IN THE SP0TLIGHT

Glenn Webb

 Former Board Chairman and President GROWAMRK, Bloomington, III.

Personal, farm and education: O. Glenn Webb and his wife, Phyllis, have raised three children on a fruit and cattle operation. He earned a bachelor's degree in agriculture from the University of Illinois in 1957. Webb went on to earn a master's degree and a Ph.D. in education administration from Southern Illinois University.

Co-op service: At age 25, this Tunnel Hill, Ill., native was elected to the Fruit Belt Service Co. board to fill the seat vacated by his father Ray, who was retiring from the board. Over the next 38 years, Webb served on the boards of FS Services Inc. and then the Illinois Grain Corp. before becoming FS Services board secretary and then its vice president. In 1980, when GROWMARK was formed through the merger of FS Services and Illinois Grain Corporation, Webb was elected board chairman and president. He retired from that post at the end of the cooperative's 2000 annual meeting on Aug. 31.

Other leadership posts: Webb has served on the boards of CoBank, Federal Farm Credit Banks Funding Corp., Archer Daniels Midland, ADM/GROWMARK, CF Industries, Graduate Institute of Cooperative Leadership, Illinois Agricultural Leadership Foundation, National Forum on Non-Point Source Pollution and the American Institute of Cooperation. "I hope to continue to stay involved for a while in the Farm Credit system, maybe serve on the ADM corporate board for awhile. And, of course, be involved in the community here and in the church. It will just be a different balance. I am fully aware there are so many things to do that I certainly don't plan to pull up a rocking chair and be a spectator as the world goes by."











Co-op honors: Webb was named National Cooperative Statesman in 1988. In April 2000, he was inducted into the Cooperative Hall of Fame.

Why such a commitment to education? "I think it's unfair to a director to be elected, to come on board for what, today, are multi-million-dollar companies and not provide for that director some level of education, some level of training that helps them understand their role better and gives them more confidence in terms of doing the job that shareholders expect of them."

What legacy do you leave behind at GROWNLARK? " I hope I've left the impression and developed the culture that we're not afraid to take action because we're afraid we're going to make a mistake. I think you just like to think that, after you've left a leadership role, people would reflect back and say, 'Yeah, that leadership was responsible.

That leadership was forward-thinking. That leadership was genuine. That it was sincere. That it was people directed.' I think those are some of the things I would hope would be viewed as my impact here. "I believe that GROWMARK is at a time in which we need to continue to have sustained, strong leadership. I feel very good about the quality of that leadership that's on the board of directors of GROWMARK at the present time, and those who will come on. So I don't have any concerns about any vacuum of leadership on the GROWMARK board. It's there. Very top quality people there. I just felt it was probably the right time for me and the right time for GROWMARK, and probably the latter more so than the former."

What has been the strength of GROWNLARK? "I think the greatest strength we have is the cohesion of the members in the system. Our vision statement discusses how we want to be the best cooperative system in North America. I think the key word is system, and I think the strength has been that we've acted as a system. Now, have we always done that? No. But have we done it to the extent that it's given us great strength? Yes. And I am encouraged that that will continue to be a strength of the GROWMARK system. If we lose that inter-dependence of one cooperative member with the other in the GROWMARK system, and the interdependence between those member cooperatives and GROWMARK, then I think we would have lost a tremendous element of our past success and a potential for the future."








Return to Table of Content