Brian Aust

Vice President, Merchandising

Aust’s broad and tangible experience as a merchandising lead aids Agspring merchandising operations both strategically and tactically. Aust has been engaged with commodities merchandising domestically across the United States. He has served in merchandising capacities for Scoular, Debruce, Lansing and others and has direct experience managing transportation including high-capacity rail and barge operations. He also developed a cross country business establishing strong relationships with producers and customers.

Bruce Chapin

Chief Financial Officer

Chapin serves as chief financial officer of Agspring. His more than 20 years in the commodity and milling trade has included multiple positions at Louis Dreyfus Company including head of industry, chief operating officer, director of operations and interior chief financial officer—all for the North American region, as well as controller of the Kansas City office. Previously, Chapin was a controller and internal audit manager for Bartlett and an auditor for other firms in our region. He is a certified public accountant and holds a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics along with a master’s degree in accounting.

Mike Hallman

Vice President, Sales

Hallman has more than 25 years of sales leadership and account management experience within the food and beverage industry, where he has built a proven track record in developing recognized value and positive year-over-year growth. Hallman has also built a diverse portfolio of experiences in selling specialty valued food ingredients such as: soy protein, food protection hydrocolloids, emulsifiers, systems, enzymes, high intensity sweeteners, flavors, probiotics, and fibers across broad food applications, which spans a variety of industry segments.

During his 18-year tenure with DuPont Nutrition and Health (Solae and Danisco), he served in several key sales leadership positions, including most recently, as the Director of Sales over the Meat and Culinary and Nutrition Segment, where he managed over $280 million dollars in sales.

Timothy Lefman

Director of Information Technology

Lefman is responsible for IT systems and resources across the Agspring enterprise. Most recently, Lefman was the head of IT for Aratana Therapeutics, a life sciences company dedicated to pets. After spending the better part of a decade in the public sector, he started his own technology consulting firm in Kansas City and has served as virtual CTO/CIO for several small to midsize local companies. He brings Agspring experience with IT systems and practices stretching from the public to private sector and from small businesses to publicly traded companies. Lefman is also on the technology steering committee for The Grooming Project which focuses on ending cycles of poverty through job training and life skills. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Missouri.

Josh Skatvold

Assistant Vice President of Transportation and Supply Chain

Skatvold is responsible for overseeing all rail and truck logistics at Big River Rice and Grain and for Thresher Artisan Wheat, Agspring. He enhances Agspring’s customer base by providing consistent just-in-time delivery by truck or railcar, and by managing the Thresher private railcar fleet. He also works to ensure that the increasingly stringent requirements for food safety and security are met for both truck and rail movements.

Bradford Warner

Vice President of Marketing, Customer Engagement and Sustainability

Warner brings Agspring more than two decades of diverse experience with both business and consumer markets through results-based market, product/service and channel development. Warner’s work with agricultural information systems, consumer packaged goods, and sustainable food ingredients has spanned market planning, product development, business development and marketing communications roles.

Previous to Agspring, Warner founded 4Comm Marketing Insights & Solutions, a market planning and operations consultancy. Warner has also served a Director of Marketing for On Demand Technologies and Embarq Logistics where he also led the corporation’s private-label manufacturer, Premier Telecom Products. Prior to that Warner held marketing, research and communications roles in the telecom, healthcare and entertainment industries.

Michael Presinger

Managing Director of Agforce Transport Services

Preisinger has more than 15 years combined experience working in the transportation industry, having experience in the areas of sales, operations, and management. Having been seasoned in both foreign and domestic transportation divisions, Michael has a well-rounded understanding of the whole transportation industry model. Michael previously served as the Senior Sales Manager at TSC Container Freight. As Managing Director at Agforce, Michael oversees operations and carrier relationships and works with the team daily with the goal to provide the most creative solutions to the unique customer needs while enhancing the customer experience.

Seth Post

General Manager, Big River Rice and Grain

Post brings Big River a background in the agricultural commodity trade spanning merchandising; elevator, light processing, rail shuttle loading, truck logistics and grain quality and safety training operations. His experience with Scoular Co. and CGB Enterprises has included serving as regional facilities manager, group manager, facility manager and a merchandising manager.

Andy Tuley

Vice President, Business Development of Agforce Transport Services

Tuley brings more than 10 years of freight industry experience which includes positions at C.H. Robinson and TSC Container Freight with whom he helped initiate the domestic freight brokerage category. When the opportunity came to form Agforce Transport Services as a division of Agspring, Tuley’s background in sales made him the ideal candidate to spearhead the initiative. Along with overseeing transportation sales, business development and account management, Andy works with the team to grow the Agforce business portfolio. Additionally, Tuley’s goals focus on ways to enhance the customer experience while developing continual sales growth.

Brian Aust

General Manager, Thresher Artisan Wheat

Aust’s broad and tangible experience as a merchandising lead aids Agspring merchandising operations both strategically and tactically. Aust has been engaged with commodities merchandising domestically across the United States. He has served in merchandising capacities for Scoular, Debruce, Lansing and others and has direct experience managing transportation including high-capacity rail and barge operations. He also developed a cross country business establishing strong relationships with producers and customers.