Mr. Spice is a Real Estate Advisor and Institutional Investment Specialist for harVestco, LLC.

Mr. Spice is also Co-Founder of harVestco Agricultural Properties, LLC. In addition, Mr. Spice is the Founding Partner and Managing Member of Open Prairie Ventures I, LP, a $40 million venture capital fund that focuses on investments in Midwest based seed and start-up companies. Further, Mr. Spice is Managing Director and Co-Founder of Agrarian Capital, LLC, which focuses on private equity investment in agribusinesses located in the United States.

He was a member of the Board of Directors for Nims Associates, Inc., which was acquired in February 2004 by Keane, Inc. (NYSE: KEA), a leading business and information technology (IT) consulting firm.

Mr. Spice serves as a member of the Eastern Illinois University Lumpkin College of Business and Applied Sciences School of Technology Advisory Board. He is a member of the General Engineering Advisory Board at the University of Illinois. He is also a member of the Board of Directors of the University of Illinois Employees Credit Union. Further, he is a member of the Champaign County Chamber of Commerce.

A biographical listing on Mr. Spice appears in Who's Who in the Midwest, Who's Who in Finance and Industry, Who's Who in America, Who's Who of Emerging Leaders in America and Who's Who in the World.

As a nationally recognized expert, Mr. Spice has testified on pension and investment issues before the Department of the Treasury, the Internal Revenue Service, the House of Representatives in Washington, DC, and the Illinois General Assembly. He has written articles for several pension, finance and information system journals, including the Government Finance Review, and has been the subject of feature articles in The Wall Street Journal, Institutional Investor, Pensions & Investments and Crain's Chicago Business. He also was a significant contributor to a book published in 2001 entitled, "Inside Secrets to Venture Capital" and the co-author of the March 2002 Journal of Financial Planning article entitled, "Venture Investing and the Role of Financial Advisors".

Prior to founding his own company, Mr. Spice was Executive Director of the State Universities Retirement System of Illinois (SURS). He joined the System in 1980 and was appointed Director in 1991, a position he held until 1995. As Chief Executive Officer, his responsibilities included the management of $5.5 billion in fund assets. Before that, he was Employee Benefits Manager at Eastern Illinois University.

Mr. Spice grew up in northern Indiana on a second-generation dairy farm and then took a break from farming to serve nine years in the U. S. Marine Corps, including a tour of duty in Vietnam.

Mr. Spice's educational background includes an Associate in Arts degree from the University of the State of New York, a BA in Management from Eastern Illinois University, and an MBA from the Executive MBA Program at the University of Illinois. He is a licensed real estate agent in the State of Illinois.

Mr. Spice is a member of the REALTORS® Land Institute (RLI), and an affiliate of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS®