A look at the people behind the numbers in area business:
DAVID BLACK CHS Inc.
Title: senior vice president, chief information officer
Age: 48
CHS Inc. chief information officer David Black, who's working to expand the use of technology in farming, has been named one of the top 100 CIO leaders in science, technology engineering and math (STEM) by STEMconnector, a national consortium that promotes STEM education.
Black also is making STEM students aware of opportunities to work on the technology trends that he sees transforming agriculture, including cloud computing, data analytics, the commercialization of technology and the increasing use of mobile technology on farms.
"This recognition continues to validate that CHS is a progressive company in the agriculture space," Black said. "It also helps bring visibility to a set of skills that CHS is going to need. CHS is beginning to be seen as not just my grandfather's cooperative."
Black said he is working to develop relationships with the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Business and other institutions to recruit students. CHS has a business analyst team program in which recent MBA graduates work with a specific business unit to solve business problems.
Black, who joined CHS a year ago, leads the global technology organization for the Inver Grove Heights-based Fortune 100 company, the nation's biggest farm cooperative and largest fertilizer wholesaler. He joined the company after 20 years at Monsanto Co., where he was vice president of information technology. Black has a computer science degree from Tarkio College.
