Keynote Speaker: Dr. John C. Gardner 

Washington State University President Elson Floyd created the office of Economic Development and Extension in July of 2007, appointing John Gardner as Vice President to lead this new effort. Having worked in both universities and business, Dr. Gardner leads the effort which links private, public, and philanthropic partners to better leverage all of WSU’s assets for economic growth and vitality of the state.

Gardner is a native of the Kansas City area where he earned degrees in agriculture and agronomy at Kansas State University, and a PhD at the University of Nebraska in plant physiology.  His US-AID funded graduate work focused on the sorghum/millet program INTSORMIL directed at Africa and India.  He then moved north to Carrington, North Dakota, and spent much of his twenty years there as Director of the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center.  His work on the domestication of new crops led to business interests throughout the 1990’s and he became one of the founders and chief executive of AgGrow Oils, a 540-member LLC that integrated the production, processing, and marketing of both novel and designer oilseeds.

Just prior to WSU, Gardner spent six years at the University of Missouri as the Associate Dean/Director for Research and Outreach in the College of Agriculture, Food, and Natural Resources after which he became the Vice President for Research and Economic Development, a position similar to that he currently holds at WSU.