MARQUIS - Key Persons
Allison Grieve grew up on a family farm outside of New Bedford, Illinois. She attended Western Illinois University, where she obtained a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Business in 2010 and shortly after started her career in agriculture as a Broker's Assistant with Advance Trading in Bloomington. In 2014, she moved back to Bureau County and began working as a crop insurance underwriter in Dixon. She joined the Marquis team in 2015, where she is now the Grain Accountant.
Job Titles:
- Director of Process Operations for Marquis and Has Been
Amanda Marquis is the Director of Process Operations for Marquis and has been with the organization since 2007. She is responsible for reviewing, analyzing and evaluating operations procedures related to the production process. Her team implements policies and procedures that improve day-to-day operations and reach production and efficiency goals while maintaining safe work environments. She oversees departments related to production and ensures that each is reaching goals set by departmental and company leadership. Amanda enjoys the dedication Marquis has to building a sustainable group of companies, as well as the progressive nature of the leadership team that is driven to innovate and be at the top of related industries.
Prior to working for Marquis, Amanda was an analytical chemist for Pfizer, specifically the Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients division of the Global Manufacturing department in Kalamazoo, Michigan. She has a Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Chemistry from Illinois State University.
Job Titles:
- Vice President & Director of Grain Operations
Austin Heim grew up on a grain and livestock farm near Logan, Iowa, and graduated from Iowa State University in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in Agricultural Business. He began his career with The Scoular Company, working in Downs, Kansas, Friars Point, Mississippi, and Coolidge, Kansas. In 2012, he went to work for Flint Hills Resources, trading corn and Dried Distillers Grains (DDGs), as well as modifying for a variety of their ethanol plants in Iowa, Nebraska, and Georgia. In 2021, he joined the Marquis team as the Director of Commodities Strategy.
Job Titles:
- Senior Vice President of Business Development and Global Strategy
As the Senior Vice President of Business Development and Global Strategy for Marquis, Bart Pieper drives the organization's global strategy, validating new business ventures and developing opportunities in international markets for Marquis products and low-carbon ventures. With Marquis since 2010, Bart enjoys the challenges of developing and expanding Marquis into new industries, markets and sectors. He also appreciates the collaboration that exists to achieve and push the boundaries of our industry.
Before joining Marquis, Bart worked in corporate finance in London and Amsterdam. His work involved ventures in the United States and Central Asia, structuring investments in agriculture, construction, industrial processing and aviation. He has a Master of Science in Financial Engineering.
Beth Steinhour began working with Marquis as an environmental consultant in 2006 and joined the organization in 2011. Today, she is the Director of Environmental Affairs, which involves multi-media environmental permitting and ongoing compliance for Marquis' ethanol facilities, marine terminals, towboats and new development projects. Beth is responsible for obtaining environmental clearance for site development activities, as well as obtaining pathways and maintaining compliance with the Renewable Fuel Standard. She feels that Marquis' pursuit of continued growth and its willingness to be on the cutting edge of new technologies provides opportunities both personally and professionally.
During the 1990s, Beth was a Project Director for the Illinois Environmental Regulatory Group, an affiliate of the Illinois State Chamber of Commerce. During the early 2000s, she was a Senior Project Manager for Weaver Consultants, a geotechnical and environmental engineering firm. Beth has a degree in legal studies from the University of Illinois Springfield.
Bridget Neitzel grew up in Hubertus, Wisconsin, with a variety of small farm animals. After high school, she attended MATC and earned an associate's degree as an Administrative Assistant in 1988 when she began her career. She was working in Madison, Wisconsin, at Rayovac when the Marquis ethanol plant was being built in Necedah, Wisconsin. In 2006, during the construction of the plant, Bridget contacted the owners and was the third employee to be hired. She was hired as an Administrative Assistant and has held a variety of positions through the years. Her current position is Local Merchandiser. She sells Distiller's Dried Grains with Solubles DDGS and WC to local customers and arranges logistics for hauling DDGS to the Joliet, Illinois, area and barges during the summer months in Lacrosse, Wisconsin.
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Partner
Mark grew up in Kewanee, Illinois. He is a certified flight instructor and helicopter pilot. In his free time, Mark enjoys aviation and traveling internationally for business and adventure.
Job Titles:
- Vice President of R & D and Innovation
As the Vice President of R&D and Innovation, Dr. Jennifer Aurandt-Pilgrim leads innovation initiatives and manages the technical and market development of investments in decarbonizing the economy. She joined Marquis in 2019 and appreciates the organization's vision to change the world through industrial decarbonization. Jennifer also serves on two scientific advisory boards.
With nearly 20 years of industry experience, some of Jennifer's past positions include working at Valicor (later called Trucent) as a Research and Development Program Manager, then as the Director of Technical Services. She also served as an Associate Professor at Kettering University for a number of years. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Bowling Green State University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan.
Gary Miller grew up on his family's farm south of Granville. He graduated from Putnam County High School and Illinois Valley Community College.
Gary started in the grain business in 1980 and later joined Archer Daniels Midland in 1985. For many years, Gary managed ADM's river terminals in Hennepin, Henry, Lacon, Chillicothe and Creve Coeur, Illinois. He also had extensive responsibility for grain origination into ADM's ethanol plant in Peoria, Illinois. In 2003, ADM combined its river terminal offices into a regional office in Ottawa, Illinois. As Northern District Manager, Gary was responsible for managing up to ten river terminals and six country elevators. He has also served on various committees for the Grain and Feed Association of Illinois.
He now joins the Marquis team as Vice President and Director of Commodity Marketing. Gary resides in Princeton with his wife, Cathy.
Howard Boppart grew up in rural Woodstock, Illinois, with a broad farming background, and is a 1991 graduate of Auburn University with a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics. He began his grain merchandising career with Peavy Grain in Waunakee, Wisconsin, and in 1995 returned to his home county in Illinois as the Grain Department Manager for Northern FS. In 1997, he became the General Manager for Leland Farmers' Company, where he managed three country grain elevators. He accepted the General Manager position at Harmon Grain in 2006, managing seven county elevator locations prior to his start at Marquis Energy Wisconsin.
Jason Marquis is the Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Marquis, where he oversees operations teams with a focus on biofuel production assets. With Marquis since 2008, he enjoys knowing that local farmers can depend on the organization to provide a market for their grain. Jason also appreciates being a part of a collaborative team that cares for each other, seeing the team grow and offering a great place to work hard. He strives to be better tomorrow than today.
Prior to attending the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and earning a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry and Secondary Education, Jason spent summers working within the Marquis family organization. He also holds a teaching certificate as a high school educator and coach.
Jeff Peterson was raised on a grain and livestock farm near Manlius, Illinois, and is a 1987 graduate of Illinois State University with an associate's degree in Ag Production and a bachelor's degree in Ag Business.
He began his career as a Grain Merchandiser and Farmer Market Advisor for Advance Trading at the Pearl City Elevator in northwestern Illinois. In 1989, he returned to Bureau County as the Grain Department Manager of Bureau Service Company in Princeton. In 1993, Jeff became the General Manager of the Neponset Farmers Grain Elevator Cooperative.
Later that year, he was named Grain Department Manager for Marquis Grain upon their acquisition of the Neponset Cooperative. In that capacity, he managed two country grain elevators and the truck dispatching for Marquis Grain. In 2006, Marquis sold its country grain elevators to focus on the ethanol business, where Jeff is now the President of Marquis Grain at the Marquis Energy ethanol plant.
As the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Marquis, Jeffrey Tussey oversees a team of accountants and is responsible for all accounting and tax matters, communication with auditors and banks, including covenant compliance, contact with outside tax and audit firms and negotiating finance packages. He has been with the organization since 2008, and Jeffrey appreciates his talented and high-performing team and feels that Marquis as a whole is a collaborative organization.
Jeffrey has worked in the ethanol industry for nearly 20 years and previously served as the CFO at Babcock and Brown Biofuels. He has a Bachelor of Science in Accounting from Northeast Missouri State University and is a Certified Professional Accountant (CPA).
Job Titles:
- Director of Technology Integration
John Huffman joined Marquis in 2016 but draws on more than 35 years of industry experience in his role as the Director of Technology Integration. His primary responsibility is evaluating old processes and equipment to enhance performance and finding/creating new processes that can benefit Marquis. Additionally, John is involved in research and development projects, assists project managers, troubleshoots as needed and participates in operator training. He believes Marquis has a best-in-class work environment and enjoys the diversity of projects and people.
Before joining Marquis, John was an independent contractor in the ethanol industry, a project manager and then Director of Plant Services and Support with ICM Inc. and held plant manager roles with two different ethanol plants. He has an Associate of Applied Science in Civil Engineering and a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Technology.
Jordan Monier grew up and currently still resides on his family farm in Walnut, Illinois. Jordan graduated from Iowa State University in 2017. Directly out of college, he worked as a Farm Relationship Manager for Cargill until 2022, when he started with Marquis as the Sustainability Manager.
Julie Jamison came to Marquis with 25 years of business/banking experience. She is the Local Merchandiser selling Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS), Wet Distillers Grains with Solubles (WDGS) and Modified Distillers Grains with Solubles (WDGS) to local customers. Julie also works with the barge logistics group, getting empty barges here, along with getting the loaded barges headed southbound. Julie works with the DDGS merchandisers following the barges sales/purchase. She prepares all of the documents needed for each barge, along with processing the purchased barge paperwork.
Job Titles:
- Vice President
- Senior Vice President / Director of Project Management
Lester Smith is a Vice President and the Director of Project Management at Marquis. He has been with the organization since 2001 and draws on more than 40 years of construction and project management experience. Within his role, Lester oversees capital and construction projects. He enjoys the family atmosphere of Marquis and appreciates that the location, scope and budget of each project varies.
Prior to joining Marquis, Lester owned and operated an electrical contracting company that served commercial, agricultural and industrial facilities. He is a Master Electrician.
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing
- Partner
- Vice President
Tom Marquis joined Marquis Grain in 1979 and became a partner in ownership by 1982. Today, he is the Vice President and Director of Marketing for Marquis. In his role, Tom oversees the product marketing for all co-products, ethanol, Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS), Marquis ProCap Gold and Distillers Corn Oil (DCO). He also manages global and domestic sales and logistics, including rail, barge and ocean-going vessels, along with international terminal locations around the world. Tom enjoys working with family and developing new technologies and businesses that bring value to the agricultural community and propel the industry forward into the future.
Tom grew up on a farm near Buda, Illinois. He graduated from the University of Illinois, College of Agriculture, in 1978. After college and prior to joining Marquis, he worked for the United States Department of Agriculture in Madison, Wisconsin.
Trevin Kennedy was raised on a family farm near Walnut, Illinois. He graduated from Iowa State University with a bachelor's degree in Ag Business in 2017 and started his career as a commodities broker and farm marketing consultant with Ehedger in Oakbrook Terrace, Illinois. Trevin joined the Marquis team in 2019, where he manages the sustainability and carbon programs.