Polly Ruhland Chief Executive Officer, United Soybean Board

As the Chief Executive Officer of United Soybean Board, Polly Ruhland (@pollypencilplow) works on behalf of U.S. farmer investors to advance agriculture’s sustainability through research, education and promotion programs.

Prior to joining USB, Ruhland served as Chief Executive Officer at the Cattlemen’s Beef Promotion and Research Board. She served as a senior vice president at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, and early in her career, she was an agriculture journalist and editor.

She holds a master’s degree from Colorado State University, where her research focused on agricultural education reform and strategic decision-making at farming cooperatives.

Polly is an Eisenhower Fellow and a Nuffield Scholar. She is a certified mediator and holds professional credentials in the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts.

She was chairperson of the Commodity Roundtable for Chief Executive Officers of Research and Promotion Programs for two years. Her interest in environmental partnerships led her to serve on several community agricultural land-use boards, and as a volunteer for American Farmland Trust. For 13 years, she was an ethics advisor on the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee at a private animal research facility in Fort Collins, Colorado. During the same time, she served on the editorial board and as a writer for Winds of Change, the official publication of the American Indian Science and Engineering Society. She currently serves on the advisory board for University of Tennessee’s Institute of Agriculture, Lone Oaks Farm.