CT innovators

Ladi Asgill - 2016

Ladi is the Senior Project Manager of Sustainable Conservation, a San Francisco-headquartered environmental organization that believes that protecting the environment can also be good for business. 

The various climate, air, water and wildlife initiatives of Sustainable Conservation promote practical solutions that produce tangible, lasting benefits for California, and their success in helping to solve California's most pressing environmental issues is driven by powerful business partnerships, innovative solutions and trusted leadership. 

Ladi is a highly capable, results-oriented, “can do” guy who has worked quite successfully with Mike and California Ag Solutions President, Monte Bottens, to make the FASTER FORAGE program successful. He has considerable intellectual capability and also is gifted with an almost insatiable desire to get things done. This is perhaps the single-most telling characteristic of Ladi, - his ability to quickly seize upon the essence of what needs to be done and to then marshal the people and resources to actually see the vision through to completion and success. Dare we say that he is rather well known within our CASI (Conservation Agriculture Systems Innovation) Center workgroup for this and his very steadfast focus on results is a trait that not only often serves to get a group to bear down on a particular task at hand, but to also then pull together the specifics that are needed to actually realize the successful completion of the task, and to do so in a manner that endears him to his colleagues. 

Ladi’s employment as a Senior Project Manager with Sustainable Conservation has brought great value and recognition to this award-winning environmental organization in recent years. He has bulldogged a number of projects in their diverse portfolio that have been quite useful in terms of air quality benefits here in the San Joaquin Valley. I have worked together with Ladi on several of these efforts including some of the very early research and development related to conservation tillage options for Valley dairy farmers, the incentive-based “BMP Challenge” Conservation Innovation Grant project that we worked on here in California with a group from the Midwest, the development of CASI’s strategic plan, and the ongoing biennial conservation tillage acreage survey that we’ve conducted since 2004. In each of these interactions that we’ve had with Ladi, we have found him to be congenial, a very good communicator, an incisive thinker, and a truly trustworthy partner. 

Ladi has also been a stalwart contributor to the CT Workgroup in our annual presence at the World Ag Expo. He has spent much time at our booth and in representing our Center.  

Ladi is also a proud Fellow and graduate of the California Agricultural Leadership Foundation’s “Class 38” cohort and he has taken quite a lot from his involvement and experience in this very good leadership development program. He interacts quite well with very diverse groups that include farmers, private sector groups, government agency representatives, and lastly, but certainly not least, the NRCS. He is perhaps THE most widely -known environmental organization representative at this time in the San Joaquin Valley and he has close, existing relationships with many people and groups who are and who have been active in the general air quality arena here in California. 

The partnership that CAS has created with Sustainable Conservation and the tremendously successful working relationship that Ladi and Mike have forged together have been quite instrumental in moving strip-tillage forward in California’s dairy silage production sector and it is because of the simply pivotal role that the two of them have had in this respect. They are tremendously deserving of this Special CASI Workgroup Service recognition at this time. CASI is proud to bestow our prestigious annual recognition to Ladi Asgill for his efforts in support of our Workgroup’s goals.

Congratulations.