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Ethanol Biorefineries Announce New Plant Managers

VeraSun Energy Corp., one of the nation's largest ethanol producers, today announced that it has promoted three employees to plant manager positions. Gabe Corey, Kent Holzer and Pat Hogan have each been promoted from their previous positions as operations manager at their respective ethanol biorefineries. Corey will oversee the VeraSun Woodbury, Mich., plant, while Holzer will be the plant manager for VeraSun Janesville, Minn., and Hogan will lead VeraSun Dyersville, Iowa.

"We are pleased to have the opportunity to move three very talented individuals into plant manager positions with VeraSun Energy," said Paul Caudill, VeraSun's senior vice president, plant operations. "Each of them has demonstrated tremendous leadership ability and a strong desire to make a difference in our country through renewable fuels. The variety of experiences each brings to the company will be extremely valuable to our overall operations."

A native of Linden, Mich., Corey began his career at the Woodbury facility in August 2007. Prior to joining the Woodbury team, he spent almost six years working for The Andersons, Inc., most recently as production manager for the company's Albion, Mich., ethanol production facility. Corey started at the Albion facility in January 2006 as the production supervisor before moving into the production manager's role in October of the same year. Corey holds a bachelor's degree in agriscience with an emphasis in crop and soil science and a specialization in environmental studies from Michigan State University. He is currently working toward an MBA from the University of Toledo.

Holzer joined US BioEnergy in February 2007 as the operations manager for process improvement and technical training group, where he primarily provided plant support for process efficiencies and consistency in operation. He moved to the Janesville facility in May 2008. Prior to his current position, Holzer spent nearly three years as operations manager for Central Minnesota Ethanol in Little Falls, Minn. He was promoted to the position after joining the company in 1999 as shift and safety supervisor. A North Dakota native, Holzer also served in the North Dakota National Guard from 1991-97 before working at Morris Ag Energy in Morris, Minn., for three years. Holzer attended Bismarck State College where he studied biology and holds a renewable fuels technology certificate from Minnesota West Community College.

Hogan joined the Dyersville facility in February 2008 after spending nearly nine months at US BioEnergy as a plant management trainee. In that role, he performed startup training at the Marion and Hankinson ethanol biorefineries, in addition to serving as the acting plant manager for the facility in Ord for four months. A native of Palmerston, New Zealand, Hogan began his career in ethanol in 1987 as the fermentation and distillation operator for Anchor Ethanol Company in his home country. He remained with the company until May of 2000, spending his last seven years as distillery manager and operations manager. In June 2000, Hogan left Anchor Ethanol to become the operations manager for API Grain Processors in Red Deer, Alberta, Canada. He also held manager positions with US Liquids and Parallel Products in Kentucky and J Wray & Nephew in Kingston, Jamaica before moving to Indiana in 2004. Hogan holds a degree in dairy technology from Massey University in New Zealand.

VeraSun Energy Corporation (NYSE: VSE), headquartered in Brookings, S.D., is a leading producer of renewable fuel. Founded in 2001, the company has more than one billion gallons of annual ethanol production capacity through 11 operating facilities. Six additional facilities are currently either under construction or development with a combined capacity of 660 million gallons. Upon completion of the new facilities, VeraSun Energy will have an annual production capacity of approximately 1.75 billion gallons. Recently, the company began construction at its Aurora facility that will allow it to extract oil from dried distillers grains.

VeraSun markets E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline for use in Flexible Fuel Vehicles (FFVs), directly to fuel retailers under the brand VE85®. For more information, please visit VeraSun Energy's websites at www.verasun.com or www.VE85.com.