Neutens, who has more than 20 years experience in North America’s agribusiness sector, will lead the team at WIN to scale its business in the ag technology space, building on the existing range of weather-driven products and services WIN currently offers its clients in North America, the United Kingdom and Europe, the company said in a release.

“We’re very pleased to attract someone of Jon’s calibre to complement the great team at WIN,” said Glacier executive vice-president Bill Whitelaw. “His hiring is key to our plan to scale the range of tools we offer to Canadian and global agriculture as part of the sector’s shift to smarter and more data-driven solutions.”

Neutens has held senior-level executive roles at some of the leading companies in North American agriculture, including Nufarm and Syngenta, and served on the sector boards for CropLife Canada and CleanFarms Canada. He launched his career in a family-owned, market-leading ag retail operation, and has owned and operated his own enterprise software business.

“Jon is bringing to us exactly the right blend of strategic and ‘in-field’ experience; he’s plugged into some of the key shifts currently shaping Canada’s agriculture sector and the role it plays globally,” Whitelaw said in the release.

Neutens is a graduate of the University of Guelph with an undergraduate agribusiness degree and holds an MBA from the Sauder School of Business at the University of British Columbia.

“I am excited to join Weather Innovations and Glacier Media in this capacity,” he said. “WIN’s founder, Ian Nichols, has been quietly building and ground-proofing a suite of products and services for over 15 years… in this space currently coined ‘decision’ or ‘smart-ag.’

“Many companies in this space have yet to get to this level of ground-proofing, and I am eager to grow WIN’s presence and establish it as the leader it is in this sector shift in agriculture.” — Glacier Media

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The Vancouver company said its donation is also on behalf of individual Glacier business units, which will undertake their own awareness and fundraising efforts to help the city and its residents rebuild their community and their lives, Glacier executive vice-president Bill Whitelaw said in a release.

Glacier, one of Canada’s top media and information services companies, has also set up an integrated online crowdfunding campaign, with all proceeds going toward the Red Cross efforts.

Through this campaign, “we can rally our readers, our customers and our communities to get behind the Red Cross efforts in a way that allows contributions of all sizes,” said Tim Shoults, Glacier’s vice-president of content and audience development.

It’s important for Canadians to have a sense beyond the headlines of how important Fort McMurray is to the country’s economy, Whitelaw said.

“It’s just not an Alberta dynamic… all Canadians need to step up and help get this engine running on all cylinders again, putting people, companies and their welfare front and centre.”

The company said its operations in mining, agriculture, environmental services and community media will also advance awareness of the challenges Fort McMurray and the area faces in the coming weeks and months, Whitelaw said.

“In one way or another, all of our businesses touch Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo. Besting the fire was just the first among many challenges still to come.”

Donations to the Red Cross are currently being matched by both the federal and Alberta governments.

The crowdfunding campaign can be found at fundrazr.com/campaigns/2180P0.

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The Vancouver company said its donation is also on behalf of individual Glacier business units, which will undertake their own awareness and fundraising efforts to help the city and its residents rebuild their community and their lives, Glacier executive vice-president Bill Whitelaw said in a release.

Glacier, one of Canada’s top media and information services companies, has also set up an integrated online crowdfunding campaign, with all proceeds going toward the Red Cross’ efforts.

Through this campaign, “we can rally our readers, our customers and our communities to get behind the Red Cross efforts in a way that allows contributions of all sizes,” Tim Shoults, Glacier’s vice-president of content and audience development, said in the same release.

It’s important for Canadians to have a sense beyond the headlines of how important Fort McMurray is to the country’s economy, Whitelaw said.

“It’s just not an Alberta dynamic… all Canadians need to step up and help get this engine running on all cylinders again, putting people, companies and their welfare front and centre.”

The company said its operations in mining, agriculture, environmental services and community media will also advance awareness of the challenges Fort McMurray and the area faces in the coming weeks and months, Whitelaw said.

“In one way or another, all of our businesses touch Fort McMurray and Wood Buffalo. Besting the fire was just the first among many challenges still to come.”

As of Wednesday evening, 19 wildfires were burning in Alberta. The Fort McMurray wildfire, now made up of two fires that have joined, has covered over 565,000 acres and extended to within 25-30 km of the Saskatchewan border.

Fort McMurray, Anzac, Gregoire Lake Estates and Fort McMurray First Nation remain under mandatory evacuation orders. A schedule for re-entry is expected within two weeks, the province said Wednesday.

The Alberta government has asked that all evacuees register with the Red Cross, either by phone (1-888-350-6070) or online, no matter where they are currently, to help ensure they have access to services they may need, including emergency financial assistance.

Financial assistance is being provided to eligible residents who have been displaced, in the form of debit cards, worth $1,250 per adult and $500 per dependant.

Donations to the Red Cross are currently being matched by both the federal and Alberta governments. — AGCanada.com Network

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The Manitoba Co-operator’s website, ManitobaCooperator.ca, part of Glacier Media’s Farm Business Communications division in Winnipeg, won silver for Best Media Website, coming in second behind SalonMagazine.ca in the Blue division (scholarly, farm and B2B publishing).

The Best Media Website award goes to “the media website that best serves its target audience through content, design, navigation and overall reader experience on any device that includes desktops, laptops, tablets and smartphones.” A “media” website is a site bearing the brand of a media property such as a newspaper, magazine or broadcast outlet.

ManitobaCooperator.ca’s second silver in the Blue division came in the Best Editorial Packaging category, for “the digital property that provides an editorial message that meets the highest journalist(ic) standards in serving (its) intended audience.”

The site finished second in Best Editorial Packaging behind foreign policy and international affairs site OpenCanada.org.

ManitobaCooperator.ca was also a finalist in the Blue division for Best Video Content, while sister site AGCanada.com was a finalist in the same division for Best News Coverage.

The COPAs, an annual juried awards competition run by Mississauga-based publishing industry magazine Masthead, were held Thursday night at Toronto’s Phoenix Concert Theatre.

Manitobans earning COPAs Thursday night also included Winnipeg-based Canada’s History, which won gold for Best Email Newsletter Design and Engagement; Winnipeg web company Modern Earth, which won silver for Best Website Design, for its site for law firm Pollock and Co., both in the Red (consumer magazines and websites) division; and the Winnipeg Free Press, which earned silvers for Best Editorial Packaging and Best Infographic/Data Visualization in the Green (news) division.

Another Glacier Media site, Vitamin Daily, earned silver in the Red division for Best Use of Social Media.

The Co-operator site also earned national silver, the Henry Heald Award for best World Wide Website, at the Canadian Farm Writers Federation awards in Calgary in September. — AGCanada.com Network

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