Gov. Pritzker Announces One Appointment to Boards and Commissions

Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees

Leland Strom will serve as a Member of the Northern Illinois University Board of Trustees.* Strom is a partner in the Open Prairie Rural Opportunities Fund, one of the nation’s first Rural Business Investment Companies (RBIC) licensed by the USDA to invest capital in rural America. From 2006-2015, he served as CEO and Chairman with the Farm Credit Administration (FCA), which is the U.S. government agency responsible for regulating and supervising the Farm Credit System and Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corporation. While at FCA, Strom chaired the Farm Credit System Insurance Corporation and established the agency’s office of EEO and Inclusion. He has served as CEO of FARM Illinois, President of the Illinois Agricultural Leadership Foundation, and was a member of the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank’s Advisory Council on Agriculture, Labor, and Small Business. Other board memberships have included AgriBank FCB, Country Financial Mutual Funds Trust, and the Illinois Agri-Food Alliance. Strom is a member of the Public and Private Scientific, Academic, and Consumer Food Policy Group at Harvard Kennedy School, where he’s completed multiple executive programs. He earned a degree in Agriculture from Kishwaukee College and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Humane Letters from Northern Illinois University in 2011.

* Appointments pending confirmation by the Illinois Senate.

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