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Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI) announced today the expansion of its board of directors with five new appointments. The board of directors welcomes David Barbieri, senior vice president, chief information officer at Northwest Farm Credit Services; John Barcelos, senior vice president, chief risk officer at Farm Credit West; Briana Beebe, executive vice president of human resources at Farm Credit East; Ryan Berg, senior vice president and chief administrative officer at Farm Credit Illinois; and Jessica Fyre, executive vice president, general counsel at AgCountry Farm Credit Services. 

“We are pleased to welcome David, John, Briana, Ryan, and Jessica to our board of directors and value the additional knowledge and diversity they will bring,” said Bill Lipinski, Interim President. “They join us at an exciting time as we transform our technology strategy to support our agricultural credit association Partners in modernizing the lending experience for borrowers. Given their skills and expertise, we are confident they will provide valuable perspectives that complement our current board members.”  

FPI’s current board members include Marcus Knisely, chairman of the board, president and CEO of AgCountry Farm Credit Services; Mark Littlefield, vice chairman of the board, president and CEO of Farm Credit West; Tom Nakano, executive vice president, chief administrative officer and chief financial officer at Northwest Farm Credit Services; Michael Reynolds, CEO of Farm Credit East; and Aaron Johnson, president and CEO of Farm Credit Illinois.  

About David Barbieri 

Senior Vice President, Chief Information Officer, Northwest Farm Credit Services 

David Barbieri grew up in Spokane, Washington, where his exposure to agriculture involved working in his family’s diverse businesses, including dairy processing. He earned his Bachelor of Science degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Colorado Boulder. With Northwest FCS since September 2014, David is responsible for strategic planning, technology, security and project management. 

About John Barcelos  

Senior Vice President, Chief Risk Officer, Farm Credit West 

Mr. Barcelos has served in his current position since October 2015. He served as senior vice president (and vice president) of Enterprise Risk Management from 2011 to 2015. From 2003 to 2010, he served as a lender in Farm Credit West’s Tulare Dairy Center. Mr. Barcelos has been employed in the Farm Credit System since 2003.  

About Briana Beebe 

Executive Vice President of Human Resources, Farm Credit East 

Briana S. Beebe serves as Executive Vice President of Human Resources. She leads all of Farm Credit East’s human resource programs including benefits, recruiting, employee engagement, training, compensation and many other special projects. She joined Farm Credit in 2002 and served as loan officer in the Middleboro branch for seven years before transitioning to her current role in Human Resources. She is Chair of Farm Credit East’s Human Resources Committee and serves on the CoBank Welfare Benefits Committee. She is a graduate of Cornell University with a degree in animal science/ag business. She is also a graduate of LEAD New York and Farm Credit’s Leadership Development Program. 

About Ryan Berg 

Senior Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer, Farm Credit Illinois 

Ryan began his Farm Credit career in 1999 as a loan accounting administrator. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in finance from the University of Illinois and also holds a CPA certificate. Ryan has a son, Alec, and resides in Mahomet. 

About Jessica Fyre 

EVP General Counsel, AgCountry Farm Credit Services 

Jessica Fyre currently serves as EVP General Counsel where she provides advice and counsel on legal, regulatory and legislative matters and is the principal legal advisor to the Board of Directors, Chief Executive Officer and Executive Leadership Team. She provides leadership to the legal and lending services team, which provides expertise to the entire association in the areas of loan documents, collateral, real estate and title, statutory and regulatory compliance, contract review and all other legal matters impacting the association. 

About Farm Credit Financial Partners  

Organized in 1995, Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI) is the largest and most innovative provider of technology products and services to the Farm Credit System. A customer-owned service organization, FPI supports six agricultural credit associations (ACAs) from Maine to California with 100,000 members and $43 billion in Farm Credit assets. Through a partner-driven approach, FPI is improving lending for American agriculture with technology that is robust, reliable, and intuitive. Visit financialpartners.com. 

Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc.’s (FPI) Board of Directors has named Bob Passini as the company’s new president and CEO effective October 1, 2020.  Passini will succeed Bill Lipinski, who currently serves as interim president.  FPI is a customer-owned service organization serving six agricultural credit associations (ACAs) from Maine to California. 

Lipinski, who served as CEO of Farm Credit East for 25 years, stepped in as interim president of FPI in January.  He has devoted over 40 years to the Farm Credit System and was instrumental in the founding of FPI in 1995.  He served on FPI’s Board of Directors since the company’s founding, including serving as chairman.

Passini currently serves as Executive Vice President, Chief Risk Officer of FPI.  In that position, Passini leads and manages the organization’s legal team, data governance, and enterprise risk management program, which includes information and cyber security, business resiliency, vendor risk management, and policy administration.  He joined FPI in March of 2019 following an extensive career in risk and business resiliency, most recently serving as chief resiliency officer for a Fortune 500 company in the insurance and financial services industry. 

Prior to his roles in risk and business resiliency, Passini held senior positions leading diverse information technology initiatives where he was recognized for his subject matter expertise in infrastructure architecture, network technologies, hardware and software standards, security protocols, and shared services models.  He maintains a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) designation, is a member of (ISC)² and FS-ISAC and served as chair of the LOMA Business Resiliency Committee from 2013-2017. 

“The Board of Directors went through a very deliberate process to assess the leadership needs of FPI, and the company’s value proposition to the Farm Credit institutions it serves,” said Board Chair Marc Knisely.  “A very thorough CEO search was conducted, and Bob was selected out of an exceptional group of highly qualified candidates.  We look forward to working with Bob as he provides leadership for the execution of our strategic plan and creates a strong collaborative business model to deliver technology solutions for Farm Credit that ultimately benefit farmers, ranchers, rural communities and agribusiness across America.”

“I am honored to be given the opportunity to lead FPI into its next chapter.  We have an exceptionally talented team that is dedicated to the success of our ACA Partners,” said Bob Passini. 

The appointment of Passini comes at a pivotal time for FPI as the company celebrates its 25th year of serving Farm Credit and continues to transform its technology strategy to support its ACA Partners in modernizing the lending experience for borrowers.  The company is also navigating the effects of the global pandemic on agribusiness and the increased need to leverage technology to manage customer-member relationships. 

“Our ACA Partners are incredibly agile and innovative, continuously looking for new ways to enhance relationships with their customer-members and improve the lending experience. Through close partnership, our goal is to provide robust technology solutions that allow our ACA Partners to focus on serving the needs of their customer-members,” said Passini.  “There are many opportunities that lie ahead, and I am confident in the continued momentum and success of FPI in collaboration with our ACA Partners.”

“During Bob’s tenure at FPI, he has distinguished himself as a thoughtful, action oriented and talented leader,” said Bill Lipinski.  “The board and I are confident Bob will do an outstanding job leading the FPI team.”

ABOUT FARM CREDIT FINANCIAL PARTNERS

Organized in 1995, Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI) is the largest and most innovative provider of technology products and services to the Farm Credit System. A customer-owned service organization, FPI supports six agricultural credit associations (ACAs) from Maine to California with over 62,000 members and $40 billion in Farm Credit assets. Through a partner-driven approach, FPI is improving lending for American agriculture with technology that is robust, reliable, and intuitive. Visit www.financialpartners.com.  

As I enter my new role today, I wanted to take a moment to thank Bill Lipinski for his leadership and reflect on the instrumental role he has played in our organization’s history. Bill stepped in as interim president in January shortly after retiring from Farm Credit East where he served as CEO for 25 years. In addition to leading our organization through a global pandemic, he met with staff to gather feedback and worked collaboratively with the senior leadership team to stabilize the organization and to position us for a successful future. 

Bill’s extensive 40-year career in Farm Credit included founding FPI in late 1994. At the time, Bill was involved in a project to evaluate how Farm Credit could adjust to serve customers in the 21st century. The outcome of that effort was to take advantage of legislation set by Congress that allowed credit entities to form a service company. Prior to the founding of FPI, no ACAs had taken advantage of this legislation. He saw an opportunity and helped form FPI as a service company with the goal of separating responsibility and accountability for technology, HR, and legal services from funding loans. Bill was appointed the first CEO of FPI and was responsible for hiring the initial 32 employees—some of whom still work for the organization today—who served five New England-based ACAs. 

After serving as FPI’s inaugural CEO, Bill continued to serve on our Board of Directors. During his time as a board member—which included serving as Chairman—he provided leadership and strategic direction as we evolved our technology offerings. He was a part of implementing BASIS, our home-grown CRM system that integrated with underwriting and loan processing. As technology changed and evolved, Bill played a role in the vision for EmPOWER, the system that replaced BASIS and leveraged the world wide web to offer a more robust data structure with improved convenience and utility. Over the past few years, Bill was again a part of the strategic shift as we moved from our home-grown software applications to best-in-breed cloud-based solutions within our AgWorx by FPI technology ecosystem.  

As we celebrate our 25th year, we are incredibly grateful for Bill’s leadership and his tremendous impact on our organization. He is looking forward to having more time to focus on his retirement where he plans on spending more time with his wife, four children, seven grandchildren, and the many friends he has met throughout his career in the Farm Credit System.  

Please join me in wishing Bill all the best in his well-deserved retirement. 

Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI), a customer-owned provider of technology products and services to the Farm Credit System, has relocated from its Agawam, Mass. office to Springfield’s Tower Square. The move to the new office space will accommodate the company’s growth and expansion over the past 25 years. 

“FPI was founded in the greater Springfield area and we have been looking for a new space nearby that could accommodate our growth,” said Bob Passini, FPI’s president and CEO. “Tower Square is committed to providing a business-friendly environment with ample space and amenities to meet the needs of our staff.”

FPI began its tenure at the Agawam Corporate Center in 1995 with 32 employees. The company has since grown to over 250 employees with this year marking its 25th year of serving the Farm Credit System. Farm Credit is a network of borrower-owned lending institutions and service organizations specializing in lending and agriculture-related services for farmers and ranchers, farmer-owned cooperatives and agribusinesses, rural homebuyers and infrastructure providers across the country.

Over the years, FPI has expanded its offerings to include not only technology solutions, but also infrastructure, credit delivery systems, business intelligence, funds management, customer support, and consultative partnering. The company now supports six agricultural credit associations across the country and has employees located in its Springfield, Mass. headquarters, Spokane, Wash., and remote.

 “As we were evaluating new locations, we considered both the needs of our company and amenities that would benefit staff,” said Passini. “I’m pleased that our staff will have the opportunity to enjoy the many dining options in Citywalk Café, retail shops, services, and the Springfield YMCA’s childcare and wellness center.” 

“Farm Credit Financial Partner’s tenancy and occupancy represents a significant addition to the approximately 120,000 rentable square footage of new tenancy at Tower Square in the past 24 months. This has made Tower Square and downtown Springfield the premier business destination in western Mass,” said Demetrios Panteleakis, Principal of Macmillan Group, LLC. 

“Nearly 500 new occupants will help highlight a vibrant professional community. Tower Square provides a safe, tenant-friendly atmosphere with great amenities and the most accessible on-site parking for tenants in Springfield,” said Panteleakis.

“As we navigate the current pandemic, this new space is large and independent, which gives us the flexibility to adjust floor layouts and workspaces to ensure the safety of our employees and customers,” said Passini. “With all of this in mind, we know this is the right move at the right time and are committed to supporting our agricultural credit association partners as we transition to our new location.”  
 

ABOUT FARM CREDIT FINANCIAL PARTNERS  
Organized in 1995, Farm Credit Financial Partners, Inc. (FPI) is the largest and most innovative provider of technology products and services to the Farm Credit System. A customer-owned service organization, FPI supports six agricultural credit associations (ACAs) from Maine to California with over 62,000 members and $40 billion in Farm Credit assets. Through a partner-driven approach, FPI is improving lending for American agriculture with technology that is robust, reliable, and intuitive. Visit www.financialpartners.com.

ABOUT TOWER SQUARE
Tower Square, located at 1500 Main Street, is the center of Springfield’s downtown business district. The 1.6 million sq. ft. property consists of a 266-room hotel presently under renovations, retail and office space, as well as an enclosed parking garage. Existing tenants include Wellfleet, Morgan Stanley; Raymond James & Associates, Inc.; Bulkley, Richardson and Gelinas, LLP; Robinson Donovan, P.C.; and Morrison Mahoney LLP. Recent tenancy includes O’Connell, Attmore & Morris, LLC; Nicolai Law Group P.C.; Taylor Made Communications; White Lion Brewery; YMCA Of Greater Springfield; The building is represented by Demetrios Panteleakis, Principal of Macmillan Group, LLC. For more information, contact Mr. Panteleakis at 413-315-0727 or demetrios@macmillang.com. Please visit macmillang.com.