Charles D. Ahlem
Charles D. Ahlem is the owner/operator of Charles Ahlem Ranch in Turlock with 4,000 Jersey milking cows and farming 1,100 acres. In addition, he is a founding partner of Hilmar Cheese Company, which annually produces more cheese from its Hilmar, California site than any other facility in the world. He serves as member on the USDA Trade Policy Committee (APAC), the California Milk Advisory Board and the UC Davis Western Institute for Food Safety and Security. Ahlem has served as Undersecretary of the California Department of Food and Agriculture in the Schwarzenegger administration. Other positions of leadership have included serving as dairy industry representative on the State Board of Food and Agriculture and memberships on the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board and the UC President’s Advisory Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources. A lifetime resident of the Central Valley, Ahlem graduated with a degree in dairy science from California State University, Fresno.

Karen Caplan
Caplan is president and CEO of Los Angeles-based Frieda's Inc. The daughter of entrepreneur Frieda Caplan, she has developed the corporation to an annual sales level approaching $23 million, pioneering in quality control and merchandising of exotic fruit and vegetable products. A leader in the produce industry, she was the first female president of the Fresh Produce Council. She has served on the boards of the UC Davis Institute of Governmental Affairs, the UCD Cal Aggie Alumni Association and was recently appointed to a 3 year term as director of the Federal Reserve Bank Board in San Francisco. She earned her BS degree in agricultural economics and business management at UC Davis

Cornelius L. (Corny) Gallagher
Cornelius L. (Corny) Gallagher is senior vice president and agribusiness executive for Bank of America's Consumer and Commercial Banking Credit Risk Management Administration. Gallagher chairs the Risk Management Association's National Agricultural Lending Committee and is on the California Bankers Association Agricultural Lending Committee. He also chairs the Bank's California Political Action Committee. Gallagher is treasurer of the California 4-H Foundation Board, a member of the Cal Poly San Luis Obispo School of Agriculture Advisory Council and the Santa Clara University Advisory Board of the Institute of Agribusiness. He serves on the California Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee, the California Agricultural Roundtable, and is on the board of directors of The Agricultural Network, the California State Fair Agricultural Advisory Council, and the California Food and Fiber Future Advisory Board. Gallagher graduated from Iowa State University with a B.S. degree in animal science.

Betsy Marchand
Marchand served six terms on the Yolo County Board of Supervisors retiring in 1996. Her special interests and activities include water, land use, and transportation issues as well as criminal justice and health issues. Currently, Mrs. Marchand is President of the State Board of Reclamation appointed by the Governor in 2001. She is also a Tribal Gaming Commissioner for the Cache Creek Indian Bingo and Casino and a founding board member of the Yolo Basin Foundation. A member of a pioneer California family, she received a B.A. from Pomona College (Phi Beta Kappa) and an M.A. degree from Vanderbilt University, where she studied as a Ford Foundation Fellow. Mrs. Marchand has taught high school English and social studies in both Southern California and Northern California

Milenda Meders
A native Californian and a lifelong rancher, Meders manages a family field/row crop and almond operation and, with her husband, a cow-calf operation in the Central Valley. She graduated from California State University, Fresno, after majoring in dairy husbandry with minors in biology and journalism. She is active in numerous farm and community organizations and advisory groups, is director of the Madera County Cattlemen's Association, and has been livestock director of the Chowchilla County Fair and a board member of the Chowchilla Water District. A founder of Friends of Agricultural Extension, she continues to lead this nonpolitical support group in Fresno and Madera Counties

Steven D. Rystrom
Rystrom is from Chico, is a rice grower in Butte County, and has been an agricultural leader in his community and in the national rice industry. Rystrom graduated from UC Davis and did graduate work at Whitworth College in Washington. He began his farming career in 1976. Over the years, he has served as chair of the Butte County Rice Growers Association, Richvale Seed Growers Association, Northern California Production Credit Association, and the U.S. Rice Producers Group, California. Rystrom has recently served as director of the California Rice Commission, and in various capacities with the USA Rice Federation. Rystrom's interest and expertise concentrate in the area of farm program issues.

Peter K. Thor
Peter K. Thor is president of Bellissimo Foods, a national foodservice buying and marketing group. He has served as managing director and CEO for Pak Tech, a venture capital funded packaging (plastic) technology company and for SPC LIMITED, an Australian based processor and international marketer of vegetable and fruit products. He was executive vice president of Tri Valley Growers from 1989 - 1994 and has served on the faculty of the University of Santa Clara.  Thor graduated with a Ph.D. in Agricultural Economics from the University of California, Davis specializing in econometrics, with interests in marketing and finance.

Joe Zanger (Chair)
Zanger is a general partner of Casa de Fruta. Zanger is a graduate of UC Davis. The family business was founded in 1908 and has an agricultural history of growing, processing, and packaging apricots, cherries, pears, prunes, walnuts, wine grapes, lettuce and asparagus. Today, the retail location on Highway 152 includes a fruit stand, restaurant, wine tasting/deli, motel and other destination type activities. In addition to his work with the family farming and value added activities, Zanger has been active in the public policy arena for agriculture and business. He serves on the Farm Service Agency California State Committee, the U.S. Trade Representative’s Technical Advisory Committee for fruits and vegetables and is the chairman of the international trade committee for the California Farm Bureau. He has served on the California Farm Bureau board of directors and on many of its policy committees.

 

Former AIC Board Members
William F. Allewelt (chair) Jean Auer Arnold Barcellos Dan Dooley (chair) Richard Douglas Robert M. Eberhardt Tom Graff Ralph Grossi Alfoonso A. Guilin Less Guthrie George Hickman	Jyrl James-Massengale Luther J. Khachigian Arthur Littleworth Howard Margueleas Dorcas Thille McFarlane Michael J. Mendes Peggy Mesinger Graydon Nichols Jack Pandol	Victor Pankey Richard E. Rominger Lois Salisbury Henry Schacht Terry Scranton Brenda Jahns Southwick Henry Voss Richard Zacky