Challenge and Opportunity for Rural America

As CoBank’s president and chief executive officer, Bob Engel is responsible for implementing the bank’s strategic and business direction as set by the Board of Directors. Previously, he served as CoBank’s president and chief operating officer for six years. Mr. Engel is a member of CoBank’s Senior Leadership Team and the Management Executive Committee.

Prior to joining CoBank in 2000, Mr. Engel was chief banking officer at HSBC Bank USA in New York. He has 24 years of banking experience, primarily with HSBC Bank USA, and eight years of accounting experience, including an agribusiness specialization, with the firms of KPMG and Deloitte & Touche. During his 14-year tenure at HSBC, he served in a variety of management and credit positions, including chief credit officer, before being named chief banking officer.

Mr. Engel earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York, where he was designated Magna Cum Laude and later received an honorary doctorate. He is a member of the board of directors for the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation (Vice Chairman) and Farm Credit Leasing (Chairman). Mr. Engel is also a member of the Farm Credit System Presidents Planning Committee (Chairman). In addition, he serves on the board of trustees for Regis University, the board of directors of New Ventures in Higher Education, Inc., the Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership, Mile High United Way, Buffalo Sabres Alumni Association and as trustee emeritus at Niagara University. He also serves on the Executive Council of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

Erik Peterson is a director at A.T. Kearny’s Global Business Policy Council and a senior advisor with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). He is a world-renown thinker who advises CEOs and business leaders on how to address global trends and identify market opportunities.

Mr. Peterson specializes in identifying long-term shifts in demography, resources and the environment and in using that information to inform both tactical and strategic business decisions. He has been widely published and is currently working on a book about global strategic trends and their effects on governance structures in societies across the world.

Previously, Mr. Peterson has served as a senior vice president for CSIS and director of research for Kissinger Associates. He holds an MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania, a master’s degree in international studies from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from Colby College.

Economist Marci Rossell has a unique ability to take complex financial issues and make them relevant to people’s lives, families and careers.

Ms. Rossell is best known for the time she spent in broadcast television as as chief economist for CNBC. She has also served as a corporate economist and investment spokesperson for Oppenheimer Funds, one of the nation’s largest mutual fund companies. She began her career as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Ms. Rossell earned a Ph.D. in economics from Southern Methodist University, where she was also named Young Alumni of the Year in 2002.

For nine years Lynn Swann was a top wide receiver for the Pittsburgh Steelers, and he played an integral role in the team’s four Super Bowl victories in the 1970s. He was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio, in 2001.

Mr. Swann is co-owner of the Pittsburgh Power, an Arena Football League team, and sits on the board of directors of the H.J. Heinz Company; Hershey Entertainment and Resorts; Caesar’s Entertainment; Empower Software; and the National Football Foundation. He also is an independent marketer and financial advisor.

Mr. Swann has been the National Spokesman for Big Brothers Big Sisters of America since 1980 and serves on their National Board of Directors. He was board president from 1993 to 1995. He also served as chairman of the United States President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sports from 2002 to 2005.

He has a degree in public relations from the University of Southern California.

Dave Ulrich is a business professor at the University of Michigan and a partner at RBL Group, a consulting firm focused on helping organizations and leaders deliver value by leveraging human resources.

Mr. Ulrich has written more than 20 books on human resources and leadership, and specializes in breaking down complex ideas into frameworks and tools that executives can use to deliver value to customers and others.

He was the editor of the Human Resources Management Journal from 1990 to 1999 and has served on the editorial board of four other journals.

Additionally, Mr. Ulrich is on the board of directors for Herman Miller, a fellow in the National Academy of Human Resources and co-founder of the Michigan Human Resources Partnership.

Download Presentation

George F. Will is a widely-read and respected political pundit and columnist. He won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1977 and is known for his conservative point of view. Mr. Will’s columns appear in approximately 400 newspapers in the United States and in Europe.

Mr. Will was an editor of National Review from 1973 to 1976, and was named a contributing editor in 1976 for Newsweek. He joined the Washington Post Writers Group in 1979. Mr. Will in 1981 was a founding member on ABC’s This Week, a Sunday morning talk show.

Eleven compilations of his columns have been published as books, including One Man’s America, his most recent. Mr. Will has also authored two books about baseball: Men At Work: The Craft of Baseball and Bunts: Curt Flood, Camden Yards, Pete Rose and Other Reflections on Baseball. Mr. Will was educated at Trinity College, Oxford University and Princeton University, where he earned a master's and Ph.D. in politics.