Board of Directors

JAMES F. "JIMMY" DODSON

Chairman

Jimmy Dodson was elected chairman of the board of directors in January 2012. First elected to the board in 2003, he was vice chairman from January 2009 through December 2011. He is one of the board’s financial experts on the bank’s audit committee.

Dodson grows cotton, corn, wheat and milo and operates a seed sales business near Robstown, Texas. He is vice chairman of the Tenth District Farm Credit Council, a founding member of Cotton Leads, and serves on the boards of the Texas Agricultural Cooperative Council and Gulf Coast Cooperative. He also is chairman of the national Farm Credit Council Board of Directors, and serves on the FCC Services Board of Directors. Dodson is past chairman of the National Cotton Council of America, the American Cotton Producers and the Cotton Foundation. He formerly served on the board of Cotton Incorporated.

He is a past chairman of the Texas AgFinance, FCS Board of Directors and a former member of the Texas Farm Credit District Stockholders' Advisory Committee.

LESTER LITTLE

VICE CHAIRMAN

Lester Little joined the board of directors in January 2009 and was elected vice chairman in January 2012. He is vice chairman of the bank’s compensation committee.

Little owns and operates a farm headquartered in Lavaca County, Texas, where his principal crops are corn, milo, hay and wheat. He also offers custom-farming services, primarily reclaiming farms and handling land preparation. Previously, he was chairman of the Lavaca Exposition Association and board chairman of the Hallettsville Junior Livestock Show. He also was a board member of the Lavaca Central Appraisal District and board chairman of the Hallettsville Independent School District.

He is a former chairman of the Capital Farm Credit Board of Directors and is a past vice chairman of the Texas Farm Credit District Stockholders' Advisory Committee.

RALPH W. "BUDDY" CORTESE

DIRECTOR

Buddy Cortese joined the board in 1995, and served as board chairman from January 2000 through December 2011. He is chairman of the bank’s compensation committee.

Cortese is a farmer and rancher from Fort Sumner, N.M. He serves on the board of the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation, and is a member of The Texas Agricultural Cooperative Council Board of Directors.

Before joining the bank board, Cortese was chairman of the Production Credit Association (PCA) of Eastern New Mexico Board of Directors. Early in his career, he was vice president of Roswell PCA. He served on the Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation (Farmer Mac) board from 2003 to 2008.

JOHN L. "JACK" DAILEY

Director

John L. “Jack” Dailey was elected to the board of directors effective Jan. 1, 2019. He serves on the bank’s audit and compensation committees.

A resident of Extension, La., Dailey is an owner and operator of Boeuf Prairie Farm, which produces cotton, corn, soybeans and beef cattle. In addition, he is a manager and serves as treasurer of Franklin Farmers Alliance, LLC, a farmer-owned agricultural retail store.

Dailey is chairman of the Louisiana Boll Weevil Eradication Commission and the Franklin Parish Fire Protection District 2, and is treasurer of the Franklin Parish Farm Bureau. He also serves on the executive committee of the Louisiana Cotton and Grain Association and the water management task force of the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources. Previously, Dailey was vice chairman of the Louisiana Land Bank Board of Directors, where he chaired the governance committee.

LINDA C. FLOERKE

DIRECTOR

Linda C. Floerke was elected to the board of directors effective Jan. 1, 2017. She is vice chairman of the bank's audit committee.

Floerke and her husband raise cattle, whitetail deer and hay in Lampasas County, Texas. They are also co-owners of Agro-Tech Services, Inc., where she is secretary/treasurer. The company provides liquid fertilizer, crop chemicals, custom application, cattle protein supplements, and other products and services to area farmers and ranchers. In addition, Floerke serves on the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Leadership Advisory Board for Lampasas County and is a member of the Texas Agricultural Cooperative Council board.

She is a former director or trustee of numerous organizations, including two district school boards and the Girl Scouts of Central Texas, and is a past president of the Lampasas County Chamber of Commerce. Floerke was a director of Lone Star Ag Credit from 2014 to 2016 and Texas Land Bank from 2012 to 2014.

M. PHILIP GUTHRIE

BOARD-APPOINTED DIRECTOR

M. Philip Guthrie was named to the board on July 1, 2015, as a board-appointed director. He is chairman of the bank’s audit committee.

He is the chief executive officer of Denham Partners LLC, a Dallas-based private investment firm, and is chief executive officer of Neuro Holdings International LLC, which is a medical devices firm. He also has served as a director for Neuro Resources Group, a medical devices firm. Early in his career, he was chief financial officer of Southwest Airlines, and later served as chief financial officer of Braniff International during that airline's reorganization. He also was the managing director of Mason Best Co., a Dallas-based investment firm, for 10 years, and has served as chairman, director or chief executive officer of several private and public financial service companies, both in banking and insurance.

A Certified Public Accountant and a Chartered Global Management Accountant, Guthrie is audit committee–qualified under the guidelines of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq. He earned his bachelor's degree in accounting from Louisiana Tech University and his MBA from the University of Michigan.

Guthrie is a stockholder of his family-managed 125-year-old livestock and crop operation in northern Louisiana.

DOROTHY NICHOLS

BOARD-APPOINTED DIRECTOR

Dorothy Nichols was named to the board on May 1, 2019, as a board-appointed director. She serves on the bank’s audit and compensation committees.

Nichols spent 30 years as a top executive at federal financial regulators and insurers. She had a 23-year career with the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation (FCSIC), the government insurer for System debt obligations. She joined the FCSIC in 1995 as its first in-house general counsel, and from 2006 to 2018 she served as its chief operating officer. Previously, Nichols was the first chief operating officer of the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), the independent federal agency that regulates and examines Farm Credit institutions and related entities.

Prior to that, Nichols was an associate general counsel at the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. She began her government career in 1982 as a trial attorney with the Federal Home Loan Bank Board and the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corporation. She holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Maryland and a doctorate in law from George Washington University.