PEKIN, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Brian Steenhard was recently promoted to chief financial officer of Aventine Renewable Energy Holdings Inc., Pekin, Illinois, a leading producer and marketer of industrial and fuel ethanol and related coproducts.
Steenhard joined the company in January 2013 with responsibility for financial reporting, budget and forecast modeling, strategic turnaround business initiatives, and providing commodity-hedging strategies for risk management. He has extensive experience in budgeting, cash forecasting, business valuations and acquisitions, IRS and financial statement audits plus mergers, acquisitions and divestitures. He has also handled initial public offerings for Fortune 500 companies.
He began his professional career in 1999 as an audit associate with Arthur Andersen in Minneapolis, working with clients in industries including energy trading, public gas and electric utilities, transportation, manufacturing and not-for-profits.
In 2002 Steenhard moved to a management position in financial reporting at Aquila Inc., a publicly traded gas and electric utility in Kansas City, Missouri, where he participated in the day-to-day strategic management of eight nonregulated peaking-power facilities. He also oversaw completion of a $400 million convertible debt-and-equity offering, and developed strategies for energy trading and financial derivatives.
In 2006 Steenhard joined Hawkeye Energy Holdings LLC in Ames, Iowa, a large privately held ethanol company, as vice president of finance/controller. In this role he was responsible for executing the company’s growth plan, including a 100 percent increase in profitability, as well as the development of a large-scale commodity marketing business. Under his supervision the company's annual revenues increased from $400 million in 2006 to over $1 billion in 2009.
Steenhard is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa in Cedar Falls with a bachelor's degree in accounting, and received his MBA from the University of Iowa in Iowa City. He is a certified public accountant and is certified in Six Sigma for lean manufacturing.
About Aventine
Aventine Renewable Energy, Pekin, Ill., produces and markets industrial and fuel ethanol and related byproducts, bioproducts and coproducts, including corn gluten feed and meal, corn germ, condensed corn distillers solubles, dried distillers grain with solubles and wet distillers grain with solubles, corn oils and yeast.
