The plant nutrition team at Compass Minerals continues to grow with the additions of Sean Knapp, vice president of North America; Ron Restum, strategic account director; and Cole Hansen, marketing and product strategy director.
“Sean, Ron and Cole add tremendous talent to our team,” says Brad Griffith, senior vice president of plant nutrition at Compass. “They bring more than 70 years of combined agricultural experience to our growing specialty plant nutrition business. We’re excited for the energy, insights and leadership they provide and the impact they will have on our business.”
In his new role as vice president of North America, Knapp will oversee the continent’s business strategy in sales, marketing, product management and channel distribution. Knapp joins Compass Minerals following a nearly 20-year career at Syngenta, a global agricultural product company, where he held leadership roles in their vegetable seeds, crop protection and customer programs divisions. Prior to his time at Syngenta, Knapp worked in agricultural retail sales, providing agronomic support to growers in southwestern Illinois. Knapp grew up on his family’s Illinois cattle and grain farm and earned his bachelor of science in agribusiness economics from Southern Illinois University.
Given the company’s growing plant nutrition business, Restum will manage and build key customer accounts as the strategic account director. He will be focused on establishing and growing relationships with key accounts to identify product opportunities and ensure an ideal customer experience. He has an extensive background in agriculture having spent time at Koch Agronomic Services and at Agrium. Restum earned a bachelor of business administration in management and marketing from Western Michigan University.
As the director of marketing and product strategy, Hansen will be responsible for the commercialization of the plant nutrition portfolio. His role will include go-to-market strategy, product management and marketing communications. Prior to joining Compass Minerals, Hansen worked for Dow AgroSciences, primarily in the seed division. Raised on a Nebraska farm, he holds a bachelor of agricultural business from the University of Nebraska.
Knapp, Restum and Hansen will support the company’s high-quality specialty plant nutrition products, which includes a line of micronutrients that coat onto dry fertilizer, namely Wolf Trax DDP Nutrients and Protassium+ sulfate of potash. This fall the company will roll out a portfolio of water soluble plant nutrition products in the United States. With the acquisition of Produquímica last year, Compass Minerals will now offer North American growers a diverse portfolio of high-quality water-soluble technologies.