Financial Services >> CEO Interviews >> November 6, 2015

Interview with the Executive Chairman, President and CEO: Farmland Partners Inc. (NYSE:FPI)

Pittman, Paul
Paul Pittman has served as the Executive Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Farmland Partners Inc. since its initial public offering in April 2014. Since 2008, he also has served as the President of American Agriculture Corporation and Pittman Hough Farms LLC. Mr. Pittman served as the Chief Administrative Officer and Executive Vice President of Jazz Technologies, Inc., a semiconductor foundry, from March 2007 to September 2008 and its Chief Financial Officer from February 2007 to September 2008. Mr. Pittman also served as the Principal Accounting Officer of Jazz Technologies, Inc. From December 2004 to March 2006, he served as Partner and Head of Mergers & Acquisitions at ThinkEquity Partners LLC. From April 2000 to January 2003, he served as the President, Chief Executive Officer and Chief Operating Officer of HomeSphere, Inc., an enterprise software company, and TheJobsite.com, which merged into HomeSphere. Before TheJobsite.com, he worked in senior investment banking roles for 10 years, most recently at Merrill Lynch & Co. and prior to that with Wasserstein Perella & Co. From March 1997 to February 2000, he served as Head of Emerging Markets M&A at Merrill Lynch in London, where he was responsible for origination and execution of all M&A business in the region — Eastern Europe, the Middle East, the former Soviet Union and Africa. Prior to Merrill Lynch & Co., he served as Director of M&A at Wasserstein Perella & Co. in New York and London. Mr. Pittman began his career at Sullivan & Cromwell as an associate in mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Pittman graduated from the University of Illinois with a B.S. in agriculture, received a master’s in public policy from Harvard University and a J.D. with honors from the University of Chicago Law School. Profile
TWST: We spoke a year ago, but let’s start with a refresher on the company’s origins and history.

Mr. Pittman: We went public in April of 2014, and we went public basically with