Keynote speakers

A number of our Certified Educators are available as speakers and conference workshop presenters, and we offer to identify and put you in touch with those who are most likely to serve your needs best. HMI staff are also available. Please call (505)-842-5252 or email hmi@holisticmanagement.org to request information.

Ann Adams

Ann Adams is the author of At Home with Holistic Management and is a Holistic Management® Certified Educator. She received her BSED in English Education and her PhD in American Literature from Indiana University and has taught in a variety of venues to numerous audiences. She is Director of Educational Products & Outreach for HMI as well as Managing Editor of IN PRACTICE, HMI's bimonthly journal. For the last eleven years she has worked to provide educational and outreach materials for Holistic Management practitioners and Certified Educators. She has edited the compilations Holistic Management: A New Environmental Intelligence and Improving Whole Farm Planning Through Better Decision-Making and has taught Holistic Management courses. She raises goats and chickens on a small 50-acre farm in the Manzano Mountains.

Iván Aurelio Aguirre Ibarra

Ivan Aguirre is a Range Resource Manager and Manager-co-owner of La Inmaculada de los Aguirre, S.P.R. de R.I. (Family Board) in Sonora, Mexico. He graduated in 1982 from Texas Tech University, School of Agriculture. Iván Aurelio became a member of Holistic Management International in 1985, and has been an active Certified Educator since 1993. He served as board member of the Arizona-based Sonoran Institute and is currently an active member of the Sonora Cattle Producers Association. He presents on his experience with diversifying enterprises on his family ranch.

Ben Bartlett

Ben Bartlett has worked with Dairy and Livestock Extension in the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan in such activities as improved animal handling and grazing management since 1983. He is also the owner and operator of a 400-sheep and 200-grazing cattle farm operation. Ben has been a speaker at grazing meetings across the US and Canada and the Eisenhower Exchange fellow to Argentina. He holds the 2001 Michigan State University Distinguished Extension Academic Staff Award among numerous other awards. He received his D.V.M. in Veterinary Science and a B.S. in Animal Husbandry from Michigan.

Don Campbell

Don Campbell was raised in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. He is a second generation rancher, who is now involving the third generation of Campbells in his family ranch operation. Together with his wife, Bev, he has raised four children (two sons and two daughters) on the family’s property. A long-time Holistic Management® Certified Educator and practitioner, Don has experience facilitating financial planning courses and he operates a private Holistic Management facilitating business that deals with people, land and finances and offers Holistic Management courses across Western Canada. Don sees that the results of Holistic Management in his own life have been impressive: a better quality of life, improved land and adequate profit.

Kirk Gadzia

Kirk Gadzia owns and operates Resource Management Services LLC, a training and consulting firm located in Bernalillo, NM. The focus of his work is based on the Holistic Management approach to agriculture and life. In this process, a “holisticgoal” drives the decisions that lead toward creating a rewarding life and profitability derived from land health. The model for making this work is mimicking natural systems and balancing lifestyle with long and short term goals. Kirk has extensive international experience in consulting with many agricultural operations throughout the United States and overseas. Kirk also provides customized training and consulting to a wide variety of public and private business and conservation organizations. Kirk is co-author of the National Academy of Science 1994 publication entitled ”Rangeland Health,” and is working to improve rangeland health monitoring techniques in a wide variety of environments.

Terry Gompert

Terry Gompert is a long time Nebraska Cooperative Extension Educator with a focus on grazing. He is a Holistic Management® Certified Educator and practioner on his small ranch. He has been producing grassfed beef for 11 years and classifies most of his herd with grassfed type genetics. He enjoys teaching low cost principles and likes practical application. He relates well to producers and knows land and livestock.

Graeme Hand

Graeme has worked as an industrial chemist, international marketer, meat industry consultant as well as farm consultant to many family and corporate farmers. He is based in South West Victoria, Australia and has a special interest in working with family farms helping to create profitable, sustainable farm businesses which are enjoyable to work in.

Graeme is a Holistic Management® Certified Educator and is one of a small number of Australian based trainers. Graeme and Susie have three children and manage a beef property at Branxholme.

Graeme trains throughout Australia on regenerating grasslands using planned grazing management. He has also carried out bushfire and drought extension for Victorian DPI, provided Holistic Management® training for CMA’s and universities, consulted for the meat industry on eating quality and marketing as well as currently managing STIPA Native Grass Association Inc.

Peter Holter

Peter is CEO of Holistic Management International, having come to HMI in 2005 as a management consultant. He brings over 30 years experience in the private sector, in senior management positions. He grew up working on cattle ranches in Northern and Central California. After a stint in corporate life, he started his own strategic services company, and, as president/CEO, grew it to include offices in San Francisco, New York City, Salt Lake City and Santa Fe. His clients in that business included some of the largest agricultural growers, packers, and shippers in Central California’s San Joaquin Valley.

After 15 years, he sold his company, and became part of an investment group, where, as president/CEO, he led the successful turnaround of two companies – one a national manufacturing firm, the other an insurance based health/wellness company operating in 4 western states. He has also served as an advisor providing investment, marketing, and management analysis on early stage investments in the agricultural, construction and hospitality industries. He has long had an interest in social entrepreneurship, which includes bringing business disciplines to the non-profit sector.

Joel Huesby

Joel Huesby, along with his family owns and operates Thundering Hooves-Pasture Finished Meats, a forage-based, direct market family farm. They also operate the largest Federal mobile slaughter floor in the U.S. and have processed and marketed meats from over 3,000 head of cattle, sheep, and pigs since receiving their Grant of Federal Inspection a little over two years ago. They sell their grass fed meat products primarily to their Neighborhood Buying Clubs and through select restaurants and institutions in the Pacific Northwest. He has been talking with individuals and producer groups across the country who are also interested in gaining greater control over their local food systems.

Greg Judy

Greg and Jan Judy of Clark, MO. run a custom grazing operation on 1,300 acres of leased land that is made up from 10 farms. Greg and Jan went from near bankruptcy in 1999 to paying off a 200-acre farm and house in 3 years with custom grazing on leased land. They custom graze cows, cow/calf pairs, bred heifers, and stockers. They also own a grass genetic cow herd, hair sheep flock, goat herd, and graze Tamworth pigs. They have also started direct marketing grass-fed beef, pork, and lamb.

After listening to Ian Mitchell Innes describe Holistic Management and reading Allan Savory's book Holistic Management: A New Framework for Decision Making, the Judys switched to what they call "Planned High Density Grazing" and have seen more positive changes in one year on their farms than the previous 14 years of Management Intensive Grazing combined. Greg wrote NO RISK RANCHING: Custom Grazing on Leased Land and has given numerous talks at schools all over the United States on the benefits of leasing land and custom grazing. Greg also does consultant work for other people interested in setting up grazing systems.

Peggy Maddox

Peggy Maddox is the Director of Education and Public Relations at the HMI West Ranch in Ozona, Texas and is a Certified Educator. She and her family have been managing land using the principles of Holistic Management since 1986. While helping with their family ranching operation, Peggy also taught public school for 17 years. She developed the program for gifted/talented students in grades 5-8 in Sweetwater, Texas, and taught the program for 13 years. During that time her students won recognition and grants from numerous groups. Peggy was named Teacher of the Year for her Region two times and was the Texas Association for Gifted/Talented Teacher of the Year in 2001. She was recognized by the Lt. Governor of Texas for her work as a teacher of young environmentalists. Glencoe/McGraw Hill tapped her as a mentor teacher and she presented workshops across Texas. In 2002 she received the Rachel Carson Women in Science Award from a Texas group of environmental organizations. She has a long time commitment to bringing kids on the land and is pleased to have begun the Learning in Nature with Kids (LINKS) program at West Ranch.

Ian Mitchell-Innes

Ian Mitchell-Innes is a South African whose family has been on the same ranch since 1863. He has practiced all forms of ranching and farming: growing crops, feedlotting, conventional extensive ranching, irrigated tropical and cool season grasses. At the age of 48, Ian settled into practicing Holistic Management. He is now a Holistic Management® Certified Educator.

When Ian completed Holistic Management® Financial Planning, he returned home and turned off his irrigation pumps—he has never turned them on again. He ceased all forms of farming. This amounted to huge savings, as there is no cost from electricity, tractor use, labor or fertilizer costs. No dosing or dipping is done, and as far as possible, no chemicals are used. This last year the only supplements given to cattle were salt and bone meal (phosphate). No hay bales or protein licks are used. Due to the increased production of grass, 7,000 acres have been leased out for the past three years, despite being in the worst drought of 40 years.

Dick Richardson

Dick Richardson grew up on a cattle ranch in the shadow of the Drakensberg Mountains in South Africa, and there developed his strong love of the land and the life upon it. After school, military service, Agricultural College, work on ranches in South Africa, the U.S., and Canada, he took a job as a safari guide which led him to Botswana and Namibia, where he worked amongst the huge herds of wild animals that are such an integral part of Africa.

Dick works on an extensive and thriving cattle ranch on the edge of the Kalahari in South Africa, trying to make a difference and providing a learning site for Holistic Management. He also teaches future Certified Educators in Africa and the U.S.

In 1995, Dick started his business as a fulltime Holistic Management facilitator, educator and process consultant. Growing the business, he now teaches and consults throughout Southern Africa, and has had speaking and teaching engagements in Australia and the United States.

Joel Salatin

Joel Salatin is a fulltime farmer in Virginia's Shenandoah Valley. A third generation alternative farmer, he returned to the farm fulltime in 1982 and continued refining and adding to his parents' ideas. The family's farm, Polyface Inc. ("The Farm of Many Faces"), services more than 1,000 families, 4 retail outlets, and 30 restaurants through on-farm sales and metropolitan buying clubs with salad bar beef, pastured poultry, eggmobile eggs, pigerator pork, forage-based rabbits, pastured turkey, and forestry products through relationship marketing. It has been featured in Smithsonian Magazine, National Geographic, Gourmet, and countless other radio, television, and print media.

When Joel was profiled on the Lives of the 21st Century series with Peter Jennings on ABC World News, Jennings after-broadcast chat room fielded more hits than any other segment to date. Joel holds a BA degree in English and writes extensively in magazines such as Stockman, Grass-Farmer, Acres USA, and American Agriculturist. In addition, he has authored five books, four of them how-to guides. His most recent release, Holy Cows and Hog Heaven: The Food Buyers Guide to Farm Friendly Food, is an attempt to bring producers and patrons together in mutual understanding and appreciation.

Wiebke Volkmann

A native of Namibia, Wiebke Volkmann has been a Holistic Management® Certified Educator since 2001. Wiebke began her career as an education officer at the State Museum of Namibia, and later went on to found (with her father Henner Volkmann) the Clay House Project, which assists people in building their own shelter using ecologically sound local materials. In February of 1999, Wiebke began Earth Wise Enterprise, where she offers her services as a freelance craft production facilitator and trains others in Holistic Management principles.

Wiebke spent four years on a cattle ranch in North-Central Namibia gaining practical experience in both land and livestock management. She is also a founding member of the Agricultural Training Centre Krumhuk, which is a private agricultural college for Namibia Youth.

Wiebke also actively participates in the Namibia Rangeland Forum, an annual meeting where scientists, extension workers, and community members gather to share information about sustainable management of Namibia Rangelands.

Since 2007, Wiebke has been both a mentor and trainer in the Holistic Management ® educator training program, and her most recent experience includes facilitator for Pre-Settlement Orientation Courses, along with Ongoing Learning, Mentoring, and Support Programs for farmers involved in the Namibian Emerging Commercial Farmers’ Support Program.

George Whitten

George Whitten lives out his dreams on land settled by his grandfather in 1897. He has ranched and farmed organically since 1975. He is also a father, husband, teacher and steward of the land. He has served on many boards in his community as a volunteer with an emphasis on water and education. He has an ongoing commitment to taking interns into the operation and developing the next generation of land stewards. He was at one time president of the local Sierra Club and the San Luis Valley Cattleman’s Association. He demonstrates an ability to work within his whole community for a more stable and diverse economy through sustainable land management.

George has been a Holistic Management practitioner for twenty-two years and is a consultant. He is working to become a Holistic Management® Certified Educator.