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The Kansas City Board of Trade has announced the re-election of Michael Braude and Barry L. Flinchbaugh as outside directors. Four outside directors sit on the exchange's board, along with 15 members, three of which are executive officers.
Outside directors for 2007 include: Michael Braude, past president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City Board of Trade; Barry L. Flinchbaugh, professor and extension state leader, agricultural economics, Kansas State University; Dennis Gartman, Editor/Publisher of The Gartman Letter; and Kevin G. Barth, president and chief operating officer, Commerce Bank of Kansas City.
Braude, who has been newly appointed to a 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 Midwest Trust Company, Kansas City, Missouri; MGP Ingredients, 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 has been newly appointed to a 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.
Gartman who is serving the second year of his two-year term, has been in the markets since August 1974. He was an economist for Cotton, Inc. in the early 1970's, analyzing cotton supply/demand in the U.S. textile industry. From there he went to NCNB in Charlotte, N.C., where he traded foreign exchange and money market instruments. In 1977 he became the Chief Financial Futures Analyst for A.G. Becker & Company in Chicago. He was an independent member of the Chicago Board of Trade until 1985, trading in treasury bond, treasury note and GNMA futures contracts. In 1985 he moved to Virginia to run the futures brokerage operation for the Virginia National Bank, and in 1987 he began producing The Gartman Letter on a full time basis and continues to do so. Clients of The Gartman Letter include many, if not most, of the leading banks, brokerage firms, mutual funds, hedge funds, energy trading companies, and leading grain trading firms.
Barth, who is serving the second year of his 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.
The Kansas City Board of Trade, chartered in 1876, is the world's largest futures market for hard red winter wheat.
