Teddy Bekele, Senior Vice President & Chief Technology Officer of Land O’Lakes, Inc.

Before Teddy Bekele ever thought about AI or agricultural transformation, he watched his father lose the family farm overnight—a moment that stayed with him from Ethiopia to Italy to an engineering career in the U.S.

That moment didn’t just change his life. It hardwired his obsession with resilience, ownership, and making sure the people who grow our food don’t get left behind in the next wave of “innovation.”

Today, Teddy is Chief Technology Officer at Land O’Lakes, a 100-year-old, farmer-owned cooperative that touches everything from seed and agronomy to animal feed, dairy, and the “invisible” ingredients in your favorite snacks.

His job? Wire this massive, farm-to-fork system for an AI-powered future without losing the soul of the farm or the voice of the farmer.

In this episode of Real Leadership, Teddy pulls back the curtain on what it really takes to evolve an iconic co-op —navigating democratic governance, global supply chains, and communities that still depend on rain, soil, and trust…in addition to technology.

In this episode, we cover:

• How Land O’Lakes actually works as a farmer-owned, farm-to-fork cooperative—and why that ownership model changes every tech decision
• Teddy’s “four buckets of AI” framework for cutting through the hype and focusing on what actually moves the needle
• How generative AI is turning decades of agronomy data into real-time, field-level insight—and giving agronomists superpowers instead of replacing them
• Tech-enabled sustainability: cover crops, reduced tillage, and carbon programs that help farmers do right by the planet and stay in business

If you care about where your food comes from, how AI lands in the real world, or what it means to lead when the stakes are literally global food security, this conversation feels less like a tech talk—and more like a front-row seat to the future of agriculture.

Show Notes

• Teddy Bekele — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/teddy-bekele-b48219/
• Land O’Lakes — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/landolakesinc/
• Land O’Lakes Inc.: landolakesinc.com/
• Land O’Lakes - recipes and more: https://www.landolakes.com/
• Jim Weaver — LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/jim-weaver-36457418 Real Leadership Podcast: realleadership.oningroup.com
• Real Leadership — LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/104897916/
• The Ōnin Group: oningroup.com/clients