Eric Wenberg, Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance

Eric Wenberg is the executive director of the Specialty Soya and Grains Alliance (SSGA). He retired in 2018 as a career member of the Senior Foreign Service, rank of Minister Counselor, after a 28-year career with USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service, serving in American Embassies in Ottawa, Pretoria, Warsaw, and Moscow. Wenberg was active abroad, assisting U.S. agricultural businesses export, negotiating trade agreements, settling disputes with foreign governments, and speaking and publishing reports on foreign agricultural conditions. On domestic assignments at USDA headquarters, Wenberg served as Assistant Deputy Administrator, Foreign Service Operations, directing 90 offices abroad. Earlier, Wenberg was Director of Cooperator Programs, with responsibility for setting financial management and policy for Farm Bill foreign marketing programs of grants to U.S industry worth $252 million. From 2002-04, Wenberg represented FAS on the governing board of the American Foreign Service Association. Wenberg is from Wyoming and graduated from the University of Wyoming with a master’s degree in Agricultural Economics.