John R. Block currently serves as a senior policy adviser at Olsson Frank Weeda Terman Matz PC. He was director of agriculture in Illinois from 1977 to 1981 and secretary of the U.S. Agriculture Department from 1981 to 1985, playing a key role in the development of the 1985 farm bill. He was president and chief executive officer at Food Distributors International, formerly known as the National-American Wholesale Grocers’ Association, from 1986 to 2003.