Douglas D. Sims

For nearly four decades Doug Sims worked tirelessly on behalf of farmers, ranchers, agricultural producers, and cooperatives as a leader in the Farm Credit System. As CEO of CoBank for 12 of those years, he successfully managed 15 mergers and acquisitions, effectively growing CoBank into a premier cooperative institution and expanding its capacity to serve customers.

A visionary leader, Sims not only helped the Farm Credit System survive the downturn in the farm economy in the early 1980s, but also played a key role in its subsequent reorganization and the creation of CoBank in 1988.

Throughout his career Sims believed firmly in helping cooperatives succeed both as businesses and as integral parts of their communities.  As a part of this effort he was committed to on-going cooperative education, and was an ardent supporter of programs for young leaders.

Internationally, Sims advocated for the creation of the ACE Center to create new marketing for co-op products in Europe, led various delegations to global trade meetings to grow and enhance our cooperative system, and opened CoBank’s first representative office outside of the United States.