Mike grew up on his family’s dairy farm in southeastern Wisconsin. His lifelong interest in agriculture production led him to the University of Wisconsin – Platteville, where he received his Bachelor of Science degree in Agribusiness with a minor in Dairy Science. While still a student, Mike served a one-year term as a Wisconsin State FFA Officer.
In 1995, Mike began his work in the futures industry as an intern researching the technical and fundamental dynamics of commodity market price trends. Armed with that understanding, Mike helped to grow the company into one of the pioneers of market responsive option hedging programs. Armed with that knowledge, he was sought to address agricultural groups across the country as they wrestled with the topic of growing market volatility.
In 2014, Mike founded Commodity Risk Management Group (CRMG). CRMG would merge with Rice Dairy in 2019 to form ever.ag, a company which provides a suite of marketing and risk management services for producer, processor, and end user clients across its brokerage, insurance, advisory, and technology platforms while producing high-level unbiased research and education to help those clients make better decisions. The new company grew very quickly and in June 2021 merged with Dairy.com to further build upon shared technology synergies and an interest to empower supply chains to feed a growing world. Ever.Ag offers a vast array of solutions across all segments of agriculture.
Education continues to be one of Mike’s passions. Mike is routinely published in many agricultural periodicals, is a frequent guest on several national television programs such as AgDay, RFDTV, and the U.S. Farm Report, and is often heard on local and national radio programs. Mike has served as a part time professor at the University of Wisconsin – Platteville and regularly enjoys engaging agricultural audiences across America.
For over a decade, Mike served on the board of directors of the Dairy Business Association (DBA), the policy advocate for the Wisconsin Dairy Industry. He served one term as its president. Mike has been honored as the 2006 Rising Star in Business for the IA, IL, & WI Tri-State Region. His alma mater awarded him the Outstanding Alumni Award in 2011 and the Distinguished Alumni Award in 2021. Mike and his wife Jennifer have four daughters and are actively involved in showing animals, the leadership of their homeschool community and church. Mike is an avid sportsman who enjoys outdoor sports of every kind.
