Biography of Ryan Weston
Chief Executive Officer, Florida Sugar Cane League
Washington Representative, Texas and Hawaii Sugarcane Growers

 

Ryan joined the Florida, Texas and Hawaii Sugarcane Growers in 2006.  He advises and provides strategic planning for his growers, mills and refineries on the domestic sugar program, international trade and other issues that impact the sugar industry and agriculture production.  He represents the industry before Congress and the Administration and at U.S. and international trade ministerials.

Ryan is the immediate past Chairman of the American Sugar Alliance which represents all U.S. sugar production and the majority of U.S. sugar refining.  He has also served on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Agriculture Advisory Committee and the Department of Agriculture and United States Trade Representative’s Agricultural Trade Advisory Committee (ATAC) for Sweeteners.

Ryan worked for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Agriculture for over 10 years and organized more than 50 hearings and completed two Farm Bills.  Ryan specialized on farm and conservation programs, trade agreements, derivatives trading, rural development, energy and specialty crops. He staffed Committee Members during negotiations for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, the 2002 Energy Conference and the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 Conference in addition to the 1996 and 2002 Farm Bill Conferences.

His Hill career began with Chairman Pat Roberts and continued with Chairmen Smith, Combest and Goodlatte.  He served as Subcommittee Staff Director for Chairman Ewing and ended his Committee work as Subcommittee Staff Director for Chairman Frank D. Lucas.  Ryan’s only departure from the Agriculture Committee was in 1996 when he served as Agriculture Legislative Assistant to Speaker Boehner.

Ryan has served on the Florida State Society’s Board of Directors and is a past President of the Agribusiness Club of Washington, DC.  He has been presented with awards from the National Association of Wheat Growers and Pheasants Forever and was a past co-nominee as Futures Magazine “Impact Person of the Year.”

He enjoys golf, hunting, fishing, skiing, snowboarding and almost any other outdoor activity in his spare time.  In the case of inclement weather, any book focused on history will do. 

Ryan and his wife, Carmen, live in Arlington, Virginia.  Ryan was raised on a cattle ranch near Springview, Nebraska where his parents still live and where he enjoys working whenever possible.  He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a major in finance and a minor in political science.  Carmen is a Special Education teacher at a Spanish immersion elementary school.