DTN CEO Ron Sznaider to Retire; Kip Pendleton Named New CEO

MINNEAPOLIS, Sept. 19, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- DTN Chief Executive Officer Ron Sznaider today announced that he is retiring as CEO effective Oct. 1, 2017 after 34 years with the company. DTN Executive Chairman Jerre Stead said that Kip Pendleton, senior vice president-Agriculture, will replace Sznaider as CEO. DTN is an independent provider of information and actionable insights in the areas of agriculture, weather services, refined fuels and trading.

Stead said that while Sznaider is retiring as CEO, he will continue with the company for the near term as a senior advisor. In this role, Sznaider will support the company's continuing transformation in some of the areas most critical for DTN's long-term success, including mergers and acquisitions, global expansion and innovation in new offerings that leverage the company's assets even further toward offering world-class insight and analytics to its customers.

"Ron has made significant contributions to DTN over the many years he has served the company, and the DTN board and I thank him for his leadership and dedication to the company, our colleagues and customers," Stead said. "We look forward to his work in the senior advisory role as we continue to evolve and grow DTN in our mission to feed, fuel and protect the world."

Stead added: "We are very pleased to have someone with Kip's background and demonstrated success to replace Ron as CEO as we work on our plans to facilitate DTN's strategic and commercial expansion around the globe."

Pendleton joined DTN in July as senior vice president of Agriculture.  Prior to joining DTN, Pendleton was president of The Pendleton Group, a successful strategic consulting firm serving technology and agriculture companies. In addition, he was senior vice president and general manager of Ag at Hemisphere GPS; founder, president, CEO and chairman of DirectAg, the first e-commerce company in agriculture; and then president and co-CEO of Agristar, the company that acquired DirectAg. He has worked with leading public companies including DuPont Pioneer, Syngenta Northrup King and Dow AgroScience Mycogen Seeds.

About DTN
DTN is the independent, trusted source of actionable insights for 600,000 customers focused on feeding, protecting, and fueling the world. Customer-centric and employee-driven, the company focuses on empowering agriculture, oil & gas, trading, and weather-sensitive industries through continuous, leading-edge innovation. It also owns and operates The Progressive Farmer magazine, the premier publication in Agriculture. Based in Minneapolis and Omaha, Nebraska, DTN is owned by TBG, a private century-old investment holding company headquartered in Zurich.

SOURCE DTN