Greg Bower is the new general manager at Mid-Missouri Energy in Malta Bend. He had been to Marshall a "couple of times" before, playing football games at Missouri Valley College as a linebacker for Benedictine College in Kansas. After graduating from there in 1993, he has most recently been working as Director of Sales and Trading for an ethanol company in Minnesota. (Marcia Gorrell/Democrat-News) [Click to enlarge]

Greg Bower, has only been on the job as the new general manager/CEO of Mid-Missouri Energy in Malta Bend for a month, but already has nothing but praise for the board and the employees at the ethanol plant.

"I told everybody out there I am one of the luckiest guys I know and I mean that sincerely, because the people, from the board members to the hourly employees, are outstanding people," he said. "They've built a great business. I just can't say enough good things about them."

Growing up in Olathe, Kan., Bower graduated in 1993 from Benedictine College in Kansas. He had been in Marshall before as a linebacker for Benedictine's football team, playing "a couple times" at Missouri Valley College. Currently Bower is working on a master's degree in finance online from Kelley School of Business in Indiana. He has worked for Bartlett and Company in Kansas City and for ConAgra-Peavey in Minneapolis, where he ran their softwheat export program, started their wheat export program out of Portland and also originated corn for Monfort Feedlots in Colorado. Most recently, Bower was a director of sales and trading for an ethanol company in Minnesota.

He said at a time when corn is selling for close to $6 a bushel and ethanol prices are relatively low, the challenges for MME, and ethanol plants in general, are on the financial side.

"That's why the compay hired me, because the challenges for Mid-Missouri Energy are more on the financial side of things than on the production side of things," he said, adding there is already a group of people "maximizing the production side of MME."

"The commodity markets don't provide a huge margin to make ethanol now," he added. "Every penny counts. That's kind of why I'm here to help manage the financial side of those transactions. We're maximizing value on that end."

Mid-Missouri Energy, which opened in 2004, has been an industry leader "as far as returns go."

"My job is just to help make sure that continues," he said.

Bower said they do have some internal goals, but most of those relate to managing the commodity markets.

"It's tough to make concrete goals, given what commodity prices can do when you have no control over them," he said, adding he is helping to "capture margins" when they are available.

"Eventually we would like to grow the company," he said, adding the owners still have that in mind, even with Carrollton's Show Me Ethanol coming on line this summer.

He said they are also looking at other projects in Missouri.

However, he doesn't see himself as a boss who comes in with "grandiose plans."

"My job is to take the ideas the board has and find out the best ways to implement those, so I'm facilitator for the board," he said. "On the other side, I am somebody who is there to help all the employees get where they want to go personally and professionally, whatever the case may be."

And after going through the semi-annual shutdown at the plant last week, where the staff put in over 5,000 hours and finished the job 12 hours ahead of schedule, Bower has nothing but praise for the MME employees.

"We had no significant restart issues with the plant. That's why I say I'm lucky," he said. "It's hard enough these days to find one or two people that are hardworking and industrious and do the right things 100 percent of the time. We basically have 37 people out there who do that every day."

Bower and his wife, Rhonda, also a Benedictine graduate, have three children, Aaron, 15, Brandon, 12, and Josie, 8.

They recently purchased a home near Marshall Junction and his wife and children will be moving from Minneapolis after school ends there in June.

Bower's parents, a brother and a grandmother still live in the Kansas City area.

"It's very good to be closer to home. It's important for me and for my kids to be closer to them," he said. His wife is originally from Council Bluffs, Iowa.

He said he is really glad to be back in the Midwest.

"It's just nice to be back in the area," he said. "When you live in the big city like Minneapolis, not everybody you meet is as helpful or as outgoing or as industrious as the people around here."

Contact Rachel Harper at marshallcity@socket.net