Craig D. Hill, Chairman of the Board

Craig D. Hill, 56, is the Chairman of the Board and chair of the Executive Committee. He was elected President of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and its subsidiary, Farm Bureau Management Corporation, in December 2011 and has served on its board of directors since 1989.  He was its Vice President from 2001 to 2011. He served as a Class B director from 2002 to 2004 and since 2007.  He has served on the board of Farm Bureau Life from 1989 to 2007, and on the board of Farm Bureau Property & Casualty since 1989, and also serves on the boards of Western Agricultural and Crop1 Insurance. Hill farms 1,000 acres of row crops and has a swine operation near Milo, Iowa.

Steve L. Baccus

Steve L. Baccus, 62, became a Class B director in May 2002 after being named President of the Kansas Farm Bureau. He is also chairman of the board of directors of Farm Bureau Property & Casualty, and a director of Farm Bureau Life, Western Ag and FB BanCorp. In 2004 Mr. Baccus was elected to the board of directors of the American Farm Bureau Federation. His family farm in Ottawa County, Kansas produces wheat, milo, soybeans, sunflower and irrigated corn. Baccus earned bachelor's and master's degrees in psychology from Washburn University and Chapman College, respectively.

Roger K. Brooks

Roger K. Brooks, 74, became a Class A director in May 2009. He serves on the Finance Committee and the Management Development and Compensation Committee. Brooks is the retired chief executive officer and chairman of AmerUs Group. He retired from AmerUs in 2005, after nearly 50 years of service. Brooks has served on numerous community boards and is a member of the Iowa Insurance Hall of Fame and Iowa Business Hall of Fame. He is also a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. Brooks graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of Iowa. He also participated in Stanford University's Executive Program.

Jerry L. Chicoine

Jerry L. Chicoine, 69, Class A director since 1996, is the lead director of the independent directors, vice chairman of the board, and serves on the Executive Committee and the Management Development and Compensation Committee. Chicoine retired effective January 1, 2001 as chairman and chief executive officer of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc. He had served in those capacities since 1999, and was Pioneer's executive vice president and chief operating officer since 1997. From 1988 to 1997 he had served as senior vice president and chief financial officer. He was named a director of Pioneer Hi-Bred in March 1998. He was named Outstanding CPA in Business and Industry by the Iowa Society of CPAs in 1998. He was a partner in the accounting firm of McGladrey & Pullen from 1969 to 1986 and also holds a law degree. He is a member of the Board of Directors of The Weitz Company.

Tim H. Gill

Tim H. Gill, 59, Class A director since 2004, has served as president and chief executive officer of Montana Livestock Ag Credit, Inc. since 1986. The company specializes in agricultural finance throughout the state of Montana, underwrites long term real estate loans and has its own investment offerings. Gill is on the finance committee of Montana Stockgrowers; a trustee and finance chairman of the Montana Stockgrowers Research and Education Foundation; a member of the tax and credit committee of the National Cattlemen's Beef Association; a director and past chairman of the Montana Council on Economic Education; a director of the Carroll College Athletic Association. He is chair of the Management Development and Compensation Committee.

Robert H. Hanson

Robert H. Hanson, 70, Class A director since 2004, served as investment banker with Merrill Lynch, Pierce Fenner & Smith in New York from 1965 to 1989, since 1972 as a vice president, specializing in providing corporate finance services to the regulated utilities and telecommunications industries. In 1990 he relocated to Cody, Wyoming, where he was employed by Dean Witter Reynolds, Inc. as an account executive, and later by D.A. Davidson & Co., as vice president and office manager of that firm's Cody office. In 1993 he joined GST Telecommunications, Inc., initially as senior vice president–corporate development, and subsequently as chief financial officer, retiring from those positions in 1999. Hanson is a past member of the Wyoming Telecommunications Council and current president of the Boys & Girls Club of Park County, Wyoming. In addition, he is a director and trustee of two national conservation organizations, for which he has the responsibility for financial and investment management. Hanson is a graduate of Yale University. He is chair of the Finance Committee, and has been named by the Board of Directors as one of our "Audit Committee financial experts."

James E. Hohmann

James E. (Jim) Hohmann, 56, was named chief executive officer of FBL Financial Group in January 2010. He has over 30 years of experience in the financial services industry. Prior to FBL Financial Group, he was president and CEO of Allstate Financial; president and chief operating officer at Conseco, Inc.; president and CEO of XL Life and Annuity; and president, Financial Institutions, for Zurich Kemper Life. He is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the American Academy of Actuaries. Hohmann earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Northwestern University and an MBA from the University of Chicago, graduating with high honors. Hohmann is a member of the board of governors of the Property Casualty Insurers Association of America and is a former member of the board of directors of the American Council of Life Insurers. He also serves on the boards of Bankers Trust, the Greater Des Moines Partnership, and OMNI Youth Services in Chicago.

Paul E. Larson

Paul E. Larson, 59, Class A director since 2004, has been named by the Board of Directors as one of our "Audit Committee financial experts." He retired in 1999 as president of Equitable Life of Iowa and its subsidiary, USG Annuity and Life, after 22 years with the companies. Larson holds both a law degree and a certified public accountant designation. He was named Outstanding CPA in Business and Industry by the Iowa Society of CPA's in 1999, and inducted into the American Institute of CPA's Business and Industry Hall of Fame in 2000. He is a member of the Board of Directors of non-public companies Wellmark, Inc., Wellmark of South Dakota, Inc., GuideOne Mutual Insurance Company and GuideOne Specialty Mutual Insurance Company. He was also a board member of EquiTrust Mutual Funds (which was then managed by one of our subsidiaries), where he was chair of the Audit Committee and the committee's financial expert. He resigned from the EquiTrust Mutual Funds board upon election to the FBL Financial Group board in 2004.

Edward W. Mehrer

Edward W. Mehrer, 73, Class A director since 2004, is the chair of the Audit Committee and has been named by the Board of Directors as one of our "Audit Committee financial experts." He is currently a member of the board of directors, and the audit and compensation committees of NovaStar Financial. He served as interim chief executive officer of CyDex, Inc., a drug delivery company, from late 2002 to mid 2003, and as its chief financial officer from November 1996 to December 2003. Prior to joining CyDex in 1996, Mehrer was executive vice president and chief financial and administrative officer of Marion Merrell Dow and a director and member of its executive committee. From 1976 to 1986, Mehrer served as partner-in-charge of audit and accounting for KPMG Peat Marwick in Kansas City, Missouri.

Denny J. Presnall

Denny J. Presnall, 58, became a Class B director in January 2012, filling a vacancy. Since 2007, he has been the executive director and secretary-treasurer of the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and a director of its Farm Bureau Management Corporation. He joined Iowa Farm Bureau in 1982. He is also senior vice president and secretary of Farm Bureau Life and of Farm Bureau Property & Casualty. He is a director of Valley Bank and chair of the Board of Ambassadors for Coaches vs. Cancer. He is past president of the Ankeny, Iowa school board and former chairman of the Iowa High School Athletic Association board of control.

Kevin G. Rogers

Kevin G. Rogers, 51, has served as a Class B director since February 2008. He has been president of the Arizona Farm Bureau Federation since 2003. Rogers is also a director of Farm Bureau Life, the vice chairman of Farm Bureau Property & Casualty and a director of Western Agricultural. He is a board member of Farm Bureau Bank. Rogers is an officer of the Arizona Cotton Growers Association and serves on the National Cotton Council, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Cotton Board on the USDA Air Quality Task Force. He served on the American Farm Bureau Board of Directors and on its five-member executive committee for six years (2005-2010). His family farms more than 7,000 acres in the Phoenix metropolitan area and produces cotton, alfalfa, wheat, barley and corn.

Scott E. VanderWal

Scott E. VanderWal, 48, was elected a Class B director in May 2011. VanderWal has been president of the South Dakota Farm Bureau Federation since 2004, and a member of its board of directors since 1997. He is also a member of the boards of directors of Farm Bureau Property & Casualty (since 2004), Farm Bureau Life (since 2004), American Farm Bureau Federation (since 2006) and a member of a number of American Farm Bureau task forces. VanderWal received a bachelor's degree in General Agriculture, with a Plant Science minor, from South Dakota State University in 1985. His family farm operation in Volga, South Dakota includes corn, soybeans, custom cattle feeding and custom harvesting.

John E. Walker

John E. Walker, 73, Class A director since 1996, is chair of the Class A Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee. He retired January 1, 1996 from Business Men's Assurance (BMA), Kansas City, Missouri, where he had been the managing director of Reinsurance Operations since 1979. He had been a member of the Board of Directors of BMA for 11 years prior to his retirement, and a member of its executive committee. Mr. Walker was a director of LabOne, Inc., a publicly traded testing laboratory, and its predecessor, for close to 20 years until the company was acquired by merger in late 2005. He serves on a variety of nonprofit community boards.