Bill Erlenbush has been named Growmark executive director of corporate compliance, effective Dec. 1, 2009. He holds a bachelor’s degree in accountancy from the University of Illinois and an MBA from Illinois State University. Erlenbush, a Certified Public Accountant, has held a variety of positions with Growmark, most recently serving as controller. In this new role, he will have full responsibility for the consolidated Growmark compliance program, internal auditing, Growmark’s policies regarding privacy, record retention, and business continuity.
Doug Bentson, Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) at Grainco FS, Inc., Mazon, Ill., received the 2009 International Certified Crop Adviser of the Year award from the American Society of Agronomy (ASA) at their 2009 annual meeting in Pittsburgh. This annual award recognizes a CCA who delivers exceptional customer service, shows that they are leaders in their field, and contributes substantially to the exchange of ideas and the transfer of agronomic knowledge within the industry. The Illinois CCA Board and the Illinois Farm Bureau nominated Bentson for the award.
Grainco FS is part of the Growmark System of member cooperatives.
Boston-based Converted Organics Inc., which produces organic soil amendments and fertilizers with a proprietary high-temp composting system, is expanding its sales force into the northeastern and southeastern U.S. Michael Garrett and Michael Knight have been named sales representatives, reporting to Vice President of Marketing David Flannery. Garrett has over 18 years of experience, most recently in California for Global Organics/Bioflora. Knight has over 20 years of experience, including district sales manager for The Toro Co. and T-Systems International.
Yara International ASA has appointed Yves Bonte as the new head of the industrial segment, effective Jan. 1, 2010. Bonte, a Belgian national, is currently employed in The Netherlands by the LyondellBasell group as divisional senior vice president for their polypropylene business. Yara says he has extensive international experience in the chemical industry, running manufacturing operations, supply chain activities, and commercial entities where innovation and added value services were key success factors.
Bonte will be a member of Yara’s executive management team and report to Jørgen Ole Haslestad, Yara CEO and president.
Yara’s industrial segment develops and sells chemical products and industrial gases to non-fertilizer market segments. Industrial offers nitrogen chemicals as well as industrial explosives, with environmental applications such as NOx- abatement.