Christensen retired in 2025 after a career spanning more than four decades in the sunflower industry. He most recently served as an account manager for ADM Processing, supporting the Enderlin, North Dakota, oilseed crushing facility—an operation he had been associated with since 1983. Over the course of his career, he worked as a buyer for the facility’s original owners, served as Vice President of Marketing for its second owners (National Sun Industries), and, beginning in 1994, held a variety of roles with ADM.

Christensen played a key role in efforts to restart the Enderlin facility after financial difficulties impacted the original owners. His support of the sunflower industry included advancing high-oleic sunflower crushing in Enderlin, contributing to the industry’s transition from linoleic to NuSun in 2000, and supporting the later conversion to high-oleic sunflowers as today’s Industry standard. He was also active in promoting sunflower acreage by introducing grower production contracts that helped producers with marketing and risk management. Throughout his career, he regularly attended grower-focused events and shared current market insights to help producers identify and pursue successful strategies.

Christensen served on the National Sunflower Association (NSA) Board of Directors for 12 years and spent 18 years on the selection committee for the Curt Stern Memorial Scholarship.