Brett Challenger

Brett Challenger is CoBank’s chief banking officer, with responsibility for the bank’s Agribusiness and Rural Infrastructure Banking groups, along with capital markets, export financing and customer interest rate derivatives. He is a member of the bank’s Management Executive Committee.

Before his appointment as chief banking officer, Challenger served most recently as head of the bank’s Rural Infrastructure Banking Group, which specializes in serving the needs of infrastructure cooperatives and businesses that specialize in power, communications, water and waste, commodity export and supply chain financing. Previously, Challenger served as the head of CoBank’s Regional Agribusiness Bank Group, which serves farmer-owned cooperatives and other small and mid-sized agribusinesses in all 50 states. Challenger joined CoBank in 2006 after holding leadership positions with Duke Capital Partners and Banc of America Securities. 

He has more than 30 years of experience in advising, lending and capital-raising for agriculture, power, energy, water, waste, infrastructure and other industries in the United States and Asia. Before joining CoBank in 2006, Challenger was a senior vice president and principal, serving as a key member of the initial management team of Duke Capital Partners, LLC. Prior to that, he served as the managing director and co-head of the energy and power group at Bank of America/Banc of America Securities, LLC, where he spent two years in Singapore arranging debt and advising U.S.-based clients pursuing opportunities in Southeast Asia and Australia.

Challenger earned a bachelor’s degree in economics from University of Colorado, and an MBA from University of Cincinnati.