Staff

The Entrepreneurship Project for Agriculture is led by three persons affiliated with the University of Missouri.

Randall Westgren, Ph.D., is a professor of agribusiness management in the Department of Agricultural and Applied Economics. He joined the University in December 2008 as the Al and Mary Agnes McQuinn Chair in Entrepreneurial Leadership. Prior to his appointment at Missouri, he was professor of business administration and professor of agribusiness management at the University of Illinois, where he was director of the Center for International Business Education and Research (CIBER). Before joining UIUC in 1995, he was department chair in agricultural economics at McGill University (Montréal, Canada; 1989-1995) and assistant professor of agribusiness in the Leavey School of Business, Santa Clara University (California, 1984-1989).

Westgren has taught courses in strategic management and marketing at the undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as to food industry executives. He lectures regularly in France, Spain, and Canada. He enjoys regular stints teaching principles of microeconomics and principles of management to first-and second-year students. His research and outreach focus on firm and inter-firm strategies in the agri-food sector, including the development of supply chains for biotechnology products, high-value intrinsic attributes, and other consumer-driven entrepreneurial opportunities.

Westgren received his bachelor of science from Cornell University, the MBA from Denver University, and the Ph.D., in agricultural economics from Purdue University.

Peter Hofherr is the assistant director of McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership at the University of Missouri. In addition, he is an entrepreneur in the agrifood industry. He is the CEO of St. James Winery in Phelps County.

Mr. Hofherr has taught fundamentals of entrepreneurship and economics of family business to undergraduates at the University of Missouri over the past five years. Hofherr has been a leader in the Missouri agri-food sector for 13 years, as a member of the State Wine Board and Missouri Grape Growers Association, as vice-president of the Mid-America Agricultural Trade Council, and as a member of three commissions. He served as the deputy director and director of the State Department of
Agriculture, managing 350 employees, two foreign offices, $35 million annual budgets, and the strategic management of the agency and trans-departmental task forces. He had several leadership roles in the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture, including committees and task forces on marketing and international trade, food and agricultural security, and biotechnology.

Hofherr holds the bachelor of science from Auburn University and a MBA from Georgia State University.

Jill Lucht is the program coordinator of The Entrepreneurship Project. Lucht joins the project with 10 years of experience working with farm groups on policy and value-added agriculture initiatives. Her interest in agriculture and food is rooted in her experiences growing up and working on her family’s dairy farm in Wisconsin. She is currently a member of the Missouri Farmers Union board, and spends her free time milking goats at Goatsbeard Dairy, a small goat cheese producer near Columbia, Mo.

Lucht holds a bachelor of science from the University of Wisconsin and a masters of science from the University of Missouri. Both of her degrees are in the field of rural sociology.

Kathleen Sprouse is the communications correspondent for The Entrepreneurship Project. Sprouse promotes the training program through producing videos, capturing photographs and writing for the blog. While traveling with the program, she also creates research case studies of successful entrepreneurs that The Entrepreneurship Project meets on tours during the modules. As a research fellow of the McQuinn Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership, Sprouse’s research focuses on learning about the entrepreneurial process in the agri-food industry.The case studies serve as educational material for students and aspiring entrepreneurs in Missouri.

Sprouse is currently a senior agricultural journalism student at the University of Missouri.

Jamie Goncalves is the video correspondent for The Entrepreneurship Project. Goncalves promotes the training program through producing videos along with capturing photographs and writing for the blog. Goncalves also works as a videographer at KOMU-TV News in Columbia, Mo. Further, his interest in cinematography has led him to his newest project, developing and filming a documentary.

Goncalves is currently a junior at the University of Missouri studying broadcast journalism with a minor in history and Portuguese.