Petersen, currently president of the National Grain Trade Council in Washington, D.C., will take over the KCBT president post from Mike Braude, who will be retiring in November. Braude has served as president of the exchange since 1984.
Petersen joined the National Grain Trade Council in 1980 and was elected president of that organization in 1983. The council's primary purpose is to advocate open and competitive markets, and one of Petersen's chief responsibilities is to communicate the grain industry's concerns to the United States Congress. During the 1996 farm bill debate, Petersen was the principal architect behind the 125-member Coalition for a Competitive Food and Agricultural System.
Petersen also currently serves as secretary of the Transportation, Elevator and Grain Merchants Association. During the early 1990s, he was at the forefront of efforts to keep the United States-Canada border open to commercial business in the face of producer concerns over grain imports. His professional activities have included service as chairman of the Washington Agricultural Round Table in 1992-93, a public member of the KCBT board of directors in 1988 and a chairman of the Grain Quality Workshops in 1997.
Petersen is a native of Nebraska, where he was raised on a diversified family farm operation. He received a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture Journalism and Agricultural Education from the University of Nebraska in 1974, and has held positions as assistant director of the Nebraska Department of Agriculture and as a marketing specialist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Petersen will join the KCBT on August 1, and will officially become president on November 1.
"Serving as president of the Kansas City Board of Trade has clearly been the highlight of my professional life," current KCBT president Braude said. "Having served as chairman of the National Grain Trade Council, I got to know Bob well. He is an energetic, hard-working, very likable professional who will serve our exchange well."
The Kansas City Board of Trade, founded in 1856, is the world's largest free market for hard red winter wheat. The exchange pioneered stock index futures with the launch of Value Line, in 1982, commenced natural gas trade in 1995 and began trade on the ISDEX, Internet stock index in 1999. The president of the Kansas City Board of Trade serves as the chief executive officer of the exchange staff. The president also serves as a liaison between the KCBT members and staff as part of the KCBT executive committee, comprised of a chairman, first vice chairman and second vice chairman. KCBT members are elected annually to the chairman posts.
