LBDS president Angus Ballard (2nd from right) poses with some of his team at NEC
“We’ve always believed in the importance of gatherings like NEC where professionals can get together and exchange good ideas,” said LBDS president and general manager Angus Ballard. “The networking in people’s careers is so important so when the concept (of YPN) was floated, we jumped in right away. We’re passionate about the industry. It’s very important that we look after young people and keep them engaged so they want to stay in the industry.”
RFANEC23 interview with LBDS president Angus Ballard (3:21)
Two members of the RFA YPN were among six young people who were awarded scholarships this year to attend the National Ethanol Conference in Orlando.
Ben Parsley, Innovation Manager at Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy and Alex Stanley, Lab Manager with Ringneck Energy & Feed, are pictured here with RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper. It was the first NEC for both and they were excited to attend and get to meet other professionals, both young and old, in the industry. Other YPN scholarship winners were Ben Rhodes, Ethanol Program Manager, Nebraska Ethanol Board, and Bailey Arnold, Director of Clean Air Initiative, American Lung Association.
RFANEC23 interview with Ben Parsley, SIRE, YPN member (2:33) RFANEC23 interview with Alex Stanley, YPN member (1:44)Student scholarship recipients were Xueli Chen, who is working toward a doctorate from the Dept. of Agricultural & Biological Engineering, Purdue University and serves as a research assistant at Purdue University’s Laboratory of Renewable Resources Engineering; and Tianbo Tang, who is in the doctoral program in Chemical and Environmental Engineering, University of California, Riverside and is the lead graduate researcher for recent work on the “Comparison of Exhaust Emissions Between E10 California RFG and Splash Blended E15” report, emissions testing for E15 approval in California.