Dwayne Andreas

Dwayne Orville Andreas (March 4, 1918 – November 16, 2016), was one of the leading farm industrialists of the 20th century. He was often called the Soybean King. He was former CEO and chairman of Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Under his leadership he turned ADM into the largest processor of farm commodities in the United States.

Early life Andreas was born in Worthington, Minnesota, on March 4, 1918, to Ruben and Lydia (Stoltz) Andreas, who both descended from strict Mennonite families. He grew up mostly in Iowa (with siblings Albert, Lenore, Glen, Osborne and Lowell) and worked at his father's farm and later the family's feed and grain business. This scandal also sent his only son, Michael Andreas to prison. It was his son who hatched the plan to create global cartels in citric acid and lysine. In 1961, president John F. Kennedy appointed Andreas to the Food for Peace Committee. An account stated that Hubert Humphrey got him appointed to the committee as advisor to its director, George McGovern.

On March 26, 1965, president Lyndon B. Johnson appointed Andreas to The General Advisory Committee on Foreign Assistance Programs.

On May 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan appointed Andreas chairman of the President's International Private Enterprise Task Force. This agency was tasked to advise the president, the director of the United States International Development Cooperation Agency, and the administrator of the Agency for International Development with respect to the role private enterprise can play in the implementation of programs and activities under the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as amended.

Andreas served as vice chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

In 1986 Andreas agreed, at the request of retired Chief Justice Warren E. Burger, to serve as head of the Foundation for the Commemoration of the United States Constitution which supported the work of the Commission on the Bicentennial of the United States Constitution.

In the 1990s he contributed $2.5 million to Florida public broadcasting network WXEL. He also aided the Community Partnership for the Homeless.

In 1997 Andreas donated $2.2 million to the Miami Homeless Assistance Center, saying "The one thing that is more gratifying than successfully making money is giving it away to a wonderful cause." 1994 National Agri-Marketing Association Agribusiness Leader of the Year

Politics Andreas was one of the most prominent political campaign donors in the United States, having contributed millions of dollars to Democratic and Republican candidates alike.

While not well known to the public, Andreas commanded much respect among Washington politicians for his largesse. As part of the investigations surrounding illegal campaign fundraising linked to the Watergate scandal, Andreas was charged with (but acquitted of) illegally contributing $100,000 to Hubert Humphrey's 1968 presidential campaign. In 1972, Andreas unlawfully contributed $25,000 to President Nixon's re-election campaign through the convicted Watergate burglar Bernard Barker.

Andreas was implicated in the financial scandal of the Orthodox Church in America for his donations to Russia in 1991.

One of his closest friends was former New York governor and two-time Republican presidential candidate, Thomas E. Dewey. It was Andreas who discovered his friend following Dewey's fatal heart attack in his room at Seaview, a Florida hotel in which Andreas held partial ownership.

Andreas was portrayed by Tom Smothers in the 2009 film The Informant! about the lysine price-fixing conspiracy.

Personal life In 1935, at age 17, Andreas married Bertha Benedict in Florida. They had a daughter but subsequently divorced. In 1947, Andreas married Inez Snyder in Minneapolis, Minnesota. She was a single mother of a daughter. Deering lost the congressional race but in 2024 she was elected to the 88th Illinois House District.