Ronald Offutt

DIRECTOR

Ronald (Ron) D. Offutt is the founder and chairman of R.D. Offutt Company and is the founder, chairman and chief executive officers of RDO Equipment Co.

Shortly after Offutt was born in Orrick, Mo., and his family moved to Moorhead, Minn., where they farmed. After high school he majored in economics and starred in football and wrestling at Concordia College in Moorhead. Graduating in 1964, Offutt became a business partner in his father’s farming operation, becoming the fourth generation in the potato business.

After four years of farming with his father, he pursued the goal of owning a John Deere implement dealership. In 1968, he purchased the Casselton, N. D., John Deere store by taking out a bank loan, selling a potato warehouse and 160 acres of the family's farmland, and paying the last $10,000 of the purchase price with a contribution from his grandmother. He began laying ground to the companies he founded, and still owns and operates. His business operations are divided into three separate operating units; agriculture, food processing and retail equipment, they include:

• R.D. Offutt Company includes a variety of businesses, and has 1,500 employees. The cornerstone is a 12-state 190,000-acre farming operation. The company is the nation’s largest producer of potatoes, with the majority of its 60,000-potato acres under center pivot irrigation. R.D. Offutt Company additionally operates a 26,000-acre farm and dairy operation in Boardman, Ore., which includes three dairies milking 21,000 cows. Internationally, Offutt operates a 7,000 acre farm in Krasnodar, Russia. The company also operates food processing manufacturing plants and markets its crops through relationships with major processors, such as Frito-Lay, Simplot, Con-Agra/Lamb-Weston, and McCain Foods.
• Offutt owns several food-processing companies. These companies employ 800 people and include Lamb Weston/RDO Frozen, in Park Rapids, Minn.; Ron Offutt Dairies, in Boardman, Ore.; Nonpareil RDO in O’Neill, Neb.; Idahoan Foods, LLC with locations in Dubois, Glenns Ferry, Idaho Falls, Lewisville, and Rupert, Idaho, and in Winnemucca, Nev., and RDO-Calbee, LLC in Boardman.
• RDO Equipment Co. is the largest network of John Deere construction and agricultural equipment dealerships in the United States, employing 1,700 people in 54 locations in nine states. Vermeer, Volvo and Mack truck centers, are also integral divisions within the company. Additionally, Offut has been engaging in business in Russia since 1991 and is currently the 50 percent owner of Agro Construction Technologies which is comprised of five John Deere agricultural locations located in the South Federal District of Russia.

In addition to the businesses that Offutt leads, he is active in the community, and serves on multiple boards and dedicates his time to several organizations and charities. He is currently chairman of the Board of Regents, Concordia College and has served on this board since 1989; in addition, he is a board member for the Farm Foundation Round Table, the Rabobank North American Agribusiness Advisors, Minnesota Agri-Growth Council and the Oak Grove High School Foundation. He formerly served on boards for the Fargo Downtown Community Partnership, the Northern Plains Ethics Institute, and US Bank.

Ron Offutt is also active in the following organizations: Trinity Lutheran Church of Moorhead; Red River Valley Potato Growers Association; National Potato Council; Potato Association of America; Potato Marketing Association of North America; Northwest Farm Managers Association; Minnesota Agri-Growth Council; Fargo-Moorhead Symphony; Trollwood Performing Arts Center; North Dakota State University (NDSU) Teammakers Club; NDSU Agriculture Club; NDSU Development Foundation, President’s Medallion Society; Ducks Unlimited; Boy Scouts of America; and the FFA.

Offutt is the recipient of the Schafer Excellence in Enterprise Award, University of Mary (1998); Northwest Farm Managers Pioneer of the Year Award (1998); Potato Association of America Honorary Life Membership Award (1998); Midwest Region Entrepreneur of the Year (1998); North Dakota State University Honorary Doctorate (1999); Concordia College Alumni Achievement Award (1999); Concordia College Athletic Hall of Fame (2000); Red River Valley Development Association Builder of the Year (2003); Moorhead High School Hall of Fame (2004) North Dakota Entrepreneur Hall of Fame (2006) and the World Potato Congress Potato Industry Award (2006).