Ag Resource Management Announces Appointment of Kim M. Sharan and David D. Matter to Board of Managers

Sharan and Matter bring industry expertise to agricultural lender

FORT WORTH, Texas, Jan. 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ag Resource Management (ARM), one of the nation's top providers of agricultural lending and crop insurance services, today announced the appointments of Kim M. Sharan and David D. Matter to its board of managers.

"The strategic planning and operations experience Kim Sharan and Dave Matter bring ARM will further position ARM for transformative growth," said Jesse Watson, founder and CIO of Virgo Investment Group, a private investment firm and majority owner of ARM. "Kim and Dave will work with ARM's management team to assist with value creation efforts. They are the ideal partners to help guide and scale the company to achieve the maximum potential we see ahead."

"We are pleased to welcome Kim Sharan and Dave Matter to the ARM board," said Rip Mason, chief executive officer and vice chairman of ARM. "Kim's deep experience in implementing the growth strategy of financial services companies and Dave's impressive history of investment management and experience in capital markets will be invaluable to ARM as we grow our business and pursue our mission to serve American farmers."

Ms. Sharan has a background of more than 30 years of experience in the financial services industry, including holding leadership positions at Ameriprise Financial, Merrill Lynch and Citibank. Most recently at Ameriprise Financial, Ms. Sharan was the president, Financial Planning & Wealth Strategies and CMO, and was a member of the executive leadership team that took the company public following their spin-off from American Express in 2005. She and her team built the Ameriprise brand from the ground up, created a "customer obsessed" culture and achieved the highest net promoter scores in the industry. Today, Ms. Sharan is an independent director with Fortune 100 board experience serving on the board of trustees for TIAA, a leading non-profit provider of retirement services with $1.4T in assets under management, and on the board of directors for TIAA Bank, a wholly owned subsidiary of TIAA.

Mr. Matter, CFA, is a leader in investment management and financial services with more than 27 years of experience. He was most recently a managing director at BlackRock where he served as the co-chief investment officer of BlackRock Alternative Advisors (BAA), BlackRock's Hedge Fund Solutions team. He chaired the BAA Investment Committee and was also a member of the BAA Management Committee and the Co-Investment Portfolio Management Group. Mr. Matter started his career as a financial analyst with American Funds-Capital Group and Bankers Trust before joining Quellos Group in 1998. At Quellos he was a principal and member of the Investment Committee responsible for management of Absolute Return Strategy portfolios and Investment Research. The alternative investment management business of Quellos was subsequently acquired by BlackRock in 2007.

Founded in 2009, Ag Resource Management (ARM) is a specialty finance company bringing financial and risk management solutions to farmers and agribusinesses. Dedicated exclusively to agriculture, ARM offers farmers the convenience of working with one provider for solutions ranging from operating lines and crop insurance to real estate finance and equipment leasing services. ARM finances agriculture differently by relying on the intended crop as collateral and offering state-of-the-art technology to support a farmer's financial decisions. Headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, ARM serves farmers from its storefronts and employees located across the Midwest, Southern and Western United States.

Founded in 2009, Virgo Investment Group is a private investment firm based in California that has an established track record of building and transforming businesses. Virgo seeks to identify and grow unique business models into differentiated and profitable industry leading companies. The Firm has raised over $1.9 billion since inception.

For board member photos, please click here.

SOURCE Ag Resource Management