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When I met Willis Jepson in early October 2025, he was loading bushels of corn into a steel silo down a gravel road in rural Robertson County, Tennessee, less than an hour north of Nashville. Driving there, I saw rows and rows of crops — corn and soybeans and tobacco. With 1,117 farms on about 200,000 acres, according to the Department of Agriculture, farming is a vital part of the local economy. More than 13,000 of those acres are farmed by Jepson, primarily corn, soybeans and wheat, with around 860 acres dedicated to watermelons, pumpkins and dark fire tobacco, used…
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WRITTEN BY
Emily McCormick
Vice President of Editorial & Research
Emily McCormick is Vice President of Editorial & Research for Bank Director. Emily oversees research projects, from in-depth reports to Bank Director’s annual surveys on M&A, risk, compensation, governance and technology. She also manages content for the Bank Services Program, including Bank Director’s Online Training Series. In addition to speaking and moderating discussions at Bank Director’s in-person and virtual events, Emily writes and edits for Bank Director magazine, BankDirector.com and Bank Director’s weekly newsletter, The Slant. She started her career in the circulation department at the Knoxville News-Sentinel and graduated summa cum laude from The University of Tennessee with a bachelor’s degree in Spanish and International Business.