Leadership Team

Tim Newkirk has served as President of MGP Ingredients, Inc. since October 2006 and as Chief Executive Officer since March 2008. He also previously served as Chief Operating Officer from March 2006 to March 2008. He began his career with MGP Ingredients in 1991, serving initially as a Distillery Shift Manager and later as a Process Engineer, Project Engineer and Quality Control Manager at the Company's Atchison plant. He was promoted to Manager of the Company's former Pekin, Illinois, plant in 1997.

In the spring of 2000, Mr. Newkirk accepted the position of Vice President of Operations for the former High Plains Corporation, an ethanol production company located in Wichita, Kansas. He became Vice President of Global Operations for Abengoa Bioenergy S.L. following that company's acquisition of High Plains in January 2002. He was promoted to Chief Operating Officer of Abengoa Bioenergy Corporation in August, 2003 and held that position until his return to MGP Ingredients as Director of Operations in May 2005.

Mr. Newkirk has served on the Company's Board of Directors since 2008. He also serves as Chairman of the U.S.D. 409 Board of Education in Atchison and is involved in a number of other community and service organizations.

A native of Pittsburg, Kansas, Mr. Newkirk spent most of his youth in Atchison and graduated from Atchison High School in 1986. He received a bachelor of science degree in engineering management from the University of Missouri-Rolla in 1991 and earned a master's degree in business administration at the Olin School of Business at Washington University, St. Louis, in February 2006.

Don Tracy has served as Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of MGP Ingredients, Inc. since November 2009. Mr. Tracy's business career spans over 30 years, more than half of which has been spent in senior level financial and executive management positions. From 2006 until joining MGPI, he served as Chief Financial Officer at Emery Oleochemicals, a global chemical manufacturer, and was based in Cincinnati.

Prior to his position at Emery Oleochemicals, Mr. Tracy served as Chief Financial Officer at Briggs Industries, a worldwide manufacturer and distributor of kitchen and bath fixtures, at the company's U.S. headquarters in Charleston, South Carolina, from 2005 to 2007. Before that, he spent four years with the Tenaris Corp., a global producer of steel tubes, where he began as Director of Financial Projects and subsequently was promoted to Chief Financial Officer of Tenaris, North America.

Mr. Tracy's previous experience included serving as Senior Vice President of the process improvement group of National City Corporation, Cleveland, from 1999 to 2001; Senior Manager of the strategic services unit at A.T. Kearney, Inc. in 1998; Senior Manager of performance improvement management consulting for Ernst &Young Consulting, for three years; and various positions with the Procter & Gamble Company from 1983 to 1993. These included assignments as Department Manager of Finance and Investments in Procter & Gamble's treasury division, and periods as Chief Financial Officer of Procter & Gamble Peru, controller of Procter & Gamble Commercial Company, and a participant in the company's management development program. From 1979 to 1981, he served as an Auditor with Deloitte & Touche.

Mr. Tracy earned a bachelor of science degree in accounting in 1979 at the University of Detroit, where he was the recipient of the Wall Street Journal award as the top graduating business school student. He received a master's degree in business administration with dual specializations in business economics and finance from the University of Chicago in 1983.

Marta Myers has served as Executive Assistant to the Chairman and President since 1999. Mrs. Myers joined MGP Ingredients as Corporate Secretary in October 1996. Previously, she spent 15 years as Executive Secretary for the Superintendent of Schools for Unified School District 409, Atchison, Kansas. Prior to that, she spent three years as Coordinator of Records and Research in the development department at Benedictine College, Atchison