Key Note:
David Glenn, PhD: Brother Glenn is a former University of Utah and Harvard Business School professor who’s successful career as President and COO of Freddie Mac put him at one of the highest levels of American business, serving as President and COO of Freddie Mac for 12 years. With over $700 billion in assets at the time of his retirement, Freddie Mac is the largest non-sovereign money fund in the world and the 2nd largest purchaser of home mortgages in the U.S. Having grown up in Brigham City, Utah, David now owns ranch properties near Croydon, Utah and Jackson, Wyoming.
Panel participants:
*Sheldon Atwood, PhD: Brother Atwood earned his PhD at Utah State University for groundbreaking work integrating ecology, economics, and social behavior. Prior to his doctoral work, Sheldon served a mission in Hawaii, later returning to Utah State where he studied agriculture and natural resource management, co-founding Carrus Land Systems – where he is currently acting as CEO.
*Bill Hopkin: Brother Hopkin is a former Regional Manager for Farm Management Co. and was most recently appointed by the Utah Commissioner of Agriculture to be the Director of the Utah Grazing Improvement Program. Brother Hopkin is a resource manager at the highest level who has managed ranches in Utah, Texas, and Florida. Throughout his career Brother Hopkin has consistently demonstrated his ability to simultaneously enhance profitability and ecological sustainability through team leadership. A few of the many innovations pioneered during his career include using livestock grazing to increase both game and non-game wildlife habitat, forming public-private alliances to achieve management objectives, and creating environmentally adapted, low-cost livestock herds. Before retiring in 2005, Bill was directly responsible for more than 80 employees, 40,000 mother cows, and land assets worth several billion dollars.
*Daniel K. Dygert: Brother Dygert is Chief Operating Officer of Carrus Land Systems. Dan received his law degree, graduating summa cum laude, from the University of Arizona in 1999. Dan’s experience as an attorney includes acting as counsel for a borrower in negotiating and documenting a $290.0 million credit facility; representing the Target corporation in a public merger transaction; acting as counsel for a regional airline in numerous leveraged-lease transactions; representing a hydropower development firm before federal agencies; and creating other transactions involving mergers and acquisitions, real estate transfers, and miscellaneous corporate matters.
*Mark Kossler: Mr. Kossler is a highly experienced large ranch manager, currently overseeing Ted Turner’s largest ranch, located in New Mexico. Mark previously managed Turner’s flagship Flying D ranch near Bozeman, Montana, where he substantially increased annual pre-tax profits. Mark has also managed the Crazy Mountain Guest Ranch, operated a commercial feedlot, and participated in significant timber harvests, oil and gas developments, and endangered species programs.
*Charley Orchard: Mr. Orchard founded the Land EKG® Inc, rangeland consulting firm. Charley’s innovative model, used to track, document, and manage ecological condition has become widely accepted by progressive ranchers and many agency personnel. This system graphically demonstrates trends in ecosystem health and function for many North American land types. The focus of Land EKG Inc. includes training land managers the key skills to monitor and manage for healthy biotic systems within upland, forest, riparian ecotypes. Strengths of the monitoring method include: user friendliness, multi-format repeatability, and easily accessible data analysis/storage, which can be seen at www.landekg.com.
*Jon Prince, MBA: Brother Prince is a real estate investor and residential land developer in southern Utah. He recently retired from Freddie Mac after 19 years in Northern Virginia where he was Vice President of Investor Relations. In that capacity he traveled to over 50 countries to meet with government officials and asset managers to discuss US housing markets and securities offered by the US housing agencies. Brother Prince served a full time mission to Colombia, South America, from 1975 to 1977. He has served as a Bishop and currently serves in the Oakton Virginia Stake Presidency.