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Jeff Broin

Agriculture Dell Rapids, SD

Jeff Broin, Founder, Chairman and CEO of POET, is a recognized innovator, entrepreneur, agriculturalist, business leader, philanthropist and global advocate for the biofuels industry. Over the last 30 years, Broin has played a vital role in championing an industry that creates jobs and grows prosperity by bringing cleaner-burning, homegrown biofuels to markets across the globe. When Broin was a teenager during the early 1980s, the United States was in the middle of an Ag Crisis. Corn prices were below the cost of production, farmers were being paid to set aside land and store surplus grain for the government, and farm income and land values plummeted. The Broin family saw the challenges as many of their neighbors filed bankruptcy or walked away from their farms entirely, so they turned to a new agricultural opportunity for revenue and built a small-scale biofuel plant on their farm near Kenyon, Minnesota. Serving as Broin’s introduction to biofuels, that plant represented a new market for farmers suffering economic hardship and formed the basis for what would become a lifelong passion. In 1987, when Broin was 22 years old, he invested in a bankrupt ethanol plant in Scotland, SD. He assumed the role of General Manager for the plant and, under his leadership, the company that was then known as “Broin Companies” grew from a small one million-gallon-per-year plant into “POET,” the world’s largest producer of biofuels and the largest company by revenue in the state of South Dakota today. Biofuels have created a market for agricultural products that is critical to rural America. POET purchases 5% of the U.S. corn crop from more than 30,000 farmers, has created income for more than 6000 farmer investors, and each biorefinery contributes an average of $200 million annually to its local economy. Today, POET’s 28 plants, located across seven states, have a combined annual production capacity of 1.8 billion gallons of biofuels, 550 million pounds of corn oil, and 10 billion pounds of co-products that are marketed worldwide. Broin holds a firm longstanding belief that our world can meet many of its needs through agriculture rather than fossil fuels. This passion, along with the development of the biofuels industry, has increased demand for the growing yields of South Dakota and

Pioneer of Biofuels

Midwest agriculture, stimulated economic growth for our state and nation, and led POET to become a world leader in biofuels. Much of the success comes from POET’s vertically integrated business system that includes multiple production plants and corporate entities. These entities perform business development, plant design and construction, plant management, research and development, and marketing. The center of corporate operations is based in Sioux Falls, and six of the 28 plants are operated in South Dakota – Big Stone, Chancellor, Groton, Hudson, Mitchell and Scotland. POET is also pioneering cellulosic bioethanol at Project LIBERTY at Emmetsburg, Iowa, which is one of the first plants of its kind creating cellulosic biofuels from corn waste products like leaves, cobs and husks. Broin views POET’s plants as true biorefineries. This means POET plants take in corn or other feedstock and produce not only biofuels, but an ever-growing range of products including corn oil, distillers’ grain, liquefied carbon dioxide, fiber and renewable power. More biorefined products are under development in the company’s research labs every day. Beyond producing biofuels, Broin has led the industry forward in the areas of research, marketing and environmental stewardship. Thanks to Broin’s determined leadership, POET has made South Dakota a world leader in renewable energy production, but his vision extends beyond business. He formed the POET Foundation to improve the

lives of others, especially for children and agriculture, in communities across the United States. POET Foundation-supported projects include LifeLight, Children’s Home Society, Global Health Ministries, Make-A-Wish, 4-H, FFA and dozens of others. In 2011, Broin and his family founded Seeds of Change with the goal of transforming education, agriculture and environmental conditions worldwide. Current projects include Mission Greenfield, spreading agriculture technology by working with 80,000 farmers in Kenya; Mission Greenhouse, working with developing schools for disadvantaged girls and special needs children in Kenya, and Mission Breathe, transitioning from solid cooking fuels like wood and charcoal to clean liquid renewable biofuels in Haiti and Africa. His true driving passion in life is to change the world through the sun, seed and soil for future generations. Broin holds a degree in Agricultural Business from the University of Wisconsin and an Honorary Doctorate of Public Service from South Dakota State University. Jeff and his wife of 28 years, Tammie, reside in Dell Rapids, South Dakota, where they raised their three children – Alyssa, Miranda and Austin.

Nominator: Jeffrey Lautt

James Abbott Kelby Krabbenhoft Jeff Scherschligt

SD Land Title Association Congratulates Ernie Carlsen

2017 Champion • Business

Thank you for following your dreams.

Because you dared to dream and work hard, South Dakota is a better place. Thank you for the positive impact you have made on us and countless others. Keep dreaming big dreams.

First Dakota National Bank congratulates

Jim Abbott, Jeff Broin and Jeff Scherschligt on your inductions into the South Dakota Hall of Fame. Your grit, determination, honesty, perseverance, and resilience make South Dakota great!

Member FDIC

With locations in Beresford, Blunt, Chamberlain, Elk Point, Kimball, Mitchell, Oacoma, Parkston, Pierre, Salem, Sioux Falls, Vermillion, Wagner and Yankton

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