CHS CEO Jay Debertin to speak with SDSU students in industry leadership seminar

CHS Chief Executive Officer and President Jay Debertin will visit SDSU on April 24 to speak at the ECON 319 Seminar with Industry Leaders class.

The class, led by Joseph Santos, professor and director of the Ness School of Management and Economics, invites students to participate in an open conversation with leaders from major businesses and organizations. According to Santos, the goal of the course is to explore and analyze the challenges and opportunities that confront various industries. Additionally, attendees will learn how leaders in these industries think about and make business and economic decisions.

From banking and government policy to venture creation and agribusiness, students can connect directly with working professionals from a variety of industries. Beyond learning from the speakers, students gain skills through real-time intellectual engagement by actively participating and responding to the discussions. The course helps students build their professional identity by learning how to evaluate problems, weigh decisions and articulate reasoned views under time pressure.

“For students at a land-grant university in South Dakota, that conversation has immediate geographic and economic relevance,” Santos said. “It is not a case study from a textbook. It is the actual person making the decisions.”

Debertin was named president and CEO of CHS, the nation’s leading farmer-owned cooperative and an agronomy, energy, global grains and processing company, in 2017 and has held various leadership roles at CHS since 1984. Debertin drives company strategies while growing its core businesses to provide end-to-end products and leverage the strength of the cooperative’s supply chain to support the nation’s farmers and cooperatives.

Working for CHS was, in part, a coming home for Debertin. He grew up in the heart of the Red River Valley in Minnesota, in a community surrounded by agriculture and a strong cooperative system.

He holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of North Dakota and an MBA from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Debertin serves as board chair for Ventura Foods LLC, a joint venture of which CHS is part owner. He also sits on the boards of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis and Securian Financial.

“He carries a particular weight for students at SDSU,” Santos said. “Agribusiness is not an abstraction for them. He can speak to the strategic pressures facing farm cooperatives, the economics of global commodity markets and the leadership decisions that determine outcomes for thousands of farmers.”

SDSU students, faculty, staff and community members are invited to hear from Debertin on April 24 from 10-10:50 a.m. in Woster Celebration Hall at the SDSU Alumni & Foundation.