Our Team
Principals
Chris Crutchfield
Board of Directors / President and CEO
Shortly after graduating from the University of Missouri in 1996, Chris moved back to California and joined with his father Paul Crutchfield in the formation of a rough rice pool for direct marketing to Turkey. Chris was responsible for the day to day management of the pool. That partnership developed into the formation of American Commodity Company (ACC) in 2000, where Chris assumed all direct management responsibilities.
Chris is currently very active in multiple US rice industry associations at both the state and national levels. Chris serves as the Chair of the USA Rice Federation’s Asia/Turkey Promotion Committee and the Chair of the California Rice Commission’s Public Education Committee—in addition to several other key positions including sitting on the USA Rice Millers’, USA Rice Council, USA Rice Federation, and the Association for the Administration of Rice Quotas Boards of Directors. He was recently appointed to the Federal Maritime Commission’s National Shippers Advisory Committee. Chris is a graduate of the 2003 Rice Leadership Class.
Prior to establishing himself in the California rice industry, Chris worked in the offices of California Governor Pete Wilson as his Assistant Press Secretary. He also taught secondary education in the California public school system, and is a past Chair of the USA Rice Millers’ Association.
Michael Rue
Board of Directors / Chair
Michael Rue started his farming business in 1974 after graduating from college. He is the owner and operator of several rice-producing and rice-warehousing entities in the Sacramento Valley. He owns, manages for others, and operates ranches growing rice, walnuts, irrigated pasture, and wildlife areas. He owns and operates Catlett Warehouse, a rice drying and warehousing operation in Sutter County.
Michael has been active in agricultural water and industry affairs since the late 1970’s, with much of his focus on international trade. He is a founder and current President of the South Yuba Water District in Yuba County. He formerly served as Chair of the Yuba County Water Agency, the owner and operator of the New Bullards Bar Project—a large flood control and hydropower project on the Yuba River. At the state level he served on the Board of Directors of Farmers’ Rice Cooperative as the Vice Chair and Chair of the Audit and Finance Committee. He also served on the Industrial Welfare Commission Wage Order Board for Agriculture and the California Rice Industry Association Board of Directors. Currently, Michael is serving as a Director on the California Rice Commission and chairs the Commission’s International Committee.
Nationally, he has served on the USA Rice Council Board of Directors since 1988 and formerly served as Council Chair. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors of the USA Rice Federation, formerly serving as the Federation’s Vice Chair. He is currently the Vice Chair of USA Rice’s International Trade Policy Committee. He also Chairs the Board of Directors of Col-Rice, an export trading company that manages the Tariff Rate Quota for rice in the US-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. He served on the Agricultural Technical Advisory Committee for Grains, Feeds and Oilseeds to the US Trade Representative. Michael was instrumental in negotiating access for US grown rice into dozens of markets (including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan) during the inaugural Uruguay Round of the World Trade Organization’s negotiations signed into effect in 1994.
Michael graduated from the University of California, Davis with B.S. in Agricultural Economics and a Juris Doctorate in Law. He is a graduate of the second Rice Leadership Class in 1991.
Nicole Montna Van Vleck
Board of Directors / Secretary
Nicole Montna Van Vleck is the President and Chief Executive Officer of family-owned and operated Montna Farms, in Yuba City, California. Montna Farms is a major grower of Japanese short grain specialty rice as well as a leader in working lands conservation.
Nicole serves as an advocate for the state’s farmers, especially in the areas of water and rice. Currently, she serves on the California Rice Industry Association Board and the California Rice Commission Board of Directors where she serves as Chair of the Rice Producers Group. She also serves as on several national boards and committees for USA Rice. In the area of water, she serves as an officer for two of her local water districts and on the Northern California Water Association Board of Directors, on its Executive Committee and as its Communications Chair. She also serves on the UC Davis Dean’s Advisory Board for Agriculture and Environmental Sciences and on the Board of Directors for River Valley Community Bank.
As a third generation rice farmer, she was born and raised in Sutter County. Nicole graduated from the University of California at Los Angeles. She is a graduate of Class XXVI of the California Agricultural Leadership Program and of the 2011/12 USA Rice Leadership Program. Early, in her career she worked as a legislative analyst for the law firm of Morrison & Foerster before returning to the family farm in 1994.
Paul Crutchfield
Board of Directors / Chairman-Audit & Finance
Paul was Vice President-Marketing at Farmers’ Rice Cooperative, Sacramento, CA, from 1983-1996. Prior to that, he was Vice President, International Marketing at the Rice Growers’ Association, Sacramento from 1982-1983. Before moving to California, Paul was Vice President, American Rice Inc. in Houston, TX from 1975-1983.
In 1996, Paul resigned from Farmers’ Rice Cooperative with thoughts of early retirement. However, since that time, he has been active in various investments, including the formation of California Commodity Traders with Chris Crutchfield, which brought Paul back into the rice business in 1998. Throughout his tenure in the rice business, Paul has served on many industry committees, at both the state and U.S. levels.