As CoBank’s president and chief executive officer, Bob Engel is responsible for implementing the bank’s strategic and business direction as set by the Board of Directors. Previously, he served as CoBank’s president and chief operating officer for six years. Mr. Engel is a member of CoBank’s Management Executive Committee.

Prior to joining CoBank in 2000, Mr. Engel was chief banking officer at HSBC Bank USA in New York. He has 24 years of banking experience, primarily with HSBC Bank USA, and eight years of accounting experience, including an agribusiness specialization, with the firms of KPMG and Deloitte & Touche. During his 14-year tenure at HSBC, he served in a variety of management and credit positions, including chief credit officer, before being named chief banking officer.

Mr. Engel earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Niagara University in Niagara Falls, New York, where he was designated Magna Cum Laude and later received an honorary doctorate. He is a member of the board of directors for the Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corporation (vice chairman) and Farm Credit Leasing (chairman). Mr. Engel is also a member of the Farm Credit System Presidents Planning Committee (chairman). In addition, he serves on the board of trustees for Regis University, the board of directors of New Ventures in Higher Education, Inc., the Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership, Mile High United Way, Buffalo Sabres Alumni Association and as trustee emeritus at Niagara University. He also serves on the Executive Council of the National Council of Farmer Cooperatives. He is a recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor.

General James Conway is a retired four-star general who served as the 34th Commandant of the United States Marine Corps. He also was director of operations on the Joint Chiefs of Staff and commanding general of 1 Marine Expeditionary Force, where he took part in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and Operation Vigilant Resolve in Fallujah, Iraq.

General Conway has a highly-decorated record of military achievement and now speaks about leadership, team building, crisis management and military engagement.

He began his military career as an infantry officer in 1970, and he rose through the ranks. Eventually, he led 1 Marine Expeditionary Force during two combat tours in Iraq with 60,000 troops under his command. In June 2006, President George W. Bush nominated General Conway to become the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps. He held that post until 2010.

General Conway received the Defense Distinguished Service Medal; Navy Distinguished Service Medal; Legion of Merit; Defense Meritorious Service Medal; Meritorious Service Medal with gold stars; Navy Commendation Medal; Navy Achievement Medal; and the Combat Action Ribbon for his years of service.

An internationally recognized authority on global, economic, political and social trends, Joel Kotkin is the author of “The Next Hundred Million: America in 2050.” The book, which explores how the nation will evolve in the next four decades, received rave reviews in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and on National Public Radio.

Described by the New York Times as America’s “uber-geographer,” Mr. Kotkin has been one of the country’s most widely-published journalists over the past three decades. He writes the weekly New Geographer column for Forbes.com and his work regularly appears in the New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, Politico, Foreign Policy and The Daily Beast. He is considered to be an expert on the evolution of cities, towns and rural areas, and writes about their problems, opportunities and futures.

Mr. Kotkin is a distinguished presidential fellow in Urban Futures at Chapman University in Orange, California; a contributing editor to the City Journal in New York; a senior visiting fellow at the Civil Service College in Singapore, and a fellow at the National Chamber Foundation. He also serves as executive editor of the website newgeography.com.

Mr. Kotkin attended the University of California, Berkeley.

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Jim Morris was a 35-year-old teacher and high school baseball coach when he made a promise to his team: Win the district championship and he’d try out for a Major League Baseball team. They did, so he did. At his try-out he threw 12 straight 98-mph fastballs, impressing a Tampa Bay Devil Rays scout and winning a professional contract. Three months later, he made his MLB debut.

Mr. Morris pitched in only 20 big league baseball games, but he turned his improbable story into the book, “The Oldest Rookie.” Eventually, his book became the popular Disney movie “The Rookie” starring Dennis Quaid. Mr. Morris now serves as a motivational speaker.

Economist Marci Rossell has a unique ability to take complex financial issues and make them relevant to people’s lives, families and careers.

Ms. Rossell is best known for the time she spent in broadcast television as chief economist for CNBC. She has also served as a corporate economist and investment spokesperson for Oppenheimer Funds, one of the nation’s largest mutual fund companies. She began her career as an economist for the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.

Ms. Rossell earned a doctorate in economics from Southern Methodist University, where she was also named Young Alumni of the Year in 2002.