Jahmy Hindman
Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer
Jahmy Hindman, Ph.D., is the chief technology officer at John Deere, a position he has held since June 2020. He is responsible for building Deere’s “tech stack,” the company’s intuitive end-to-end equipment solution made up of hardware and devices, embedded software, connectivity, data platforms, and applications. He also leads the company’s Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) and is responsible for the global network of technology and innovation centers and the shared engineering function. Jahmy has more than 25 years of advanced technology, artificial intelligence, product engineering, and manufacturing experience. He earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Iowa State University as well as master’s and doctoral degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Saskatchewan.
Josh Jepsen
Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
Josh Jepsen is the chief financial officer at John Deere. He is responsible for advising the chief executive officer and other leaders on major financial and strategic issues, including efforts related to sustainability. Josh started his career 25 years ago with Deere at the company’s engine factory in Torreon, Mexico, and has held several roles globally in accounting and financial analysis as well as dealer development for the Construction & Forestry Division. He was controller for the company’s Asia-Pacific and Africa operations in Singapore, then served as manager of investor communications and eventually director of investor relations and deputy financial officer. Josh earned degrees in accounting and Spanish from the University of Northern Iowa and a master’s degree from the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business.
Deanna Kovar
President Worldwide Ag & Turf Division
Deanna Kovar is the president of Worldwide Agriculture & Turf Division at John Deere, responsible for the European, African, and Asian markets as well as the equipment and technology solutions that provide value to small ag and turf care customers globally. With expertise in agronomy, economics, products and technology, she has been instrumental in strengthening Deere’s position as a leader in precision agriculture technology solutions. During more than 20 years with Deere, she has held many roles in sales, marketing, and customer support. Deanna earned a bachelor’s degree in agricultural business management from the University of Wisconsin at Madison and a master’s in business administration from Loyola University in Chicago.
Willy Pell
CEO, Blue River Technology
Willy Pell is the chief executive officer at Blue River Technology (a John Deere company), a position he has held since April 2023. He is responsible for engineering and product development for the computer vision parts of autonomy and for new ventures at Blue River Technology. Willy started his career at Boeing, essentially creating a Google Earth for defense applications. He later moved to a Silicon Valley startup called 510 Systems and rolled it into Project Chauffeur that eventually became Waymo. Willy became an early employee at Blue River Technology, which applied computer vision and robotics to agriculture. He carries an impressive software background and is passionate about building systems that create a positive impact on the world. Willy holds a bachelor’s degree in computer sciences from the University of Colorado Boulder.
Aaron Wetzel
Vice President Production Systems, Production & Precision Ag
Aaron Wetzel is the vice president of Production and Precision Ag Production Systems at John Deere. With expertise in agronomy, economics, products, and technology, he leads a global team focused on developing Deere’s next generation of products and technology solutions that meet specific customer and market needs. Throughout his 35 years with Deere, he has contributed to the company’s success in various locations, including Germany and Latin America and in a variety of functions, including sales, marketing, strategic planning, and financial services. Aaron earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Augustana College and a master’s degree in business administration from Duke University.
Jason Brantley
Vice President, Production Systems, Small Ag & Turf.
Jason Brantley is the vice president of Production Systems and Small Ag & Turf at John Deere. He leads Deere teams focused on unlocking value for and delivering solutions to John Deere customers who operate in the dairy, livestock, small acre, high value crop and turf production systems.
Mr. Brantley previously served as the vice president of Asia, Africa & Middle East for John Deere. While leading the region, his team focused on providing customers at all stages of mechanization with the highest levels of performance and uptime, and lower overall costs through a network of world-class dealers. From 2015-2018, Mr. Brantley served as managing director for the John Deere Sales Branch based in Johannesburg, South Africa, and was responsible for leading John Deere’s agricultural business in Africa. He and his leadership team built a solid foundation to support Deere’s strategy and leveraged John Deere’s unique strengths to transform agriculture on the continent for both large and small farmers by successfully implementing the S.M.A.R.T. Campaign to improve agricultural productivity and profitability for customers.
Mr. Brantley began his career with John Deere in 1993. Since then, he has held leadership positions in sales, marketing, product development, innovation, and strategy in both the Ag & Turf and Construction & Forestry divisions. As John Deere’s director of Enterprise Advanced Marketing, he was responsible for John Deere’s technology innovation strategy and led key growth initiatives through technology innovation centers located in the U.S., Germany, Brazil, China, and India.
Jason earned an industrial engineering degree from North Carolina State University and his master’s degree in business administration from Daniels School of Business at Purdue University.
Jerred Pauwels
Vice President, Earth Moving, Production Systems & Engineering
Jerred Pauwels is the vice president of earth moving production systems and engineering at John Deere. In this position he oversees earthmoving equipment product development and excavator operations alongside division strategy, business development, and business planning. Having been with Deere for more than 31 years, Jerred has held multiple positions across the Construction and Forestry division and the finance division. Jerred earned his bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and his master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Gaurav Bansal
Vice President, Engineering & Autonomy, Blue River Technology
Gaurav Bansal is the vice president of engineering and autonomy at Blue River Technology (a John Deere company), where he leads engineering teams to build safe, reliable, and productive autonomous systems for Deere’s customers. Gaurav joined Blue River Technology more than 5 years ago. During this time, he helped launch the first autonomous vehicle for Deere. Prior to Blue River Technology, Gaurav was a principal engineer at Acubed where he supported the creation of the first commercial aircraft with AI. Gaurav earned his bachelor’s degree in technology and electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, and his doctorate in statistical signal processing, optimization, and machine learning from the University of British Columbia.
Cristiano Correia
Vice President, Production Systems
Cristiano Correia is vice president of production systems for Latin America and global vice president for sugarcane.
He helps Brazilian customers achieve increasingly higher productivity in their fields, cost reduction, and sustainability through the company’s technological and innovative solutions.
His professional journey with John Deere began as an intern in 2001 at the Horizontina factory. In 2011, he took on the role of operations manager at the Montenegro (RS) factory and, in 2014, he became General Manager of the John Deere Construction and Forestry factory in Indaiatuba (SP). Between 2018 and 2020, he was director of product marketing and, later, director of marketing for Latin America. In 2021, he was invited to work as global leader of strategic planning in Moline, Illinois, a position that expanded his knowledge and international vision for the business.
Cristiano earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from the University of Santa Maria, a graduate specialization in production engineering from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, a master’s of business administration from Getulio Vargas Foundation, and the Kellogg School of Management’s chief marketing officer program at Northwestern University.
Jon Chase
Vice President, Marketing & Shared Services
Jon Chase is the vice president of marketing and shared services for John Deere’s Ag & Turf Division. With his team, he focuses on transforming Deere’s business by building and delivering world-class marketing capabilities and enhanced go-to-market support for the company’s North American dealers. Throughout his 22 years at Deere, Jon has worked in all Ag & Turf segments, including turf, small ag, and large ag as well as multiple operations and marketing positions throughout the U.S. and Germany. In addition, he worked in Deere’s Construction & Forestry Division, where he was responsible for the production of the excavator product line. Jon earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering from Kettering University and a master’s degree in business administration from Harvard Business School.
Julien Le Vély
Director, Production Systems, High Value & Small Acre Crops
Julien Le Vély is director of production system, high value and small acre crops. He is responsible for unlocking value for John Deere customers in the high value and small acre crop space, like orchards, vineyards, bedded crops, but also small size farms around the globe that need tailored solutions. Additionally, Julien and his team lead Global Utility tractors and electrification. During Julien’s 23 years at Deere he has been on teams supporting Ag & Turf, Construction, and battery electric systems. Julien earned his mechanical engineering degree from the University of Nantes, France, his master’s in mechanical engineering from Kansas State University, and his master’s in business administration from the University of Chicago.
Sarah Schinckel
Director, Emerging Technology
Sarah Schinckel is the director of emerging technologies and architecture in the Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) at John Deere. She and her team set the technical vision for the future of Deere’s technology stack and support achieving that vision through design, research, and experimentation. She has over 20 years of experience in technology related engineering roles and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer science and a master’s degree in engineering management, both from Iowa State University. She also has graduate certificates from Iowa State University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Igino Cafiero
Director, High Value Crop Autonomy
Igino Cafiero is the director at Bear Flag Robotics (a John Deere company). Prior to Deere’s acquisition of Bear Flag Robotics in August 2021, Igino was the company’s CEO. Igino has a passion for building technology that delivers real, measurable value to farmers. Igino earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon, a master’s degree of science in electrical engineering from Stanford University, and a master’s degree in business association from The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania).
Matt Potter
Director, Robotics & Mobility Technology
Matthew Potter is the director of robotics & mobility within the Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) at John Deere, where he leads advanced R&D and delivery of modules that comprise the precision tech stack. He leads an organization of cross-functional teams that develop rugged hardware, software, algorithms, and testing and span technologies such as GNSS, electrification, connectivity, edge compute, perception, advanced sensing, and embedded controllers and displays. In his prior role, he led engineering at Blue River Technology (a John Deere company) to develop and launch See & Spray Ultimate™, a first-of-its-kind AI-based computer vision robot for agriculture. Matthew earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Nebraska, a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Minnesota, and a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Aaron Wells
Director of Engineering, Blue River Technology
Aaron Wells is the director of engineering and autonomy at Blue River Technology (a John Deere company). He leads the teams that develop the perception system that enables autonomy on John Deere’s large ag products. In addition, Aaron’s group is the core autonomy safety team that serves as the center of excellence for AI enabled offroad autonomy perception within Deere.
Aaron owns several patents in the drone space and has patents pending in the autonomy space.
Aaron began his career in the military, leading fighter aircraft support operations prior to joining Deere. During his 16 years at John Deere, Aaron’s first role was in PV&V in Application Equipment during a new Tier 4 machine program. He worked on projects that put technology and cameras on equipment, including Vision RowSense and See & Spray Select. aron developed one of Deere’s first drone-based solutions, a container-based See & Spray drone, which was unveiled at the 2018 Agritechnica. Following the Blue River acquisition, Aaron served as the engineering lead to help the team deliver their first product: See & Spray Ultimate™. In 2020, Aaron joined Blue River Technology’s autonomy team to lead the development of the perception safety framework and held various leadership positions as the team grew.
Aaron earned his engineering mechanics and astronautics degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Brad Powers
Director, Engineering, Blue River Technology
Brad Powers is director of engineering and autonomy at Blue River Technology (a John Deere company). In his role, he and his team focus on aggressively building out Deere’s newest autonomy program, commercial mowing. Prior to mowing, Brad explored automation and autonomy in the forestry division at Deere. Brad earned his bachelor’s degree in robotics from the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering.
Mike Kool
Senior Product Manager, Connected Fleet
Mike Kool is the senior product manager of connected fleet at John Deere. He leads a team of project managers and engineers working on connectivity, specifically the vision and strategy for connected fleet solutions to help the company achieve its goal of connecting 1.5 million machines by 2026. Throughout his 12 years with Deere, Mike has worked in supply management, telecommunications, connectivity, and product development roles for agriculture and construction equipment. He earned his bachelor’s degree in sociology from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Maya Sripadam
Senior Product Manager, Blue River Technology
Maya Sripadam is a senior product manager for autonomy at Blue River Technology (a John Deere company). In this role, she and her team develop autonomous solutions for Deere’s earthmoving division. Prior to this role, Maya led product development initiatives across Blue River to deliver world-changing artificial intelligence products to farmers. Her work spans from ideation to execution, with a focus on connecting top engineering minds to customer needs. She most recently contributed to Deere’s core autonomous tractor system. Maya earned a bachelor’s degree in information systems from Carnegie Mellon University.
Jonny Spendlove
Manager, Precision Construction
Jonny Spendlove is the manager of Precision Construction at John Deere. He leads a team of product managers developing jobsite safety, grade management, autonomy, connectivity, and automation solutions. Throughout his 12 years with Deere, he has worked in sales, marketing, and product development roles for agriculture and construction equipment. Jonny earned a bachelor’s degrees in English and economics from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Chicago.
Kevin Very
Manager, Production Systems & Product Management
Kevin Very is the manager of earthmoving production systems and product management in the John Deere Construction & Forestry Division. With expertise in civil engineering, construction management, and technology, he leads a team focused on identifying technology-forward solutions to unlock sustainable value for earthmoving customers. Kevin earned a bachelor’s degree in civil engineering from North Dakota State University and a master’s degree in business administration from Duke University.
Chase Tew
Manager, Production Systems and Precision Turf
Chase Tew is a seasoned professional with 26 years of experience at John Deere, specializing in B2B production systems and precision turf management. Throughout his career, Chase has worked in customer support, sales, dealer development, and product development, consistently driving innovation and efficiency. He excels in delivering customer-centric products to market, having successfully launched more than 12 new product development programs since 2011.
As the B2B production system & precision turf manager, Chase leverages his extensive expertise to enhance operational performance and deliver exceptional results. At CES 2025, he will be focusing on the latest advancements in precision turf technology and its application in the professional mowing industry.
Chase earned a bachelor’s degree in biological and agricultural engineering technology from North Carolina State University, and graduated with honors with a master’s of business administration from Campbell University.
Jeff Runde
Manager, Autonomy Technical Delivery
Jeff Runde is a manager of autonomy technical delivery in the Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) at John Deere. In this position, he leads the team responsible for engineering Deere’s first large ag autonomous product, Jupiter. Over his four years at Deere, Jeff has also worked as a senior staff engineer. Jeff earned a bachelor’s degree in software engineering from the University of Wisconsin Platteville and a Deere Systems Engineering Certificate from Caltech.
Al Savage
Manager, Starfire Network
Al Savage is the manager of the StarFire™ Network within the Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) at John Deere. Together with his team, they provide 99.999-percent uptime of the GPS signal to Deere customers and their operations while continuing to innovate the network for future enhancements. Throughout his 10-year career with John Deere he has held many roles, but most notably was part of the team that launched two new StarFire signals (SF3 and SF4) and built two new data centers. Al has earned a bachelor’s degree from ITT in electronics engineering and a master’s degree in business administration from University of Phoenix.
David Veasy
Senior Product Manager, Autonomy
David Veasy is a senior product manager for autonomy at John Deere. In this role, he works to align Deere’s technical and business capabilities to solve customer’s biggest challenges. By improving the construction industries’ inefficiencies with AI, self-driving, and remote control, he enables the improvement of Deere’s infrastructure. In David’s 15 years at Deere, he has developed electrical, hydraulic, and machine control features on the motor grader platform, leading to 16 patents in machine control and automation. He also led Deere’s construction division software test organization, developing front line experience ensuring the quality of Deere’s technology solutions. David earned his bachelor’s degree in electrical and electronics engineering from Michigan Technological University.
Chung Hsieh
Senior Starfire Network Engineer
Chung Hsieh is a senior infrastructure engineer at John Deere who has worked within the StarFire™ network in various capacities throughout his 12 years with the company. He architected and drove the implementation of the current iteration of the StarFire network. Currently, Chung works with all aspects of the StarFire network, such as its IT server and networking infrastructure, and its satellite communication and infrastructure. Prior to his career with John Deere, he owned and operated an engineering services company that specialized in high-speed data capture and signal processing of radar systems. Chung earned a bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Kristen Cadman
Manager, Advanced R&D
Kristen Cadman is a perception technology and advanced research & development manager who has been with John Deere for more than 24 years. She was a Backhoe Hydraulic Engineer for six years, where she contributed to the first construction and forestry division electro-hydraulic machine in production. She was a controls engineer in the Intelligent Solutions Group, a senior hydraulic engineer for excavators, and a vehicle performance engineer for global excavator projects for nine years. Kristen earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin—Platteville.
Kasey Kelly
Product Manager, Articulated Dump Trucks
Kasey Kelly is a product manager for articulated dump trucks (ADTs) at John Deere. In her role, Kasey spends her time understanding what ADTs do in the wild—how customers use them, what they need from them, and how Deere can continue to improve. During her 11 years at Deere, Kasey has been on the site development production system team, and a project manager for construction and forestry. As a project manager, she supported dealer and stakeholder communications on critical initiatives. She also served as a communications manager for various businesses in Ag and Turf and has worked with teams across product segments from combines, cane and sugar harvesting, planters, sprayers, and balers. Kasey earned her bachelor’s degree in political science from St. Cloud State University and her master’s of science in international development from the School of Oriental and African Studies London, UK.
Dave Silver
Head of Engineering, Bear Flag Robotics
David Silver is head of engineering, overseeing orchard autonomy at Bear Flag Robotics (a John Deere company). David brings 20 years of experience in autonomous vehicles and mobile robotics to Deere. David earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University, his master’s degree of science in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University, and his doctorate in robotics from Carnegie Mellon University.
Aish Korde
Senior Robotics Engineer
Aish Korde is a senior engineer of robotics at Bear Flag Robotics (a John Deere company). During Aish’s three years with John Deere, she’s worked on building an autonomous orchard tractor, starting with blast spraying in almond orchards.
Aish works on GPS-denied navigation and contributes to John Deere’s tech stack. She is also part of the Women in Product Engineering 2024 Cohort – a leadership/professional development group within Deere.
Aish earned her bachelor of science in engineering from Harvey Mudd College.
Greg Christensen
Go-to-Market Manager, Small Tractors
Greg Christensen is the go-to-market manager for Utility Tractors and High Value Crops at John Deere, where he oversees the strategic promotion and sales of key products, including the 5 Series Utility Tractors, GUSS automated sprayers, the Smart Apply Intelligent Spray Control System, and John Deere Precision Technology within the High Value Crop production system. With over 21 years of experience at John Deere, Greg has worked in various roles across Sales, Marketing, Dealer Development, and Product Development. He has managed numerous product lines and collaborated with different dealers and customer segments worldwide, including international assignments in Brazil. Greg holds bachelor’s degrees in marketing and finance from Iowa State University.
Clint Masterson
Product Manager, Bear Flag Robotics
Clint Masterson is product manager of HVC Autonomy at Bear Flag Robotics (a John Deere company). He is the sole product manager focused on bridging autonomous technology with Deere’s go-to-market teams and building the user experience alongside Intelligent Solutions Group (ISG) Operations Center teams.
Clint’s career has traditionally been in vehicle telematics and fleets, developing a deep understanding of running fleets of vehicles to his Deere team and products.
Clint earned his degree in sociology from the University of Maryland and his master’s in computer science from Arizona State University.
Ellery Hanlin
Product Management Lead, B2C
Ellery Hanlin is the manager of Turf Electrification Strategy at John Deere. She leads the business, product, and market strategy for electrifying John Deere’s Turf portfolio of products, including tech stack readiness and preparing dealers to support electric products.
Ellery is also the program management lead, B2C. Leading John Deere’s business-to-consumer (B2C) organization through new product development and launch. That’s new mowers or compact tractors, from traditional technology/powertrain to the most cutting edge!
Ellery earned her bachelor’s degree in industrial and systems engineering from Virginia Tech; and her master’s degree in business administration from the University of Tennessee.
She is passionate about delivering innovative products and solutions to improve the lives and livelihoods of those linked to the land!
Tim Lewis
Senior Product Engineer
Tim Lewis is a senior product engineer of Precision Turf at John Deere. Together with his team, Tim leads commercial mowing and precision turf focusing on autonomous commercial mowers. In his 12 years with John Deere, Tim has been a part of early product development, especially the battery electric commercial mower, and early stages of autonomous development. Tim earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from Dordt College (Now Dordt University) in Sioux Center Iowa with a Minor as a Kuyper Scholar. He also earned his systems engineering and management certificate from John Deere and the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, California.
Ben Heimbuch
Vehicle Engineering Lead
Ben Heimbuch is an engineering lead on autonomous tractors at John Deere. Together with his team, Ben guides the translation of customer needs into an executed engineering solution. In his 19 years with Deere, Ben has supported the 8RX track development and Kreisel battery delivery, and served as an Arizona test site supervisor. Ben earned his bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and German from Iowa State University and his system design & management certificate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Shelby Eaton
Production Systems Program Manager, High Value & Small Acre Crops
Shelby is program manager, High Value & Small Acre Crops at John Deere. She leads strategic projects impacting John Deere’s high value (fruits, nuts & vegetables) and small acre crop customers. Most recently Shelby worked on Deere’s battery electric autonomous tractor. During her seven years with Deere Shelby has held many different positions, before her current position she was the manager of Battery Electric Systems Program Manager.
Shelby earned her business administration degree in biology and business management from Luther College and her master’s of business administration from The University of Chicago Booth School of Business.
