FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CFGA Hires New Executive Director
October 31, 2013, Edmonton, AB
'I am pleased to announce the selection of our new CFGA Executive Director, Ron Pidskalny,' says Doug Wray, Chair of the Canadian Forage & Grassland Association (CFGA). 'Ron has a very strong background in working with multi-segmented agricultural organizations such as ours, as well as private industry. His communication and leadership abilities combined with fund raising experience give us the confidence that he has the skills, experience, and qualifications to successfully lead the CFGA into the future.'
Ron has over 25 years of entrepreneurial and multi-national experience in technology commercialization and business analysis. He has an extensive knowledge of business planning, product development, business intelligence, patent and intellectual property management, competitive product evaluation and project management. Ron has been an advisor to the Canadian government on the International Plant Genetics Treaty and has commented on the "Study on Modern Food Biotechnology, Human Health and Development" on behalf of the Canadian Society of Agronomy and the Agricultural Institute of Canada for the World Health Organization. He has served on the Board of Governors of the Agricultural Institute of Canada and is past-Western Director of the Canadian Society of Agronomy.
Recent assignments include working as Senior Project Manager for the Canadian National Transplant Research Program, coordinating the development of a five-year budget of almost $24 million for a team of 105 investigators and 86 collaborators from across Canada. In a business development capacity, Ron assisted in raising over $4 million from a range of public and private institutions, including multinational medical instrumentation and pharmaceutical corporations, provincially based Organ Procurement Organizations and national not-for-profit charitable foundations.
Ron has worked as a technical consultant on the development of a strategy and a search for research and commercial partners for a multinational European company with consolidated sales in excess of $2 billion. Collaborators included the Alberta provincial government, the federal government as well as public and private investors. He also developed of a crop feedstock sourcing strategy and a business justification for a canola crushing facility that were integrated into an initial public offering for $70 million on the Toronto Stock Exchange in 2011.
Ron has also served as the Business Development Officer for biofuels and bioindustrial products for Genome Alberta where he developed strategic business plans to focus Alberta's genomics research on commercial biofuel and bioindustrial applications.
The new CFGA address is:
Canadian Forage & Grassland Association
11312 - 57 Avenue NW
Edmonton, AB
T6H 0Z9
Phone: (780) 434-2030
[email protected]
www.canadianfga.ca
'Ron replaces retiring CFGA Executive Director / founder, Wayne Digby, under whose leadership the CFGA has been able to take root and grow and be recognized as the Voice of the Forage & Grassland Industry,' says Wray. 'Thank you very much for your work and most of all your perseverance Wayne!'
Contact:
Ron Pidskalny at CFGA or Doug Wray, Chair of CFGA at (403) 850-7643 or [email protected]
The CFGA Annual General Meeting and Conference is being hosted in Olds, Alberta from December 9 - 11, 2013 with the
theme "Taking Forages Mainstream - Challenges, Pitfalls & Opportunities" and has a host of excellent speakers and topics.
Read more and/or register for the Conference.
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