Richard T Crowder

Richard Crowder, who has more than 40 years of public and private sector experience in the food, agriculture and trade industries, is currently serving as an adjunct professor in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics at Virginia Tech. From January 2006 until May 2007, he served as the U.S. Chief Agriculture Negotiator where he was responsible for directing all U.S. agriculture negotiations worldwide including multilateral negotiations in the WTO as well as regional and bilateral negotiations. He served as a senior advisor to the United States Trade Representative from May 2007 until April 2008. Before joining the U.S. Trade Representative office, he served as CEO of the American Seed Trade Association. His 30 plus years of domestic and international private sector experience includes senior management positions in a number of companies throughout the food industry including The Pillsbury Company, Armour-Swift Eckridge, DEKALB Genetics and Wilson & Co. He served as Under Secretary International Affairs and Commodity Programs for the United States Department of Agriculture from 1989-1992. In this role he was responsible for all USDA agencies dealing with international trade and development as well as domestic farm programs. He led the agriculture negotiations for the United States in the Uruguay Round and managed the 1990 Farm Bill process. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from Virginia Tech and a Ph.D. from Oklahoma State University in Agricultural Economics.