board director of World Business Chicago, member of the Northwestern University Board of Trustees, member of the Advisory Board of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy, board director of Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and board director of The Nature Conservancy Illinois Chapter.

Mr. Ni received his bachelor’s degree and MBA degree from Zhejiang University. He has also studied in the PhD program in University of Kentucky’s Department of Economics.

About Pin Ni

Vice Governor of Hebei Provincial People's Government

Yanjun Xia, 夏延军

Vice Governor of Hubei Provincial People’s Government

Jun Ke, 柯俊

Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer Deere & Company

John C. May

John C. May is Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of Deere & Company. May is responsible for leading efforts to maximize financial and operational performance and ensure that the company’s global customer base is provided with advanced products and services.

May became the company’s Chief Executive Officer in November 2019 and assumed the position of Chairman in May 2020. He was named President & Chief Operating Officer earlier in 2019.

Previously, May was President, Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division, with responsibility for the Americas and Australia, as well as for the global harvesting, turf and utility, crop care, and intelligent solutions businesses. He also served as Chief Information Officer and as President, Agricultural Solutions.

Earlier duties included Vice President, Global Turf & Utility platform, and Managing Director of Deere’s China operations during a period of significant growth. May also managed the company’s construction equipment factory in Dubuque, Iowa. He became part of the senior management team in 2012.

He joined John Deere in 1997 after working as a management consultant at KPMG Peat Marwick.

May holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from the University of Maine.

About John C. May

President of Wanxiang America Corporation

Pin Ni

Mr. Pin Ni is the President of Wanxiang America Corporation, the company he started in 1994.  The company’s revenue grows from zero to $ 4.0 billion to date, crossing the area of automotive, clean energy, and real estate with operations in 27 states in USA. In January 2016, he was honored as “The Most Influential Business Person of the Year” by China General Chamber of Commerce – U.S.A. In November 2019, China Institute presented him the highest honor, the Blue Cloud Award, for his achievements as a “Bridge Builder” between China and the United States.

Mr. Ni is very active in community services. He serves as chairman of China General Chamber of Commerce – USA Chicago, board director of World Business Chicago, member of the Northwestern University Board of Trustees, member of the Advisory Board of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy, board director of Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and board director of The Nature Conservancy Illinois Chapter.

Mr. Ni received his bachelor’s degree and MBA degree from Zhejiang University. He has also studied in the PhD program in University of Kentucky’s Department of Economics.

About Pin Ni

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