We launched our MyAgData leadership series in 2019 to spotlight the people behind our brand.
Our series began with a look at women in agriculture as we introduced our COO and co-founder Deb Casurella. We dug into life on the tech side as we spotlighted Ken Ullsperger, our CTO, then got to know our new CEO, Martin Barbre.
Now let’s meet German Mendoza, our brand new Sales and Client Success Director!
What made you want to work in the agriculture industry?
I started off as a developer with a consulting company and my first client was Rural Community Insurance Services in 1998. This was my introduction to the complexity of crop insurance and realized that there is some new problem to solve each day. It opened my eyes to the agriculture industry and the amount of data being collected and transformed into meaningful content.
Have you faced any challenges in the ag industry and if so, how did you overcome them?
The constant changes that occur with the government crop insurance program is always one of the biggest challenges. These changes sometimes required just a few weeks to implement once the requirements were finalized. This required a lot of flexibility within the business but also required a lot of collaboration within the different departments.
What accomplishment are you most proud of on your resume?
Being the first IT employee at ProAg, I had to build and lead a whole department from scratch that could support a company that peaked at about $750,000,000 in premiums.
Why do you believe it’s important to simplify the acreage reporting process for farmers, crop insurance agents and ag service providers?
The ag industry has always fallen behind the information technology curve. There is so much inefficiency with how things are done and unfortunately it affects the farmers the most. Acreage reporting is a major part of their operation and it helps establish their participation in various government programs along with the insurance aspect. Having this process simplified would enable them to worry about one less thing in their farming operation.
What are your top three personal values?
Family, happiness, and loyalty. There is nothing more gratifying than seeing my family smile and being happy.
Do you have a favorite quote or philosophy on life?
Understanding and solving issues is what drives me. This effort to learn things both at work and outside of work plays a large role in how I approach the things presented to me. There’s a certain sense of satisfaction in seeing an issue and figuring out and understanding the solution. This applies to simple and complex work items but also in my personal life, like understanding why the golf ball’s flight went the way it did, or how to solve my daughter’s high school math problems.
If you could change something in the ag industry, what would it be and why?
The ag industry is so vast so a consistency in standards is lacking. There isn’t even a simple commodity table where crop names and codes are standardized. As calculations get more complex, a standard set of rules would help eliminate the differing results and increase the overall confidence in the data.
What advice would you give to a potential client who is seeking to streamline their acreage reporting needs?
I’ve witnessed the inefficiencies that occur within the acreage reporting process and changing it to be more streamlined and consistent helps everyone involved in the process. Farmers save a lot of time to help them focus on their operations. Agents and ag service providers benefit with the reduced errors and also allows them more time to reduce costs and also grow their business.
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