(McLean, Virginia) Glen R. Smith of Atlantic, Iowa, was elected yesterday as chairman of the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation board of directors. He succeeds Jeffery Hall, who served as chairman of the FCSIC board of directors from November 2016 until he was designated board chairman and CEO of the Farm Credit Administration (FCA) on Jan. 20, 2025.
“I would like to thank the FCSIC board for electing me chair,” said Chairman Smith. “I am honored to have the opportunity to lead FCSIC because I recognize and value its role in maintaining investor confidence in the Farm Credit System (FCS or System). This confidence is crucial for the System to have a dependable source of funds to lend to agriculture and rural America. I also want to thank Board Member Jeff Hall for his exemplary FCSIC Board of Directors leadership for the past eight years. I look forward to working with him and Board Member Vincent Logan as we continue to fulfill FCSIC’s mission.”
The Insurance Corporation is an independent U.S. government-controlled corporation responsible for ensuring the repayment of principal and interest on certain Farm Credit System debt obligations issued to investors. As of Sept. 30, 2024, the FCSIC insurance fund held $7.8 billion in total assets, insuring $434.8 billion in outstanding FCS debt. The FCS includes a nationwide network of borrower-owned cooperative lending institutions and affiliated service entities that lead in financing agriculture and rural America. The Insurance Corporation is managed by a three-member board of directors consisting of individuals who serve concurrently as members of the FCA board. FCA is the regulator of the FCS.
Chairman Smith has served as a member of the FCA board and the FCSIC board of directors since December 2017, when President Donald J. Trump appointed him to the FCA board. President Trump designated him chairman of the board and CEO of FCA in 2019, and he served in that capacity through most of 2022. In his role on the FCA board, Mr. Smith has been particularly interested in encouraging the advancement of System programs for young, beginning, and small farmers and ranchers and promoting System institutions’ safety and soundness. These board efforts culminated in regulatory actions entered into the Federal Register in February 2024.
Chairman Smith is a native of Atlantic, Iowa, where he was raised on a diversified crop and livestock farm. His farm experience started at a very early age after his father was involved in a disabling farm accident. He graduated from Iowa State University in 1979 with a Bachelor of Science in agricultural business. In 1982, Chairman Smith and his wife, Fauzan, moved back to his hometown and started their family agricultural operation as “beginning farmers.” In that same year, he established a locally based land service company. Today, their family farm, Smith Generation Farms Inc., has grown to encompass about 2,000 owned acres devoted to corn, soybeans, and hay. Smith Land Service specializes in farm management, land appraisal, and farmland brokerage, serving landowners in about 30 Iowa counties.
The Smiths have four grown children and six grandchildren, all involved in various degrees with production agriculture. In 2017, their son Peter assumed managerial responsibilities for the family farm and business.
