Governors' Biofuels Coalition

The chief executive officer of ethanol trade group Growth Energy will assume a new position as co-chairman of the board.

Tom Buis, who has been CEO of the organization since 2009, will remain “actively involved” in the policy and member activities, the group said. Growth Energy is actively seeking a new chief executive.

“As co-chair, I will remain engaged in growing membership and advocating for policies that benefit American farmers and consumers,” Buis said in a statement, “but I’m also at a point in life where I’m ready to assume more of a guiding role as a leader on the board.”

Buis will serve as co-chairman of the board of directors with Jeff Broin, co-founder and executive chairman of POET LLC.

Prior to joining Growth Energy in 2009, Buis served as vice president of government relations and then president at the National Farmers Union.

Before joining NFU in 1998, Buis served for nearly five years as senior agriculture policy adviser to former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) and held other positions on Capitol Hill. Buis previously was a grain and livestock farmer in West Central Indiana.

Growth Energy has hired Korn/Ferry International to lead its search for a new CEO.