Dave White
Co-FOUNDER + PARTNER
Dave was a 35-year career employee of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. He started as a Conservation Aid and ended his career as Chief of the Agency from 2009 to 2012. He served two details to Capitol Hill: once to Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) where he helped develop the Conservation Title of the 2002 Farm Bill, and once to Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) where he worked on the Conservation Title of the 2008 Farm Bill.
As Chief, he managed 12,000 employees, a budget of $4.2 billion, and developed conservation initiatives such as the Sage Grouse, Mississippi River Basin, Working Lands for Wildlife, and the National Water Quality Initiative. He is a strong believer in voluntary, incentive-based conservation and fervently hopes that private land conservation remains a bi-partisan imperative.
He is the Co-founder of the 9b Group, a benefit corporation devoted to consulting and lobbying for sustainable agricultural conservation.
Dave is married, has two grown children, one grandson, and three rescue dogs. Dave doesn’t watch TV, believes that dogs are the most wonderful species on Earth, and still marvels that he somehow managed to graduate from the University of Missouri.
Pelham Straughn
Co-FOUNDER
Pelham Straughn has a proven track record of over 17 years of bipartisan accomplishment culminating in the passage of the Agricultural Act of 2014, one of the only major pieces of legislation to come out of the 113th Congress.
His final four years on the Hill, Pelham served as the Policy Director for the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture under Chairman Frank Lucas leading his policy team during the formation, debate, and passage of the Agricultural Act of 2014.
During his 13 year tenure on the Committee, Pelham worked on three different farm bills, served two different subcommittee Chairmen (Congressmen Terry Everett and BillJenkins) and three different full committee Chairmen (Congressmen Larry Combest, Bob Goodlatte, and Frank Lucas) in many different capacities including Subcommittee Staff Director and Senior Professional Staff. His portfolio included farm and commodity programs, conservation, trade, livestock, crop insurance, disaster programs, sugar, peanut, and tobacco programs.
A native of Birmingham, Alabama, Pelham graduated from Hampden-Sydney College and now resides in Arlington, Virginia with his wife and three kids.
