2021 Member Director Award

Pete DeGroot

The 2021 NAAB Member Director Awardee is Pete DeGroot. Pete has exhibited leadership ability and commitment to the development of the A.I. industry for the past 45 years. He was elected to serve on the Select Sires Board of Directors from 2000–2020. This included 6 years as the Chairman of the Audit Committee from 2014-2020, 7 years on the Pension Committee from 2006–2013, and 9 years on the Strategic Planning Committee. He was also elected to serve on the All West Select Sires Board of Directors. He was a Board member for 33 years from 1987–2020, an Executive Board Member for 26 years from 1994–2020, the President for 4 years from 2000–2001 and 2009–2010 and was also on the Business Expansion Committee.

Pete DeGroot is from Fresno, California. Pete graduated from Westmont College in 1972 where he earned a BA degree. After receiving his degree, Pete returned to become a partner in John DeGroot and Son Dairy.

After returning to the family dairy, he and his family milked a herd of 1,500 Holstein cows while farming 2,000 acres. During his time at the family dairy, it has expanded. The expanded John DeGroot and Son Dairy grew by 1,000 cows between 1976 and 2001, currently milking 2,500 Holsteins while still farming 2,000 acres.

Pete has made amazing contributions to his bovine breeding cooperative. His strong financial aptitude coupled with his forward-looking demeanor brought characteristics to his strong leadership on the Board of Directors for both organizations. This allowed them to achieve record growth, expansion, and financial stability, assisting Select Sires to become a global leader in the A.I. industry. In his 33 years at All West, it has achieved record growth in membership while tripling the business volume. As Chairman of All West Select Sires, Pete helped guide and champion ideas to build two state-of-the-art office and distribution facilities in both California and Washington.

Pete DeGroot brought these same characteristics to the Select Sires Board of Directors. His work on the Pension, Audit, and Strategic Planning Committees was highly influential. During his tenure on the Pension Committee, the company transitioned from a traditional pension program to a modern 401k program that reduced financial risk while protecting assets. He was also a big proponent on the Audit Committee, working to assure the finances of the cooperative were transparent and sound. Select Sires achieved record growth and financial success constantly monitored by the Audit Committee and its processes. While on the Strategic Planning Committee, DeGroot’s forward-thinking attitude helped to lead a mission to focus on producer owners, expansion on the role of research, and continued focus on the optimization of the Select Sires federation. The resulted in the creation of the technical oversight committee for semen research and processing, leading to innovative quality control measures and a revolutionary semen extender. The board also encouraged activity-based health/heat monitoring research which led to genomic evaluation, expansion of Select Sires production facilities to double their size, partnering with Sire Power and Accelerated Genetics, and acquiring GenerVations, Trans Canada, Semeia in Brazil, and Reproductores in Argentina. During his 20-year tenure on the board, sales for Select Sires Inc. increased five-fold.

Pete DeGroot’s significant contributions through his service to the dairy industry, All West Select Sires, Select Sires Inc., and NAAB make him a very worthy recipient of the NAAB Member Director Award.