About Barry Schaffter

Barry W. Schaffter is Senior Vice President of Engineering and Manufacturing for the John Deere Worldwide Construction & Forestry Division. Barry is responsible for leading the Division manufacturing and engineering activities located in the U.S., Canada and Finland in addition to partnership arrangements in Germany and South Africa. The Construction & Forestry Division annual revenue is about $5 billion.

Barry graduated from the University of Missouri at Rolla with a BS degree in Engineering Management in 1973. In this same year, he joined John Deere at the Waterloo Works. Barry has held technical leadership positions at the Waterloo Product Engineering Center and lead the Ag Management Solutions group. Barry has also held a number of important operations management positions including General Manager over three of the Agricultural Equipment factories in Ottumwa, Iowa; Des Moines, Iowa; and John Deere’s largest factory in Waterloo, Iowa.

Past memberships include Board Member for Cotton Foundation – Memphis, TN; Waterloo Development Corporation where he received the Waterloo Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year for 2004; and Chairman for Greater Cedar Valley Alliance. Barry currently sits on the Board of Directors of Living History Farms in Des Moines, a Board member of the Iowa Business Council and Junior Achievement of the Heartland. He also sits on the Board of Bell Equipment in South Africa.