Michael W. Hechtner — Central Region President of Regional Agribusiness Banking Group at cobank

Mr. Michael W. Hechtner, also known as Mike, has been Central Region President of Regional Agribusiness Banking Group at Cobank Acb since March 2011. Mr. Hechtner is responsible for managing the agribusiness lending operations of CoBank's Central Region, which includes the Minneapolis, Omaha and Fargo banking centers. These banking centers support agribusiness customers in eight Midwestern states. He oversee relationship management, marketing and credit administration for cooperative customers in North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wisconsin and Wyoming. He joined Cobank in 2005 as regional vice president for agribusiness banking in its Omaha, Neb., banking center. His team specializes in serving the needs of agricultural cooperatives and other commercial agribusinesses that process, market, transport and export agricultural commodities. He has nearly three decades of experience with the Farm Credit System and agribusiness lending. He held leadership positions with Farm Credit Services of Central Arkansas, AgriBank and Farm Credit Bank of St. Louis. He is also a board member of the Nebraska Cooperative Council. Mr. Hechtner has a bachelor's degree in agricultural economics from the University of Idaho and an MBA from St. Louis University.