| For Immediate Release January 14, 2009 |
For more information, contact: Stan Ray, Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Affairs (512) 465-0577 |
Farm Credit Board Elects Chairman and Vice Chairman
AUSTIN, Texas – The board of directors of the Austin-based Farm Credit Bank of Texas (FCBT) recently elected Ralph “Buddy” Cortese chairman of the board and elected Jimmy Dodson vice chairman.
Cortese was first elected to the seven-member bank board in 1995, and has served as board chairman since 2000. Prior to joining the board, he was chairman of the Production Credit Association of Eastern New Mexico Board of Directors. He is a director of both the American Land Foundation and the Texas Agricultural Cooperative Council. Cortese farms and ranches near Fort Sumner, N.M.
Dodson joined the bank board in 2003. He is a past chairman of the Texas AgFinance, FCS Board of Directors. Currently, he is chairman of the Tenth District Farm Credit Council, Texas co-chairman of American Cotton Producers and chairman of the National Cotton Council Policy Committee. Dodson grows cotton and milo and operates a seed sales business with his family in Robstown, Texas.
Other FCBT board members are Joe R. Crawford of Baileyton, Ala.; Elizabeth G. Flores of Laredo, Texas; Mike Garnett of Spearman, Texas; Lester Little of Hallettsville, Texas; and William F. Staats of Baton Rouge, La.
The Farm Credit Bank of Texas provides funding and services for the Tenth Farm Credit District. With combined assets of $19.7 billion, the Tenth District consists of the bank and 19 local lending cooperatives that finance farmers, ranchers, agribusiness firms, and rural landowners and homeowners in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas.