Program Announcement

Contact:
Pat Engel (202) 720-8812

Agriculture Secretary Vilsack Names Four New Members to Federal Crop Insurance Corporation Board of Directors

WASHINGTON, January 16, 2013―Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced four new members of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (FCIC) Board of Directors. The new appointees are James Bardenhagen, Iris Saenz, John F. Finston, and Kenneth Ray Sneed. They will join the FCIC Board at the Board’s next meeting in February.

“The addition of these four hard working individuals to the FCIC Board of Directors will help the Board remain focused on the risk management needs of producers around the country,” said Vilsack.

James Bardenhagen, of Bardenhagen Farms, is a specialty crop farmer growing apples, cherries, grapes, potatoes, hay, and small grains in Suttons Bay, Mich. He has been a participant in the crop insurance program for approximately 13 years and was a Michigan State University Extension Director in Leelanau County for 20 years.

Iris V. Sáenz, a native of Premont, Texas, is a crop insurance agent and the owner of South Texas Insurance Services in McAllen, Texas. She has sold and serviced crop insurance policies for more than 25 years. She is also owner of MonteDuro Land and Cattle Company, a Beefmaster cow-calf operation and land management company.

John F. Finston is a Deputy Commissioner for California’s Department of Insurance, an insurance regulator, and an attorney in San Francisco, Calif. Before joining the California Department of Insurance he was in private practice focusing on insurance, reinsurance, and insurance regulation for more than 30 years.

Kenneth Ray Sneed of Sneed Farms, Inc. is a third generation farmer growing soybeans, cotton, corn, and wheat in partnership with his brothers in Drummonds, Tenn. for 35 years. He has 18 years of experience with the crop insurance program.

Full biographies for the new members can be viewed at www.rma.usda.gov/fcic/.

The Federal Crop Insurance Corporation promotes the economic stability of agriculture through a sound system of crop insurance and providing the means for research and experience helpful in developing such insurance. The Agricultural Risk Protection Act of 2000 established the FCIC Board. Management is vested in the Board of Directors subject to the general supervision of the Secretary of Agriculture. The Board is responsible for maintaining and creating new programs for risk management and risk mitigation in agriculture.

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