Management Team
Chief Executive Officer & Chief Operating Officer
Thomas Manuel
From August 2006 until August 2007, Mr. Manuel was the President and Chief Executive Officer of ASAlliances Biofuels LLC ("ASA") and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to that, Mr Manuel was the President and Chief Operating Officer of ConAgra Meat Companies ("ConAgra Meat") from 1998 until 2000. Prior to ConAgra Meat, Mr. Manuel was President and Chief Operating Officer of ConAgra Trading and Processing from 1994 until 1998. Mr Manuel began his career at ConAgra Foods ("ConAgra") in 1977. While at ConAgra, Mr. Manuel was part of a team that helped drive sales from $480 million to $23 billion. He served as assistant to the Chairman of ConAgra and general manager of several ConAgra business units, where he was responsible for ConAgra's international and domestic grain merchandising business. Mr. Manuel received his B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota. In between his time at ConAgra Meat and ASA, Mr. Manuel served on the boards of various companies, including Swift & Company and Data Transmission Network Corporation.
Chief Financial Officer & Secretary
John Castle
John Castle has served in a number of financial leadership positions, including most recently in the ethanol industry as the Senior Vice President of Operations, Chief Financial Officer and Secretary of White Energy. Before joining White Energy, Mr. Castle was director of accounting for Dresser, Inc., global manufacturer of highly engineered energy infrastructure and oilfield products. Mr. Castle has held financial executive positions as Chief Financial Officer at Rohn Industries, as well as the Vice President-Treasurer and Corporate Controller of Telxon Corporation. Mr. Castle has also held accounting and financial management positions at Mosler, Inc., Western Atlas Inc. and at Litton Industries Inc. Mr. Castle is a Certified Public Accountant with a master's degree in business administration from Xavier University and a bachelor of science in accounting from Eastern Illinois University.
Senior Vice President, Commodity Risk Management
Benjamin Borgen
Mr. Borgen has extensive experience in the biofuel and agribusiness sector including trading, marketing, and logistics of ethanol and associated agricultural and soft commodities. Prior to joining Aventine Mr. Borgen has built and managed ethanol trading and marketing groups as Director of Ethanol Trading and Marketing for Barclays Capital and as Vice President of BioFuels Trading and Marketing for Sempra Energy Trading. In these positions Ben has been responsible for strategy development and evaluation, asset evaluation, and management of commodity positions. Ben has a broad range of experience trading Ethanol, Corn, RBOB Gasoline, Crude Oil, and Sugar using physical and financial instruments including swaps, futures, options, and cross commodity hedges. Ben holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota.
Vice President of Human Resources
Ray Godbout
Mr. Godbout is a seasoned executive with over thirty years experience as a human resources professional and consultant. Mr. Godbout's experience includes responsibility for both domestic and international human resources for strategy development and execution. Mr. Godbout has held senior level positions in Butler Manufacturing, International Paper and was a Senior Vice President for ConAgra's Grain Processing Companies. Most recently, Mr. Godbout has been a consultant in his own company providing executive coaching and performance consulting to improve the execution capability of organizations. Mr. Godbout has an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of New Hampshire and an MBA from Bryant University.
Vice President of Project Development
Jeffrey See
Jeffrey See has over 30 years experience in the grain processing industry including working in new and existing facilities in positions as Project and Construction Manager, Consultant and Contractor. During Mr. See's career he has worked for several 125+ million dollar facilities and represented owners in numerous corn wet milling and dry milling expansions, and grass roots facilities. Mr. See has also consulted on process conditions in foreign countries.Mr See was the Owner's project manager on the 1st dry mill 100M GPY built in the USA and over the past 8 years has been the Owner's project manager for 500M GPY production.
Chief Accounting & Compliance Officer
William J. Brennan
Mr. Brennan became our Chief Accounting & Compliance Officer in November 2005 and was our Chief Financial Officer since October 2004 when he joined the Company, until November 2005. Before joining the Company, Mr. Brennan served as Regional Chief Financial Officer for Omnicare Inc. from 2001 to 2004 and as Chief Financial Officer of Polestar Communications, Inc. and its predecessor company from 2000 to 2001. Mr. Brennan also held senior financial positions with Ameritech Inc., Wisconsin Bell, Inc and De La Rue Systems of the Americas, Inc. Mr. Brennan began his professional career with Alexander Grant & Co. Certified Public Accountants. Mr. Brennan is a Certified Public Accountant with a a Masters of Business Administration from Marquette University and a Bachelors of Business Administration in Accounting from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
