Director Position 1: Heartland Brian Maloney

Brian Maloney

Age as of March 1, 2021: 52

Residence Location:         Kingman, KS

Place of Operation:          Kingman, KS

Business Experience: Owner/operator of a large and diversified farming and ranching operation in south central Kansas. Twenty years of working in the Farm Credit System including at the Farm Credit Administration, Farm Credit of Southwest Kansas (now a part of American AgCredit), CoBank, and Farmer Mac.

Education: Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics / Agricultural Business at Kansas State University, Manhattan, KS; Bachelor of Science in Business Administration at Kansas University, Lawrence, KS.

Current Boards: American AgCredit (Currently serve as Vice-Chair on Board Audit Committee and on Selection Committee for the association’s new Chief Audit Executive); Owner/Partner of M-3 Farms; Maloney Ranch; Maloney Partnership; Maloney Family Trust; Maloney Farms Equipment; AgTran, LLC.

Strategic & Visionary Thinking: Strategic and visionary thinking has been, and continues to be, the key to our family’s success. During our daily work activities, weekly meetings and annual reviews, we are constantly scanning our external and internal environments and assessing our strengths and weaknesses, threats, and opportunities. We work to understand our competitive strengths and the importance of maintaining those strengths in all areas of our operation.

Corporate Governance: My Farm Credit background provided me the experiences to observe and assess the governance structures of many Farm Credit entities and their rules, practices, and processes to establish direction and control; my farming background reminds me of the importance of preserving the cooperative character of the Farm Credit System and its need to support producers across a wide spectrum of experience and success.

Financial Expertise: My financial expertise is based on several separate sets of experiences: 1) the financial management of our family farming operation; 2) analyzing and administering agricultural credit in the Farm Credit System including Farmer Mac; 3) reviewing portfolio performance at Farm Credit institutions while at FCA; and 4) the education I received at two universities and the ongoing training within the Farm Credit System.

Communication: Presenting in a professional manner, both written and oral communication, has been extremely important during all of my career whether it is summarizing research for a project, writing reports, analyzing loans, or interacting with management and boards. Working for relatively large organizations also taught me the importance of listening well and asking important questions.

Technology: I consider myself to be very computer-literate with proficiencies covering a wide variety of software applications including word processing, loan analysis, spreadsheets, and database management. My experiences on the American AgCredit board have broadened my range of knowledge into cybersecurity, selection and implementation of programs into business processes, and establishment of digital technologies into an institution’s platform.

Human Resource Management: Attracting, inspiring, and motivating good employees is at the heart of every large farming operation and has been one of my primary responsibilities. While we have several year-round employees, our numbers swell in the summer when our cropping practices require increased workload. Those numbers involve new faces and the continuing need to train and lead them in safe practices and to inspire and motivate the group in established daily goals.

Risk Management: My responsibilities at FCA deepened my understanding of the wide range of risks that Farm Credit institutions face in assessing loan submissions and how they carry out and enforce sound credit policies and procedures. The risks I must manage as a farmer are very similar and include production and yield risk, price risk, and financial risk. Through this unique set of perspectives, I recognize the tension that exists between balancing long-term financial integrity with the need to seek new opportunities and serve diverse customers.

Leadership: My leadership experiences have been bolstered by, but not limited to, my responsibilities in my Farm Credit career where typical projects involved helping to organize work among a team of regulators or to set up a group project to develop a new type of credit analysis. At the same time, leadership in running a family business is crucial. For my experience and skills in that regard, please note my answer to “Human Resources Management” above.