ARDEN HILLS, MINNESOTA, U.S. —Pete Kappelman recently joined Land O’Lakes as senior vice-president, member and government relations.

In his new role, Kappelman will be responsible for leveraging Land O'Lakes resources to help the cooperative’s members grow profitably and to strengthen partnerships on technology, talent, branding and financial services.

He will have direct responsibility for the member relations and government relations functions and matrixed responsibility for the Business Development Services and Strategic Asset Management teams.

Additionally, he will work across the enterprise to offer Land O’Lakes members value-added products and services including ACT, FLM Harvest, IT services, BuyPoint, member health care offerings, Land O’Lakes SUSTAIN and the Land O’Lakes Finance Company.

"Pete brings a rich, varied and valuable background to Land O’Lakes,” said Beth Ford, president and chief executive officer of Land O’Lakes, Inc. “There is no one better suited to help us advocate for and serve our member-owners.”

As a farmer, Kappelman brings crop and dairy experience to the role and has been a leader in working with legislators on ag policy issues including the Farm Bill, trade and immigration.

He also served as an ag policy advisor to the Administration for the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Office of the United States Trade Representative and was named Director of the Year in 2018 by the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives.

His board service includes the National Milk Producers Federation, the National Dairy Promotion and Research Board, the U.S. Dairy Export Council, the Professional Dairy Producers of Wisconsin, and the UW Center for Dairy Profitability.

Kappelman is a fourth-generation farmer, having led Meadow Brook Dairy Farms, LLC, an operation consisting of 450 milking cows along with 1,100 acres of cropland. The Kappelman’s were Wisconsin's 1995 Dairy Farm Family of the Year and Kappelman was 2018 Dairyman of the Year.

Kappelman has a bachelor’s of science from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, College of Agriculture.