DR. DAVID KOHL

Kohl has traveled over 9 million miles throughout his professional career! He has conducted more than 7,000 seminars and webinars for agricultural groups such as bankers, Farm Credit, FSA, and regulators, as well as producer and agribusiness groups. He regularly speaks at over 20 young farmer programs annually. He has published five books and over 2,500 articles and video blogs on financial and business-related topics online and in journals, extension, and other popular publications. Kohl regularly writes for Corn and Soybean Digest, Farm Futures, and other ag lending publications.

He has received 11 major teaching awards while teaching over 10,000 students, and 25 major Extension and Public Service awards from Virginia Tech, Cornell University, and state and national organizations. Kohl is a two-time recipient of the prestigious American Agricultural Economics Association’s Outstanding Teaching Award. Kohl is one of only five professors in the 100-year history of the Association to receive the award twice. He received the Governor’s award for his distinguished service to Virginia agriculture, the youngest recipient to receive this award. Kohl was recognized as one of 30 leaders who are the brains behind innovative business management and economic information that agriculture uses today. He also has been named one of 7 economists and bankers who challenge the status quo.

Kohl has addressed the American Bankers Agricultural Conference for more than 40 consecutive years, and has appeared before numerous state bankers’ schools and conferences throughout the U.S., Canada, Mexico, and the world. He is also one of the top-rated instructors at the LSU and Colorado Graduate Schools of Banking, and is Chancellor of the nationally acclaimed Farm Credit University, which has had over 6,000 enrollments of lenders and producers using a blended online and face-to-face educational approach.

As facilitator of the United States Farm Financial Standards Task Force and member of the Canadian Agricultural Financial Standards Task Force, Dr. Kohl was one of the leaders in establishing guidelines for the standardized reporting and analysis of agricultural producers’ financial information on a national and international basis. The Kohl Agribusiness Centre has been established in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech in honor of his long-term commitment to practical teaching, research, and extension. In 2017, Kohl was inducted into the Virginia Tech College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Hall of Fame.

Kohl is currently President of AgriVisions, LLC, a knowledge-based consulting business providing cutting-edge programs to leading agricultural organizations worldwide. He is also a business coach and part owner of Homestead Creamery, a value-added dairy business in the Blue Ridge Mountains. On a more personal note, Dave enjoys playing basketball and likes most sports, farms, dogs, and covered bridges; he dislikes lazy students, administrative bureaucracies, and paperwork!