Moorhead, MN – Perry Skaurud was elected Chairman of the Board at American Crystal Sugar Company’s December 2023 board meeting following the cooperative’s annual shareholders’ meeting.
Skaurud has served on the American Crystal board for 10 years, serving as the vice chairman for the past two, and has chaired the finance, operations and compensation committees. He was first elected as a director representing the Hillsboro Factory District in 2013, has served as Chairman of the Hillsboro Factory Growers Board, and has served the Red River Valley Growers Association Board from 2002 to 2013. Skaurud is a fifth-generation farmer from Gary, MN, where he, his wife, and son are partners in Skaurud Grain Farms, formed in 1977. The family farm has diversified crop production, growing sugarbeets, corn, silage corn, wheat, alfalfa, edibles, and soybeans. Skaurud also serves as a director on boards for the American Sugarbeet Growers Association, United Sugar Producers and Refiners, Midwest Agri-Commodities, and United Valley Bank.
At the same meeting, Jim Nelson was elected Vice Chairman of the Board. Nelson is a fifth-generation farmer from Oslo, MN. He and his wife, along with their two sons, are partners in Nelson Farms where they are diversified growing sugarbeets, corn, wheat, barley, and soybeans. Nelson has served on the American Crystal board for ten years and has chaired the ag and finance committees. Nelson also serves as a board director for the American Sugarbeet Growers Association and the Farmers Elevator Co-op of Alvarado, MN.
Marsha Weber was the newly elected director at the meeting, replacing Dale Fischer after he retired from the Moorhead Factory District. Weber and her husband, Todd, live and farm near Casselton, ND. Todd Weber Farms has grown wheat, soybeans, and corn, and has grown sugarbeets for American Crystal for more than 30 years and their adult children are shareholders and active growers. Weber has a 33-year career in higher education at local colleges and universities with an educational background in business, finance, and economics. She also serves on the board of directors at Thoreson Steffes Trust Company.