Corporate Leadership
Mark Zurcher
Mark Zurcher
Mark has over 25 years of successful operating leadership experience in the Consumer/Private Equity space.
Mark has had numerous successful CEO & Board roles resulting in company growth transformations.
Aaron Buettner
Aaron Buettner
Aaron joined PureField from Bunge Global SA where he was most recently President of Bunge’s Food Solutions business. Prior to his time at Bunge, Aaron spent nearly two decades at Cargill in a variety of commercial leadership roles, including assignments in Russia and China.
Aaron is a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa and with a degree in Accounting. In addition, he holds an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. He lives in St. Louis, Mo. with his wife and has three children.
Terry Anderson
Terry Anderson
Terry brings a diverse set of commercial leadership experiences in food ingredients to PureField. Before coming to PureField, Terry served as the President of Tank Advisors, where he improved go-to-market processes, business strategy development, commercial execution, and strategic market assessments. Prior to his position at Tank Advisors, Terry worked as the Executive Vice President of Food and Functional Ingredients at Solvaira Specialties. There, he led the integration of a $140 million business across three business units, aligning sales, manufacturing, and support resources. Terry’s resume is filled with achievements in leadership, international trading, and business development throughout the food ingredients industry.
Terry has a Bachelor of Science in Food Systems Economics and Management from Michigan State University. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with his wife Nancy. They have two adult children. In his free time, Terry enjoys traveling, gardening, golfing, and reading.
Steve Ellis
Steve Ellis
Steve is a proven operations and supply chain leader who thrives on optimizing plant operations and coaching teams to success. Prior to joining PureField Ingredients, Steve was the Vice President of Operations at Puris Proteins. There, he led the next phase of growth for the company, including the buildout and staffing for their greenfield plant in Minnesota. Steve spent 26 years with Cargill in various leadership positions including oversight of 26 manufacturing locations for wheat flour, oat products, bakery mixes and specialty bread baking.
Steve graduated from Kansas State University with a degree in Milling Science and Management.
Monte Johnson
Monte Johnson
Monte adds value to the PureField team with knowledge of the agricultural and commodities industries. He has experience in operations, merchandising, and management. Most recently, Monte served as the Commercial Business Manager at Perdue Agribusiness, where he led a team responsible for commodity trading in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Maryland. Monte led a merchandising office and managed crush plant procurement and byproduct sales. Prior to his time at Purdue, Monte spent thirteen years with Archer-Daniels-Midland where he held various procurement roles in Tennessee, Texas, and Kansas.
Monte has a Bachelor of Science in Agribusiness from Kansas State University. In his free time, Monte enjoys learning about regenerative farming practices.
Cyril Koniski
Cyril Koniski
Cyril joined Purefield from McKinsey & Company, where he spent 10 years working within the enterprise transformation practice serving clients in the industrial and manufacturing sectors.
Cyril holds a B. Sc. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.Eng. in Manufacturing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business.
Mindi McKibbin
Mindi McKibbin
Mindi is a proven leader who excels at developing functional & nutritional protein ingredients and applying these ingredients in customers’ end-use products. Mindi joined PureField from IFF (formerly DuPont Nutrition and Biosciences) where she was a Principal Scientist for 4 years. Prior to IFF, Mindi spent 5 years with Rembrandt Foods, most recently as Director of R&D and Innovation for their egg ingredients business where she lead a team of scientists and technologists to grow the company’s product portfolio and IP strategy. Mindi started her career with GELITA, where she spent 10 years of progressive growth in quality, R&D and application focused roles.
Mindi is a graduate of Buena Vista University and holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Mathematics. She is a Certified Food Scientist through IFT. Mindi lives in Olathe, Kansas with her husband and two teenage daughters. In her free time, she enjoys playing board games, outdoor family activities, reading and walking her sheepadoodle, Biff.
Walter Tabaschek
Walter Tabaschek
Walter is a proven finance and operations executive, experienced in leading financial strategy and execution, with a track record of optimizing global businesses to peak levels of performance. His career has been focused on driving strategic growth for multinational companies in the agribusiness, financial markets, and manufacturing sectors. Walter has finance experience with Cargill and Bunge but also spent a number of years in Private Equity.
Walter earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Administration and Accounting from the Universidad Nacional de Lomas de Zamora, Argentina.
Bruce Fitzpatrick
Bruce Fitzpatrick
Food Ingredients
Doug Funk
Doug Funk
Doug is a Kansas native who has been working at the food ingredients facility in Russell for more than 20 years. As manager, he plays an integral role in ensuring that PureField Ingredients produces safe, reliable and high-quality gluten for distribution to consumer food and pet food manufacturers.
Biofuels
Mike Ernst
Mike Ernst
A Kansas native, Mike has been working at the ethanol facility since it began operation. He literally helped build the plant and has managed its operations for more than a decade. Under his leadership, ethanol production has steadily increased to more than 50 million gallons a year.