The Farm Foundation Board of Trustees has elected a new chairman.

Mark S. Scholl of J and M Scholl in Owensboro, KY was elected chairman at the Board’s recent annual meeting in Columbus, Ohio. Joe Swedberg, who recently retired as Vice President of Legislative Affairs with Hormel Foods Corporation, was elected vice chairman.

Scholl is President of J and M Scholl, Inc. a family agriculture holding company that includes a farming operation, an export grain business, a wind farm, and real estate holdings. Scholl worked in the finance industry before an interest in commercialization of value-added grains lead to starting ExSeed Genetics. ExSeed was later sold to BASF, where he served as Director of BASF Plant Science.

Four new members were also elected to the Board of Trustees at the meeting – Klaas Martens of Martens Farm and Lakeview Organic Grain, Penn Yan, NY; Elizabeth Hund of U.S. Bank, Denver, CO; Chuck Ahlem of Charles Ahlem Ranch, Turlock, CA; and Brad Lubben of the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. They succeed Barry Flinchbaugh of Kansas State University; Cornelius Gallagher of Bank of America Merrill Lynch; Richard Morrison of Gilbert, AZ; and Joe Outlaw of Texas A&M University.

Created in 1933, Farm Foundation works as a catalyst for sound public policy by providing objective information to foster a deeper understanding of issues shaping the future for agriculture, food systems and rural communities.