CoBank Announces Executive Appointments

DENVER (July 24, 2018) — CoBank, a cooperative bank serving agribusinesses, rural infrastructure providers and Farm Credit associations throughout the United States, announced today that Bill Davis, currently the bank’s Chief Credit Officer, has been appointed as Executive Vice President for Farm Credit Banking as part of a broader strategic reorganization of the bank’s customer-facing business lines.

Effective August 1, 2018, Davis will be responsible for the bank’s newly created Farm Credit Banking Group, with responsibility for wholesale funding relationships with CoBank’s 22 affiliated Farm Credit associations and other Farm Credit institutions. Over time the group will also assume responsibility for a number of banking services and products offered to and in partnership with Farm Credit associations.

Previously, CoBank’s Farm Credit business has been embedded within its Regional Agribusiness Banking Group, which also manages commercial lending relationships with local and regional farmer-owned cooperatives and other agribusiness borrowers.

“I believe that our Farm Credit-facing business activities have become sufficiently large and complex that it now makes sense to have a stand-alone banking group with a singular focus on the needs of our Farm Credit partners and their customers,” said Tom Halverson, CoBank’s president and chief executive officer. “This organizational step will help us advance one of our key strategic business priorities, which is to assess and evolve our Farm Credit System business model. I am grateful that Bill Davis has agreed to take on this critical new role given his enormous depth of experience in the Farm Credit System.”

Davis joined CoBank as Chief Credit Officer in February 2017. Previously, he served as Chief Credit Officer for Omaha-based Farm Credit Services of America, the largest association in the Farm Credit System. In addition, Davis was the Chief Credit Officer for Frontier Farm Credit, a CoBank affiliated association based in Kansas that operates under a strategic alliance with FCSAmerica. Combined, FCSAmerica and Frontier have approximately $30 billion in assets and serve more than 55,000 agricultural producers across five states. Earlier, Davis was FCSAmerica’s Senior Vice President of Credit and before that Director of Credit Underwriting. Prior to joining FCSAmerica, he held senior credit positions with Farm Credit Services of Western Missouri and the Farm Credit Bank of St. Louis. He began his career as an assistant vice president and branch manager with the Federal Land Bank Association in Missouri.

CoBank also announced today that Mike Short, Senior Vice President of Credit Approval, has been appointed to serve as Chief Credit Officer on an interim basis until a permanent successor to Davis is named. As interim CCO, Short will manage CoBank’s entire Credit Group and report directly to Tim Curran, Chief Risk Officer.

Short joined CoBank in 2013 and previously served as Capital Markets Sector Manager and as Senior Vice President – Special Assets. Prior to CoBank, he spent 11 years with John Hancock Financial Services in Boston and 13 years with Bank of America and predecessor companies in North Carolina and Florida.

About CoBank

CoBank is a $133 billion cooperative bank serving vital industries across rural America. The bank provides loans, leases, export financing and other financial services to agribusinesses and rural power, water and communications providers in all 50 states. The bank also provides wholesale loans and other financial services to affiliated Farm Credit associations serving more than 70,000 farmers, ranchers and other rural borrowers in 23 states around the country.

CoBank is a member of the Farm Credit System, a nationwide network of banks and retail lending associations chartered to support the borrowing needs of U.S. agriculture, rural infrastructure and rural communities. Headquartered outside Denver, Colorado, CoBank serves customers from regional banking centers across the U.S. and also maintains an international representative office in Singapore.

For more information about CoBank, visit the bank's website at cobank.com.