Equity Cooperative Livestock Sales Association is excited to announce that Mark Clarke has joined the cooperative as its Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer. Mark comes with a wealth of experience in the agricultural industry.
Clarke, a lifelong native of Wisconsin, grew up in rural Rock County. Upon graduating from UW-River Falls with a degree in animal science, Clarke started his professional career as an independent sales and consulting rep for ABS Global. After nine years with ABS, Clarke opened and managed the first of its kind cloned transgenic pharmaceutical cattle company as part of Pharming Health Care. Pharming specialized in the production of pharmaceutical drugs for human use from the milk of cloned transgenic cattle. Clarke then moved to the dairy equipment side of the industry with BouMatic where he served as product manager for their dairy harvest division. Clarke assumed the position of General Manager of World Dairy Expo in 2007. World Dairy Expo is recognized as one of the top 25 trade shows in North America and the largest gathering of elite cattle in the world. In 2012 Clarke took over as Executive Director of Alliant Energy Center in Madison, Wisconsin. Clarke oversaw all operations of this 500 event per year, million attendee self-funded facility. Clarke currently lives in DeForest with his wife Michele and has two grown children, Brandon and Mikayla.
As Equity’s Executive Vice President and Chief Operations Officer, Mark will be responsible for overseeing the marketing of livestock, ensuring compliance with regulations, and building and maintaining other external relationships that are mutually beneficial to the producer-members and Equity Cooperative. Mark comments “I am excited to join the dedicated and passionate team at Equity Cooperative. I am looking forward to working with our producer-members, Equity’s livestock market teams, and all cooperative staff. We are continually enhancing our capabilities to meet the needs of our producer-members in the marketing, managing and financing of their agricultural businesses. I am fortunate to be joining such a respected livestock marketing agency that prides itself on top quality service to its producers.”
