Dr. Chad Pilcher received B.S. (2007) and M.S. (2009) degrees from Illinois and a Ph.D. (2015) from Iowa State. As a Swine Nutritionist at Cargill Animal Nutrition, he has provided impressive scientific leadership, such as leading efforts to revise what was previously an internal nutrition system to one that is cloud based and available externally to Cargill customers. He led the initiative to develop an NIR system to estimate total and available amino acids – and has another NIR project in the works. Chad’s greatest contribution is to his personal clients, earning their respect by providing them with feeding programs that are both nutritionally and financially sound and helping them to find cost effective solutions to problems specific to their farms. As one example, he helped one client grow their nutritional services division by 130% in 6 years. Through his clients, he directly influences the nutrition program of more than half a million sows and more than 10 million market hogs.