Jim Artzer was named director of supply chain finance at the company. Artzer has more than 22 years of experience in finance and accounting, and most recently was director of general accounting for Mylan Pharmaceutical, Inc. Earlier, he was with Fort Dodge Animal Health and Bioproducts, Inc.
Mark Kocour was named plant manager at MGPI’s Onaga, Kansas, U.S., facility. He will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day operations at the facility, which produces plant-based biopolymers for use in the manufacture of eco-friendly products. Kocour joined MGPI in 1999 as plant quality manager at the company’s Atchison facility. In 2004, he was named corporate director of quality and toll manufacturing, a position he held until January 2007. At that time he began leading the company’s continuous improvement initiatives. Prior to joining MGPI he was with Sysco Food Services, Millard Processing Services and Hormel Foods.
Brian Wright was promoted to manager of distillery operations, where he is responsible for scheduling the day-to-day production of the various grades of alcohol produced by MGPI. Earlier, he was process engineer in distillery operations at MGPI. Before joining MGPI he spent three years at Abengoa Bioenergy Corp. as plant engineer/maintenance manager. Earlier, he worked for Becton Dickinson and Intel Corp.
