Our Team - Agralytica Consulting

Diversity of Experiences and Backgrounds

Our diverse and innovative team brings a wealth of expertise to the food and agriculture sector. Our interdisciplinary group, comprising economists, policy experts, research analysts, and strategy consultants, collaborates to provide practical and impactful solutions for organizations in the food and agriculture sector.

André Williamson

André is a senior consultant with more than 15 years of experience in strategic market analysis and agribusiness marketing research. He has managed more than 75 projects, covering grains and oilseeds, dairy products, livestock and poultry, fruits and vegetables, commodity hedging, crop insurance, food distribution, crop protection, food safety, and branded food and beverages, among many others. His clients have ranged from U.S. agricultural associations to the world’s largest food and beverage multinationals. André holds degrees from University of Maryland, Georgetown and Princeton. He speaks both Portuguese and Spanish.

Mike Rucier

Mike is a seasoned agricultural marketing consultant with over 20 years of experience helping U.S. companies, agriculture commodity associations, and USDA cooperator groups to define, evaluate, and achieve success with their market development initiatives. He delivers results, from strategic planning and management of complete export development programs to project-specific work in markets around the world. Mike has also served as a board member for the U.S. Agricultural Export Development Council, as well as on the Produce Marketing Association’s Technology Subcommittee.

Tim Mitchell

Tim is an economist and evaluation consultant with over a decade of experience evaluating organizational performance, international marketing programs, and crop insurance programs. This includes conducting research for USDA Cooperator groups, agriculture commodity associations, state and federal governments, international development firms, and public universities. Tim specializes in data analysis, evaluation, crop insurance, and strategic assessment. Since 2008, Tim has worked for a variety of organizations and a broad group of clients. In that time, he has conducted over 50 evaluations, strategic planning projects, and market research studies covering apples, aquaculture, citrus, cut flowers, dry peas and beans, eggs, the grain and feed industries, guar, lentils, onions, peppers, pet food, pistachios, poultry, potatoes, raisins, soybeans, sweet corn, table grapes, tomatoes, and other various horticultural, tropical, and processed products. Tim holds a master’s degree in Economics from University College London and a B.A. in Economics from Willamette University.

Alex Smith

Alex assists senior staff at Agralytica in all manners of research endeavors, including business development, report drafting, and data analysis. Alex has helped manage several international market research studies and program evaluations for U.S. agricultural export associations, including Potatoes USA, USA Poultry & Egg Export Council, the Popcorn Board, the U.S. Soybean Export Council, North American Grain Export Association, Raisin Administrative Committee and others. Beyond Cooperator work, Alex has extensive experience working on crop insurance programs for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Risk Management Agency. He has led development of new crop insurance programs for several vegetable and grain crops, contributed to policy evaluations for pistachios and onions, and has participated in feasibility studies on revenue options for apples, revenue options for citrus, and insuring local food producers. Alex holds a BSc in Marketing, with honors, from George Mason University.

Austin Menzies

Austin has worked with various stakeholders within the U.S. agriculture industry, including the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service and Risk Management Agency, as well as multiple USDA Cooperators and Checkoffs, such as the U.S. Soybean Export Council, the Cattlemen’s Beef Board, and Potatoes USA. Austin has assisted these groups in their strategic planning, market development, program management, research, and evaluation efforts. He is experienced in conducting primary research in commodity production, trade, and marketing to produce reports and tools that enhance decision making. Austin holds a master’s degree in Business Economics from the University of Amsterdam and a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Amsterdam University College.

Maru Martinez

Maru heads Agralytica’s Mexico City office and has worked on research projects covering Central and South America for more than 20 years. In addition to managing ad-hoc projects, she also prepares monthly briefs covering commodity markets for select clients. Maru earned her MBA in marketing from Anahuac University, and completed her Bachelor’s in Business / Finance at the Monterrey Institute of Technology.

Nick Young

An economist and a marketing strategy specialist, for more than 40 years Nick has led consulting projects, covering a wide range of issues, commodities and countries. He is a regular contributor to agri-food conferences and seminars and closely follows value chain developments and policy and marketing interactions. He also developed Agralytica’s Results-Oriented Management, an evaluative management process to help clients develop and assess market development strategies and plans. Nick has retired from his executive management duties but continues to serve as a consultant.

Tom Earley

Tom, an economist and trade policy specialist, is responsible for ongoing analysis of food markets and of national and international food and agricultural policies and programs. His work has focused on understanding the strategic implications of macro-economic forces and farm and trade policies. He has worked closely with a broad spectrum of organizations to undertake global strategic studies of agri-food issues. Tom has retired from his executive management duties but continues to serve as a consultant.

Salli Diakova

Salli is a strategic marketing specialist with over 20 years’ experience analyzing the operation of agricultural and food product markets. Her work spans all continents and covers a wide range of industry sectors. Her clients include a range of not-for-profit, commercial and government organizations. She jointly developed Agralytica’s Results-Oriented Management process and has applied it to the work of many clients. Before joining Agralytica in 1995, Salli led a Central European consulting company examining transition issues. Salli has retired from her executive duties but continues to serve as a consultant.