40 Square Cooperative Solutions is excited to announce a new chair for early 2022.

At its January board meeting, the 40 Square Board of Directors elected Springfield farmer Cole Trebesch to preside as chair. Trebesch, who replaces Robby Gieseke, previously served as vice chair.

“I’m humbled and grateful to have the confidence of my fellow directors and the 40 Square team,” Trebesch said. “This organization is the first of its kind, and I’m proud to help lead 40 Square as we continue to grow and evolve.”

In one of his first duties as chair, Trebesch joined 40 Square Executive Director Char Vrieze at MN AG EXPO in Mankato, where the two met privately with Gov. Tim Walz to advocate expanding affordable health care options in the state.

“We had a very constructive conversation with the governor and hope we can find some solutions to address some of the challenges facing cooperatives such as ours,” Trebesch said.

New Ulm farmer Steve Hoffman was named vice chair and Dick Nesvold has been re-elected to serve as secretary/treasurer. Trebesch and Hoffman are also chair and vice chair of 40 Square’s Health Plan Trust, respectively, while Kevin Lauwagie was tabbed as secretary/treasurer. Gieseke stepped off the board after four years as chair.

“We have a solid foundation of seasoned directors who are dedicated to our mission,” Vrieze said. “With Cole’s experiences on other boards, we believe he’s the ideal person to help guide 40 Square for the upcoming year and move us forward. We also want to thank Robby for his steadfast dedication to 40 Square over the years.”

Trebesch has been involved in 40 Square for five years, after his health care provider options became limited. In 2017, the Minnesota farmer spoke with the CEO of Farmward Cooperative – Trebesch also serves on their board – and was directed to a new independent health care cooperative, 40 Square.

“I started asking some questions,” Trebesch said. “A month later, he called and said there’s this group 40 Square starting up and they’re looking for folks to serve on their formative board.”

Trebesch became a 40 Square member and joined the permanent board. Cole says he’s invested in his 40 Square Health Plan because, in turn, 40 Square also invests in his health. Members get back what they put in – and then some.

“I like 40 Square because it’s nice not having an insurance company that’s trying to make a bunch of money,” he says. “It’s a co-op to service its members.”

Cole lives just a few miles south of the family farm in Springfield with his wife, Miranda, and their son, Oliver, and daughter, Elsie, along with Cole’s sister, Sarah. Together with his father, Richard, Cole raises corn, soybeans, hogs and cattle.

“We live agriculture day in and day out,” he says. “It keeps us all close.”

‘A seat at the table’

Trebesch majored in agronomy at South Dakota State University before returning home to Brown County after graduating in 2005. After more than a decade in agricultural leadership, including completing the American Soybean Association’s prestigious Young Leader Program, Trebesch served two years as chair of the Minnesota Soybean Research & Promotion Council, an organization that directs soybean checkoff funds on behalf of the state’s nearly 28,000 soybean growers.

“It’s a great privilege to oversee soybean checkoff funds, and it’s a responsibility I don’t take lightly,” he says. “It’s important that farmers know where their checkoff dollars are invested, and how they can use the programs to help their business.”

At the 2022 MN AG EXPO conference and trade show, Cole was awarded the Council’s Director of the Year by current Chair Joe Serbus.

“MSR&PC is grateful for Cole’s leadership through a period unlike any other in Minnesota agriculture,” Serbus said. “Thanks to Cole’s stewardship and vision, the Council emerged more stable and dynamic than ever.”

Sitting on the 40 Square board has been a learning experience for Trebesch as he navigates the complexities of the health care industry, helping to blaze a trail for Minnesota’s only cooperative exclusively offering health care plans to the state’s farm families, agribusinesses, cooperatives and ag trade associations.

“We’re doing something no one’s done in Minnesota,” he said.

Trebesch said he looks forward to continuing to dialogue with the Walz administration during the upcoming legislative session.

“So much of health care system depends on our elected leaders enacting policies,” he said. “There are factors that are out of our control, but we also want to make sure that we have a seat at the table when these conversations are happening.”