Brent Bechtle

Mr. Bechtle is a co-founder and Partner at Proterra and leads the Farmland strategy.

Prior to Proterra, Mr. Bechtle worked for Black River Asset Management, a division of Cargill, where he served as a Senior Managing Director for its agriculture-focused private equity funds. Prior to joining Black River, Mr. Bechtle was a founding member of the Cargill Risk Management Business Unit (CRM). He was the global head of structuring, trading, and marketing for the Hedging Products segment of the business, which was principally involved with structured derivative products for institutional commodity hedgers worldwide, as well as for Cargill trading divisions for their own books. The Hedging Products business grew to have marketing presence on all 6 continents and trading hubs in Minneapolis and Geneva. While at CRM, Mr. Bechtle was involved in Cargill’s private equity investment in EcoSecurities, Ltd., and served as Cargill’s Board Representative at the company. Previously, he worked with Merrill Lynch Institutional Sales, focusing on equity derivatives and private equity.

Mr. Bechtle received a Juris Doctorate from Mitchell Hamline School of Law (formerly William Mitchell College of Law) and a Bachelor of Arts in South Asian History from the University of Minnesota.