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In adding the role of president to his position of chief operating officer of MGP Ingredients, Tim Newkirk becomes the fourth person to hold that title, following in the footsteps of Ladd Seaberg, Cloud L. Bud Cray, and company founder Cloud L. Cray, Sr. Newkirk has served as COO of MGP Ingredients, Inc. since March, 2006. He began his career with MGPI in 1991, serving initially as a distillery shift manager and later as a process engineer, project engineer and quality control manager at the company’s Atchison plant. He was promoted to manager of the company’s Pekin, Ill., plant in 1997.
In the spring of 2000, Tim accepted the position of vice president of operations for the former High Plains Corporation, an ethanol production company located in Wichita, Kan. He became vice president of global operations for Abengoa Bioenergy S.L. following that company’s acquisition of High Plains in January, 2002. He was promoted to chief operating officer of Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation in August, 2003 and held that position until his return to MGP Ingredients as director of operations in May, 2005.
In his capacity as chief operating officer, Tim primarily has been responsible for overseeing operations at MGPI’s plants in Atchison and in Pekin, Illinois, where the majority of the company’s protein and starch ingredients and all of its distillery products, including both food grade and fuel grade alcohol, are produced. He additionally oversees sales and marketing functions in the company’s distillery products and ingredients business segments.
A native of Pittsburg, Kansas, Tim spent most of his youth in Atchison and graduated from Atchison High School in 1986. He received a bachelor of science degree in engineering management from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1991 and earned a master’s degree in business administration at the Olin School of Business at Washington University, St. Louis, in February, 2006.
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