On December 4, 2024, the National FFA Foundation announced its new 2025 Sponsors’ Board Members. The board is made up of top corporate executives who wish to support agricultural education and the National FFA Organization. During their three years of service, board members play a vital role in advising the National FFA on opportunities to improve agricultural educational programs, secure funding, and seek continued development of the next generation of leaders.
Aaron Wetzel has been named the 2025 Sponsors’ Board Chair and is currently serving as Vice President of Production & Precision Ag Production Systems at John Deere. With over 35 years at John Deere, Wetzel’s career has evolved through various roles including Finance & Accounting, Sales, Marketing, Product Management, and Manufacturing. Wetzel is an FFA Alumnus from Charleston, Ill. Oklahoma Farm Report’s Stevie White visited with Wetzel to hear how he will use his past experiences to help propel the FFA organization forward.
“I have had the pleasure of representing John Deere on the FFA Sponor Boards since 2019,” Wetzel said. “I am a former FFA member, and during my time there, I got a lot of valuable leadership lessons and developments that have helped me in my career aspirations at John Deere, so I am trying to pay it back to help the next generation of young people understand more of the opportunities that are in agriculture.”
John Deere is the longest continuous sponsor of the National FFA organization, having its own John Deere FFA Alumni and Supporters Chapter.
FFA is the top school-based youth leadership development organization in the country having reached more than one million members just this year throughout 9,235 local FFA chapters in all 50 states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
To Wetzel, it is the leadership experiences and the sense of belonging for its members that have made the organization so successful. He said, “Especially in today’s world where people are looking for places where they can contribute, be valued, and be seen, FFA is one of those places. The qualities of what FFA delivers is what is drawing young people to say, ‘I want to be a part of that.’”
Through his experience with John Deere, Wetzel plans to help bolster FFA forward through technological opportunities. “Deere is very much invested in technology solutions to provide more value to the customers that we serve,” he said. “We are bringing artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities to agriculture through our solutions. For FFA, going forward, it is about helping young people become more comfortable with and embrace technology solutions in their everyday lives. That is one area of focus that is very important for this next generation of young people to see and embrace tech as it helps them in every aspect of their lives.”
Wetzel’s plan to help propel the organization centers on maximizing the organization’s strengths by reaching a broader audience with the message of belonging and by building more curiosity about technology in young people. “The other piece is opportunity,” he detailed. “It is a career path for young people. Not just for college-bound students, but also for students who are looking for careers in the communities where they live by helping to foster more innovation and entrepreneurship. Those are some areas where I think FFA is very much focused and doing some great work.”
One of the things that Wetzel finds most unique about the organization is the SAE projects or Supervised Agricultural Experience projects. “In FFA, I was running my own business raising livestock,” Wetzel shared. “At a very early age, those experiences gave me some business acumen, leadership, and driving key decisions experience that has helped me in the decisions I have been making as I entered my career and followed me through the thirty-some years I have been with Deere.”
To reach and support its members, Wetzel knows that FFA needs funding. He expressed the humbling amount of support that the organization already receives from across the entire agricultural value chain. The diversity of sponsoring companies encompasses tractor and equipment companies like John Deere, seed and chemical companies like BASF and Nutrien, and expands to direct-to-consumer markets like Domino’s Pizza and Culvers.
“Having those companies come in and see the value that FFA is providing to young people, and more importantly, step up and providing significant financial resources to be able to support that is mission critical,” Wetsel shared.
He added, “Another participating company is Tractor Supply Company, which has been very influential in providing support for chapters and helping them get to the National FFA Convention. These are just some examples of the enormous amount of support that corporations are having as they see value in what FFA is doing, how it is helping develop this next generation of young people, and how it is helping to further support agricultural education.”
In addition to Wetzel being named the board chair, the following nine board members for 2025 are:
- Adam Backer, Vice President, Regional Marketing Manager for NAU Country
- Carrie Ballew, Chief Procurement Officer for Domino’s
- Rebecca Camara, Vice President, Human Resources for Valent U.S.A. LLC
- Jamie Eichorn, Head of Crop Sales N.A. for Syngenta
- Roland Fumasi, EVP & North American Regional Head, RaboResearch Food & Agribusiness for Rabo AgriFinance
- Shannon Kellner, Vice President, Livestock for Merk Animal Health
- Raquel Koehler, CEO & President for Rural Media Group
- Adam Ross, Vice President of Talent Management, Vice President- Dealer & Customer Support NA for Bunge
- Danielle Waterworth, AG/Global Service & Maintenance Development for CNH
“The future of agriculture is in the hands of our students, and the National FFA Foundation is built so that our partnerships with individuals, businesses, and industry allow us to further secure resources for the future of agricultural education and FFA,” said Molly Ball, president of the National FFA Foundation. “I look forward to the success of our new board and how they’ll continue to bring immense growth to the foundation.”
