Executive Summary

Agricultural Industry Consultant:    
            Consulting work consists of short, medium, and long-term business and strategic planning for commercial business owners, primary agricultural producers and organizations.
            Volunteer activities include being past chairman and founding member of a micro finance cooperative for financing beef breeding stock in southern Alberta. Civic work includes presently serving as a member of the County of Newell Economic Advisory Committee, formerly as an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Eastern Irrigation District.
            Farm business clients have varied from small one-man operations to operations with over $40 million in annual sales. Primary production clients include large commercial crop and intensive livestock operations with staff contingents of 50 to 150 people, religious based communal farms, and single-family operations.  Commercial agricultural clients include commercial intensive livestock production units-feedlots, with up to 20,000 animals in one location; commercial irrigated crop production units -forage, grains, oilseed, vegetable farms, with up to 5000 acres in one business unit; as well as arid region crop and extensive livestock production units-beef ranches, grains, oilseeds, legume farms, with up to 30,000 acres in one business unit. 
            Agri-food clients, excluding those in primary production, have varied from fresh vegetable packaging, to meat processing plants.
            Non-agricultural commercial clients have varied from muffler shops to restaurant chains. Clients have included franchise restaurant chains, auction markets, car washes, and transportation companies.    
               Consulting activities provide advice on financial, operational, and human resource planning. Projects include research into alternatives for improving income sources, both traditional and non-traditional income sources for business owners and managers. In addition to the internal analysis of business activities; environmental sensitivity, food safety, and public impact of business activities are evaluated as critical components of the business and strategic planning process. 
            Consulting activities have also included preparation and presentation of a variety of public speaking engagements and technical information sessions on a variety of business management topics.
 Our family has owned and managed an irrigated farm in southern Alberta for three generations.  The farm business has over the past thirty years included the production of specialized irrigated crops, forage, a beef cow herd, and feeder cattle.

Overview

            Joe Chomistek has thirty five years of broadly based experience in the agricultural industry. Consulting work has included the completion of a wide variety of business advisory projects varying in complexity and scale. This activity includes the review, analysis, and interpretation of technical and financial information combined with information gathering interviews with clients, as well as, interaction with management, accounting, finance, and research professionals. Experience has also included the operation of a feedlot and an irrigated farm.

Independent Consultant:  September 2002-Present
            Consulting work consists of operational, business, and strategic planning for agricultural and commercial business operations. Service delivery includes review and analysis of broad industry issues, financial information, business operations, and management skills. Completion of engagements consists of business assessment, development and evaluation of suitable alternatives for change, and coaching to management in the implementation of action plans. Clients are provided with ongoing business monitoring, mentoring, and coaching services as required. Clients and third party users of information are also provided with written analysis of business performance and advice on action plans as required.

Senior Manager Agricultural Advisory Services: 1999-2002
            This was a team position with responsibility for the development of a consulting practice division for a western Canadian accounting and business advisory firm (Meyers Norris Penny) and delivery of consulting services to individual business clients. Services and products developed included financial and operational business planning tools for use in consulting activities. Responsibilities also included the delivery of consulting advice to clients and the identification of client needs as well as mentoring partners in the firm and other staff. The position also entailed supervision and training for technicians in the use of business planning software and other management tools used in the preparation of written consulting reports.
 
Consultant and Senior Manager: 1992-1998  
            This was a consulting engagement under contract to a provincial credit union (Chinook Credit Union) with responsibility for the development of a commercial agricultural loan portfolio and financial services division. The division was successfully developed and expanded to include an extensive agricultural business client base that varied from small one-family unit operations to large complex commercial vertically integrated crop and livestock operations.

Site Manager, Alberta Agriculture, Crop Diversification Centre (South): 1987-1992     
            This was a position responsible for developing a team of previously separate support groups. The staff groups were responsible for managing and facilitating physical, financial, and human resources in support of fourteen agronomic research programs. As a member of the centre’s senior management committee, the role included liaison between research scientists and other staff.

Consultant: 1979-1987 
            An independent consulting service to individual farm business operators and farm organizations was started in 1979. Consulting work for individual agricultural producers included assistance in preparing information for presentation to lending institutions, financial projections for internal use, and mediating disputes with financing agencies. Clients were also provided with ongoing business coaching on the use of risk management and training in the development and use of farm management information systems.
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Farm Owner and Operator: 1971-Present

From 1971 to the present time, our family has owned and managed an irrigated farm business in southern Alberta.  The farm business has over the past thirty years included the production of traditional and specialized crops, forage, a beef cow herd, and a feedlot enterprise.

Education and Professional Development
            Graduated from the University of Alberta in 1971 with a Bachelor of Science Degree, majoring in Agricultural Economic
            Completed the Canadian Executive Development Program with the George Morris Centre in 2006
 

Organization Membership

Alberta Institute of Agrologists
Canadian Consulting Agrologists Association
Canadian Farm Business Management Council
Alberta Agricultural Economics Association
Member-County of Newell Economic Development Advisory Committee