BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Mike Espy – Independent Board of Directors
Mike Espy was secretary of the United States Department of Agriculture from 1993 through 1994, the first African-American to serve in that capacity. He is credited with reorganizing the $65 billion agency, negotiating multilateral treaties for trading agricultural commodities and reforming the national food-inspection system to eradicate food-borne illnesses. He gained recognition as an expert in rural business, economic development and infrastructure policy. Mr. Espy had also served as Mississippi’s Second District representative to the United States Congress.
Currently Espy maintains offices in Jackson, Mississippi, and Washington, D.C., working as a private sector attorney, counselor and agricultural adviser through his law firm, Mike Espy PLLC, and his consulting firm, AE Agritrade Inc. He has extensive experience in international commercial transactions, and now serves as an investment adviser for public/private projects in Africa. In his legal practice Mr. Espy focuses on government relations, public finance, agribusiness transactions and commercial and international law. As a consultant he advises agribusiness companies, government entities and food charities.
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John D. McNamara
John D. McNamara – Independent Board of Directors
John D. McNamara has more than 30 years’ experience in the agricultural and food industries in the United States, Canada and around the world. As global president of ADM from 1998 to 2002, he oversaw all global operations including transportation, soybean processing, corn processing, flour milling, bio-products and grain merchandising. Currently Mr. McNamara is president and CEO of McNamara and Associates, an executive consulting firm based in Toronto, Ontario. He is also president and CEO of Kompass Commodities International Inc., which he founded in 2004. An agricultural and food ingredient brokerage, Kompass focuses on the flow of goods in North America and Europe. Clients include Perdue Farms and Procter & Gamble.
Mr. McNamara formerly served on the boards of several industry organizations, including the National Oilseed Processors Association, the Canola Council of Canada and the Canadian Institute of Edible Oils. He was also chairman of the Canadian Oilseed Processors Association.
W. Gordon Snyder – Independent Board of Directors
W. Gordon Snyder has more than 35 years of financial services, strategic planning, marketing and product management experience, most notably with American Century Investments (ACI), an investment management firm. Mr. Snyder joined ACI in 1986 and served as the head of their sales, marketing and services. He led and managed change through several “doubles” of ACI’s business, from $4 billion in assets under management to $120 billion and from 150 employees to more than 3,500 at ACI’s peak.
Currently Mr. Snyder is president of Black Diamond Strategies, Leawood, Kansas. Since founding this executive consulting company in 2003, he has been an active investor in, adviser to and/or board member of numerous “early stage” companies in industries including financial services, technology, alternative energy, food and beverage, telecom and media. He has also co-founded several startups.
James L. Spigarelli, Ph.D. – Independent Board of Directors
James L. Spigarelli, Ph.D., is president and chief executive officer of Midwest Research Institute, leading a staff of 1,800 scientists and other professionals who are conducting research in nearly 50 disciplines of science and technology. This includes overseeing renewable fuels energy research at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden, Colorado, which is part of the Department of Energy.
Dr. Spigarelli has also been active in the field of corporate governance, currently serving on the board of the Kansas City chapter of the National Association of Corporate Directors. In addition, he is a board member of the Kansas City Area Life Sciences Institute, and served as its chairman from 2000-2005. Currently he serves on the boards of the Kansas State University Research Foundation, Sceptor Industries Inc. in Kansas City and the Colorado Energy Science Center. Dr. Spigarelli is also a trustee of Rockhurst University, Kansas City, and of the University of Missouri–Kansas City. He was named by Silicon Prairie Technology Association as its Technology Leader of the Year for 2000.
Douglas D. Wilner – Independent Board of Directors
Douglas D. Wilner is managing partner of D. Wilner & Associates LP and president and chief executive officer of U.S. Syngas Inc. Wilner has more than 25 years of senior management experience in the energy business, including developing projects and founding several private companies. He has developed and financed projects for a range of sponsors, developers and trading companies, including energy merchants Duke and LG&E, electric cooperatives Associated Electric and Oglethorpe, and large industrial firms.
In the 1990s Mr. Wilner founded and served as the president and CEO of Pipeline Power Partners LP, a Robert Bass Group company. He also participated in developing a series of gas-fired, combined-cycle power plants, and developed and financed power projects using natural gas, coal and various biomass sources. In addition, he was the first president and CEO of Enron Power Capital. In 1981 Mr. Wilner was a member of a team that developed and financed one of the first merchant ethanol facilities, a plant in Walhalla, North Dakota, which is currently owned by Archer Daniels Midland.
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Board of Directors
Mark Beemer – Chairman of the Board
Lee Blank – Board of Directors
Mark Beemer, formerly with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM)
Mark Beemer – Chairman of the Board
An 18-year veteran of the grain and agriculture processing industry, Mr. Beemer launched his career in the area of commodity trading with the Louis Dreyfus Corporation in Wilton, CT. Through a joint venture with Louis Dreyfus Corporation, Mr. Beemer joined The Archer Daniels Midland Company in 1993 as manager of corn trading for 14 western facilities.
During his 12-year tenure with ADM, Mr. Beemer assumed many key management roles; among them, serving as Assistant VP of Corporate Transportation. In this position, Mr. Beemer gained
far-reaching, valuable experience in the logistics of transportation, negotiating contract freight rates with numerous railroads including the BNSF, UP, NS, CSXT, CN, CP and many small switching or short-line railroad companies such as IAIS. Mr. Beemer also pioneered the development of several unit-train programs (BNSF Scoot Program) for just-in-time inventory supply-chain shipments with the BNSF and IAIS that resulted in a significant decrease in ADM's transportation costs. Further, Mr. Beemer was the catalyst for ADM’s significant BNSF 110-car unit-train shuttle investment ($9.5M) in Hereford, Texas.
In 2001, Mr. Beemer was appointed VP of Strategic Planning, Transportation and Operations for ADM’s joint venture with 23 elevators/terminals from the Farmland Grain Division (500M annual traded bushels). Mr. Beemer was responsible for eliminating Farmland’s unprofitable food corn business, building co-op supplier relationships and restructuring all business units associated with the joint venture. Through the acquisition, ADM became the largest supplier of +65M bushels of corn to feedlots in Western Texas and the largest “deck holder” of BNSF shuttle trains in North America. During this four-year period, Mr. Beemer spent over 120 days in the principal Texas, Oklahoma and Kansas feedlot areas, meeting the largest cattle-feeders in the United States and advancing ADM’s customer relationships. He also gained valuable experience overseeing the logistical upgrading of existing processing facilities as well as the building of new facilities, such as ADM’s dried distillers grain (DDG) unloading facility in Summerfield, Texas.
Other responsibilities included developing and implementing all trading strategies for ADM’s Hard Red Wheat trading on the delivery market contracts on the Kansas City Board of Trade. Additionally, Mr. Beemer managed the Yevulit Israel Flour Millers’ supply agreement (600,000 metric tons/year) and launched ADM’s first sale of Hard Red Wheat to Iraq in 2005.
Later in 2005, Mr. Beemer joined Penford Products Company of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to serve as Vice-President of Commodities. Here he assumed responsibility for trading corn futures, corn basis, natural gas and other corn wet mill by-products and oversaw all risk management utilizing futures, options and cash contracts. As a result of his extensive background in both transportation and energy, Mr. Beemer also modeled the addition of coal-fired steam sources for Penford’s Cedar Rapids’ plant, replacing the natural gas-fired facilities.
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Lee Blank, formerly with Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM)
Lee Blank – Board of Directors
Mr. Blank brings 19 years of key management experience within five divisions of The Archer Daniels Midland Company to Alternative Energy Sources. In 1987, Mr. Blank began his ADM career in the grain merchandising division, learning the key principals of the grain trade, earning his commodity futures trading license and gaining valuable insight into the concepts of risk management and its effects on a large commercial entity such as ADM.
In 1993, Mr. Blank was promoted to Merchandising Manager of the Soybean Process Division asset in Little Rock, Arkansas. Here, he was instrumental in implementing rate structures on the Union Pacific that extended profits for ADM’s Little Rock facility to record levels and established a consistent input scenario into a grain deficit region.
In 1996, Mr. Blank was named Director of Rates for Soy and Softseeds within ADM’s Corporate Transportation Division. Here, Mr. Blank negotiated new freight tariffs with the Union Pacific and BNSF in a previously contract-exclusive, positioned ADM at a significant annual net margin advantage and reduced the effectiveness of ADM’s competitors. Mr. Blank was instrumental in developing rate structures for ADM’s softseed facilities in Canada, contributing to the $60 million bidding process for the previously-owned SOO line railroad, and enhancing leased-car compensation by $1 million annually for Class One carriers in the Eastern United States.
As Western Sales Manager for ADM’s Bio-Products Division, Mr. Blank grew the business in a declining margin environment. He solidified relationships with national accounts such as Tyson Foods and ConAgra, increased volumes and margins by introducing a more effective liquid amino acid to the marketplace and managed more than $50 million in annual sales as well.
In 1999, Mr. Blank was recruited to manage ADM’s soybean processing assets in North Kansas City, Missouri. Mr. Blank was instrumental in implementing the 54-car BNSF shuttle units to the western ADM soybean processors, a program that benefited all of ADM’s assets on the BNSF and increased company profits by more than $1 million annually. Another significant accomplishment was his establishment of a marketing program into Mexico. This program increased export tonnage from 475 tons to 4750 tons weekly and is still being utilized today.
Most recently, Mr. Blank served as Sales Manager and Director of Exports for the ADM Wheat Milling Division in Overland Park, Kansas. Mr. Blank managed numerous national accounts, including Tyson Foods, Interstate Bakeries, Kroger and JM Smucker. Under his direction, both domestic and export sales saw significant annual increases.
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