The Board of the Prairie Oat Growers Association (POGA) is pleased to announce that on May 1, 2019, Jenneth Johanson of Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba, took over the role as President of POGA.
“POGA would like to thank Art Enns, Previous POGA President, for all his hard work and dedication since taking over the President role in 2013,” says Shawna Mathieson, POGA Executive Director. Art has been a huge asset to oat growers around Western Canada. He has participated in numerous meetings, missions and events. A few examples including attending missions to Mexico for 4 straight years where, in 2018, Canada secured nearly 100% of the oat exports and where Canadian oat exports have seen record years in the past 3 out of 4 years. In addition, Art was a key leader on the Ottawa Policy missions for the last five years, and he continues to sit on the Crop Logistics Working Group on behalf of POGA. Art has attended hundreds of meetings and events to ensure oat growers around Western Canada had an active voice at key meetings. “The strides POGA has made would not have been possible without Art’s continued dedication and perseverance, we could not have asked for a better President. POGA wishes to thank Art for all he has done, and continues to do, on behalf of oat growers,” states Mathieson.
Jenneth Johanson has been thoroughly engaged in the board since she began her term with POGA in 2016. Jenneth has participated in the federal delegation to China twice, where she had the opportunity to meet key industry and government officials to work towards access for raw oats. Jenneth also sits on the Prairie Grains Development Committee (PGDC) for POGA and presented at the North American Miller’s Association conference in 2019 in addition to many other POGA activities she has undertaken. “I am honored to be the new President of POGA and to continue the good work Art has been doing over his term. We are very fortunate that Art will continue to be on our Board and help us through this leadership change,” stated Johanson, incoming President. “I will do my best to continue the excellent work POGA has been doing and will work hard to fill the large shoes Art has left as President.”