John “JP” Mackie

JP started his career in Southern Illinois with a part time job working at a perennial greenhouse nursery while he went to junior college for horticulture and greenhouse management. At the nursery he started to do field research and greenhouse trials which was the start of the Alltech Research and Development Company. He finished his associates degree and transferred to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale to study agriculture and plant science. He finished his bachelors degree in Agriculture and enrolled in grad school at Southern with an emphasis on plant propagation. He then finished his course work at Carbondale and started working full time at Alltech. JP worked at Alltech for another ten years then moved to North-central Illinois working for SGS Ag Research as a Field Scientist performing field research trials. He spent seven years at SGS before moving to Cornbelt as a Research Trial Manager. Outside of work JP likes to hike and camp, and spend his time volunteering with Scouting America as a cub scout den leader and boy scout troop leader.