Commodity Credit Corporation Nomination of Howard W. Hiort To Be a Member of the Board of Directors.

The President today announced that he will nominate Howard W. Hjort to be a member of the Board of Directors of the Commodity Credit Corporation. Hjort is Director of Agricultural Economics in the Department of Agriculture.

Hjort was born December 20, 1931, in Plentywood, Mont. He operated a grain and livestock farm in Medicine Lake, Mont., for 2 years before entering Montana State University, where he obtained a B.S. degree (1958) and an M.S. degree (1959) in agricultural economics. He has also done graduate work at North Carolina State University.

Hjort was a staff economist in the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture from 1963 to 1965, and in 1965 served as special assistant to the Under Secretary of Agriculture.

From 1965 to 1969, he was director of staff (program planning and analysis) in the Office of the Secretary of Agriculture.

In 1969 Hjort accepted a 3-year assignment with the Ford Foundation in New Delhi, India, as a planning and management advisor. He returned to the United States in 1972, and with former Under Secretary of Agriculture John Schnittker organized Schnittker Associates, an agricultural consulting firm in Washington, D.C.

He was appointed Director of Agricultural Economics by Secretary of Agriculture Bob Bergland on March 10, 1977.

Hjort is married and has five children. He resides in the District of Columbia.