Ryan joined the Florida, Texas and Hawaii Sugarcane Growers in 2006.  He advises and provides strategic planning for his growers, mills and refineries (Domino, C&H and United Sugars) on domestic sugar policy, international trade, nutrition and other issues that impact the sugar industry and agriculture production.  He represents the industry before Congress and the Administration and at trade ministerials in the U.S and abroad, specifically those that were held in Brussels, Singapore, Ho Chi Minh City and Geneva.  He worked with the House and Senate Agriculture Committees and Leadership to ensure passage of the 2014 and 2018 Farm Bill and to defeat six votes that would have altered the sugar program.

He is a past Chairman of the American Sugar Alliance which represents all U.S. sugar production and most U.S. sugar refining interests.  He serves on the Commodity Futures Trading Commission’s Agriculture Advisory Committee and the Department of Agriculture and United States Trade Representative’s Agricultural Trade Advisory Committee (ATAC) for Sweeteners.  He is also the President of the Sugar Club.

Ryan worked for the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Agriculture for over 10 years and organized more than 50 hearings and completed two Farm Bills.  He specialized in farm and conservation programs, trade agreements, derivatives trading, rural development, energy and specialty crops. He staffed Committee Members during negotiations for the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, the 2002 Energy Conference and the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002 Conference in addition to the 1996 and 2002 Farm Bill Conferences.

Ryan and his wife, Carmen, live in Arlington, VA.  Ryan was raised on a cattle ranch near Springview, NE, where his parents still live and where he enjoys working whenever possible.  He graduated Magna Cum Laude from Nebraska Wesleyan University with a major in finance and a minor in political science.  Carmen is an elementary school teacher in Virginia.