Culture

Board of Directors & Management Team

West Central is owned and governed by its members, and a board of directors comprised of nine directors and two associates guides the company. Directors at West Central are elected by the membership to serve three-year terms and the associates are appointed to fulfill a one-year term. The board of directors is a very important, yet often overlooked, part of any organization.

Management Team

Jeffrey Stroburg, President, Chief Executive Officer
Jeff Stroburg currently serves as the president and chief executive officer of West Central Cooperative, as well as chief executive officer and chairman of Renewable Energy Group, Inc. Jeff has spent most of his career as part of the cooperative system, beginning with the Missouri Farmers Association in 1981. Since that time, he served as general manager of a locally owned farmer’s cooperative in southern Iowa and as President/CEO of Hamilton Farm Bureau Cooperative, Inc. in Hamilton, MI. More recently, Stroburg was President/CEO of Countrymark Cooperative in Indianapolis, IN which unified its operations into Land O’Lakes, Inc. in October 1998. At that time, he assumed the responsibilities of Vice President/COO of the Eastern Ag Region of Land O’Lakes.

In October of 1999, Stroburg was named Chief Executive Officer of West Central Cooperative. In addition to his current role as President and Chief Executive Officer of West Central, Stroburg also serves as chief executive officer and chairman of Renewable Energy Group®, Inc.

Stroburg currently serves on the board of directors for National Council of Farmer Cooperatives, Associated Benefits Corporation, Biosciences Alliance of Iowa, BIOWA Executive Committee, Cooperative Business International, Iowa State University’s Center for Crops Utilization Research Industry/Stakeholder Advisory Board and the National Grain and Feed Association.

Stroburg is a graduate of Iowa State University. He and his family reside in Greene County.

Harry Ahrenholtz, Executive Vice President of Agronomy
When Harry Ahrenholtz joined the West Central staff in 2001.  He brought with him decades of experience in the grain and agronomy sectors. 

Ahrenholtz began his tenure with West Central as Regional Manager of the cooperative’s Jefferson Region.  Six months later, he stepped into the role of Executive Vice President of Agronomy.  As Ahrenholtz put it, “this move was as an exciting opportunity to be in a leadership role with a leading agricultural company.”    

Prior to joining West Central, Ahrenholtz spent the majority of his earlier career with two privately held Kansas companies; Koch Industries and Evans Grain Company.   

In his current role as the Executive Vice President of West Central’s Agronomy Division, he oversees the business activities of the fertilizer, crop protection chemical, and seed departments.  Staffing of the agronomy division are an operations manager, seed and chemical departments manager, eleven agronomy field specialists, and two dedicated seed specialists.  The facility network is made up of 16 sites across West Central’s trade area.  Furthermore, Ahrenholtz has led the formation of two key partnerships for the cooperative.  The first being the development of WestCo Agronomy Company, LLC., an agronomy joint venture with Agriliance.  Agriliance is the nation’s leader in wholesale agronomy distribution.  As General Manager of WestCo, Ahrenholtz has assisted with spurring the growth of West Central’s agronomy inputs business and with broadening its service offerings.  Additionally, he was instrumental in organizing the Templeton Crop Nutrients (TCN) project, a state-of-the-art dry fertilizer hub.  This facility is backed by four local entities, including West Central.  Ahrenholtz also serves as President of the TCN entity.

Bob Goldstein, Executive Vice President of Administration and Chief Information Officer
As the Executive Vice President of Administration and Chief Information Officer, Bob Goldstein oversees the Administrative Division of West Central. This involves the monitoring of day-to-day activities in the departments of communication, credit, finance, human resources and technology. Furthermore, Goldstein is charged with the responsibility of shaping these departments for strategic and long-term support of the cooperatives agronomy, grain and soy processing units. This includes positioning the company to take advantage of e-commerce and business-to-business opportunities, formalizing company policies and procedures, and instituting company-wide employee development programs.

Prior to joining West Central’s management team, Goldstein accumulated nearly 40 years of management experience in the retail, distribution and manufacturing industries. He’s held a variety of positions such as Chief Information Officer, Vice President and Regional Director, at such companies as Cardinal Health, Healthtex and Hills Department Stores.

Locally, Goldstein serves as Chairman of the Carroll County Compensation Committee.

Roger Fray, Executive Vice President of Grain and Director of Operations
Roger Fray, Executive Vice President of Grain, oversees West Central's grain operation. Fray's responsibilities include generating market share growth through new marketing alternatives and competitive pricing structures, coordinating risk management of processing divisions with in the cooperative and continually improving relationships with members of West Central.  

Fray is also responsible for growing the return on producer members’ investments in the West Central grain facilities. In addition, he maintains on-going positive relationships with railroads and end users of grain. During his tenure at West Central Fray has overseen the cooperatives handling of several record volume crop years.  West Central ‘s strategic direction and execution within the grain division is Fray’s responsibility.  

Fray’s past responsibilities include working as a farmer marketing advisor, futures broker and manager of a grain division for a large cooperative system. He has been a NFA Series III licensed commodities broker for over 20 years. Fray has been a past-chair of the National Grain and Feed Association’s country elevator committee, was instrumental in federal/state warehouse legislation during 2002-2003, and has arbitrated several cases brought before NGFA, including the first railroad arbitration case. Fray is currently serving on NGFA rail shippers and receivers committee. He is also a member of the U.S. Surface Transportation Board’s Railroad-Shipper Transportation Advisory Council.

This includes the processing of locally produced soybeans into the cooperative’s two internationally recognized dairy feed ingredients, SoyPLUS^® and SoyChlor^®.  Kucerak’s divisions are also responsible for producing high quality animal feeds, fed to livestock throughout west central Iowa and beyond.  The nutrition department services beef, equine and swine customers, and can create customized feed management plans to suit any needs. 

Kucerak began his agricultural career as a store manager for Agway in Upstate New York.  From there, he spent 17 years with the Farm Credit System in the Northeast, holding various positions including Director of Credit and Vice President of Marketing. 

Prior to joining West Central, Kucerak spent eight years with Land O’Lakes Purina Feed, LLC in their finance and customer service departments.  Within these departments Kucerak spent time as Director of Credit and Director of Customer Service.