Outside directors for 2004 include: Kevin G. Barth, president and chief operating officer, Commerce Bank; Michael Braude, executive vice president, Country Club Bank; Barry L. Flinchbaugh, professor and extension state leader, agricultural economics, Kansas State University; and Tom R. Tunnell, president, Kansas Grain and Feed Association.
Barth, who has been newly appointed to a two-year term, began his career in Commerce Bank's Commercial Lending Division in 1984, where he worked with grain-based foods companies. From 1988 to 1995 he served as senior vice president and manager of the Commercial Banking Group and moved to executive vice president of Commercial Banking from 1995 to 1998. In addition to his current position as president and chief operating officer, he is the senior lender for the Kansas City market. He serves as senior vice president of Commerce Bancshares, serving on its executive committee and heading up its Commercial Line of Business. Barth is an executive committee member of the Kansas City Area Development Council and is a director of the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce.
Tunnell, who has also been newly appointed to a two-year term, is the president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Grain and Feed Association, a position he has held since 1980. Previously, Tunnell was general manager of an agribusiness concern located in Lincoln, Kansas where he managed a large full-service country elevator, an alfalfa dehydrating operation, a small trucking business and a farming operation. As president of the KGFA, Tunnell is responsible for overseeing the day-to-day operation of the Association as well as monitoring state and federal legislation that pertains to the grain and feed industry. KGFA, under Tunnell's leadership, has embarked on several new businesses. Recently, the KGFA began providing administrative services for an eight-state group of Farm Bureau insurance agents. The organization is currently in the process of forming an ethanol producers association. Tunnell also serves on the board of directors of The Fertilizer Institute, a Washington, D.C. based organization which represents fertilizer manufacturers and importers.
Braude, who is serving the second year of his two-year term, served as president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City Board of Trade from April 1984 through October 2000 before retiring. Braude currently serves as a director of Country Club Bank, Kansas City; Midwest Grain Products, Inc., Atchison, Kansas; and NPC International Inc., Pittsburg, Kansas. He is a trustee of Midwest Research Institute, Kansas City, and chairman of the Kansas Public Employees Retirement System.
Flinchbaugh, who is serving the second year of his two-year term, joined the KCBT board of directors in 1997. He teaches a course in agricultural policy and lectures throughout Kansas and the nation. He joined KSU in 1971, and has conducted statewide public affairs educational programs in such areas as financing state and local government, food and agricultural policy, use value appraisal of Kansas farmland, and water policy. Flinchbaugh served for five years as chairman of the prestigious Alfred M. Landon lecture series on public issues, and served for four years as special assistant to the president of KSU.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, chartered in 1876, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat.
