The 38th American Coalition for Ethanol annual conference officially kicked off Thursday morning in Sioux Falls, South Dakota with the biggest crowd in a decade, full of enthusiasm for ethanol’s Homefield Advantage.
On Wednesday, the ACE board of directors met to elect and re-elect members during the organization’s annual business meeting. New to the board is Zac Griess, Director of Petroleum with Bosselman Enterprises, who as elected to succeed Randy Gard. Other newly elected members include Chad Miller, CFO of Al-Corn Clean Fuel, LLC, and Seth Harder, General Manager and CEO of Husker AG, LLC.
Board members re-elected to three-year terms include: Absolute Energy – Rick Schwarck; Chief Ethanol Fuels – Wayne Garrett; East River Electric Cooperative – Chris Studer; Golden Grain Energy – Dave Sovereign; KAAPA Ethanol – Scott McPheeters; Redfield Energy – Troy Knecht.
Sovereign remains as president of the board and he is excited about the optimism in the industry right now. “I think we’ve got a great turn out here. I think there’s a lot of enthusiasm,” said Sovereign. “People want to learn more about 45 Z, how these tax credits are going to work, how they’re going to be able to monetize them and also the technology that we can implement into our plants and to bring our CI scores down to maximize those values.”
Sovereign joined ACE CEO Brian Jennings and Chief Marketing Officer Ron Lamberty in the opening panel at the conference to discuss some of the top issues right now, including a record corn crop, potential for nationwide E15, and export opportunities. Listen to that discussion and an interview with Sovereign below.
ACE Leadership Panel: Homefield Advantage – Brian Jennings, Dave Sovereign, Ron Lamberty
2025 ACE conference - opening panel (44:15)
Interview with ACE Board president Dave Sovereign, Golden Grain Energy
2025 ACE conference - Dave Sovereign, Golden Grain Energy (6:31)