Board of Directors

Dan F. Smith is Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Northern Tier Energy, GP LLC. He had previously served as Chairman since November 29, 2011 and as a director of our company since May 2011. Mr. Smith is the former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Lyondell Chemical Company. He began his career with ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) in 1968 as an engineer. He was elected president of Lyondell Chemical Company in August 1994, chief executive officer in December 1996, and chairman of the board of directors in May 2007. Mr. Smith retired in December 2007 from Lyondell Chemical Company following the acquisition of Lyondell by Basell. Mr. Smith also served as Chief Executive Officer of Equistar Chemicals, LP from December 1997 through December 2007 and as Chief Executive Officer of Millennium Chemicals Inc. from November 2004 until December 2007. Equistar and Millennium are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Lyondell. Mr. Smith is a director of Cooper Industries, PLC, Chairman and a director of Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc., Chairman and a director of Valerus Compression Services, L.P., and Chairman and a director of Nexeo Solutions, LLC. He also serves as a member of the College of Engineering Advisory Council at Lamar University. Mr. Smith is a graduate of Lamar University with a B.S. degree in Chemical Engineering.

Hank Kuchta is President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of our company. He had previously held the position of President and Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Kuchta is a member of NTR Partners LLC and was President and Chief Operating Officer of NTR Acquisition. Prior to NTR Partners LLC, he was President and Chief Operating Officer of Premcor which operated four refineries in the United States and had approximately 750,000 bpd of refining capacity at the time of its sale to Valero Energy Corporation in April 2005. Prior to Premcor, Mr. Kuchta served as business development manager for Phillips 66 Company following Phillips’ 2001 acquisition of Tosco Corporation. Prior to Phillips, he served in various corporate, commercial and refining positions at Tosco Corporation from 1993 to 2001. Before joining Tosco, Mr. Kuchta spent 12 years at Exxon Corporation in various refining, engineering and financial positions, including assignments overseas. He holds a B.S. in chemical engineering from Wayne State University.

Bernard W. Aronson has served as a director of our company since December 2010. Mr. Aronson is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of ACON Investments, L.L.C. He has previously served as International Advisor to Goldman, Sachs & Co., Executive Speechwriter to the President of the United States, Special Assistant to the Vice President of the United States, and Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs. Following his State Department service from 1989 to 1993 he was presented the Distinguished Service Award by the Secretary of State, the State Department’s highest honor. Mr. Aronson serves on the Board of Directors of Hyatt Hotels Corp, Liz Claiborne Inc., Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, and Chroma Oil and Gas. He chairs the Governance Committee of Hyatt. He served as Director and Chair of the Governance Committee of Mariner Energy Inc. until November 2010 when Mariner Energy merged with Apache Oil and Gas. Mr. Aronson also serves on the Board of Directors of the Center for Global Development, The National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, and the Maryland/D.C. chapter of the Nature Conservancy. He is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the Inter-American Dialogue. Mr. Aronson graduated with Honors from the University of Chicago.

Jonathan Ginns has served as a director of our company since December 2010. Mr. Ginns is Co-Founder and Managing Partner of ACON Investments, L.L.C. Mr. Ginns received an M.B.A. from the Harvard Business School, and a B.A. from Brandeis University. He has served on a number of public and private Boards of Directors. He currently serves on the Boards of Directors of Signal International Inc., Milagro Exploration and Chroma Oil & Gas Corp.

Michael MacDougall has served as a director of our company since December 2010. Mr. MacDougall is a partner of TPG Capital. Mr. MacDougall leads the firm’s global energy and natural resources investing efforts. Prior to joining TPG Capital in 2002, Mr. MacDougall was a vice president in the Principal Investment Area of the Merchant Banking Division of Goldman, Sachs & Co., where he focused on private equity and mezzanine investments. He is a director of Amber Holdings (successor to certain assets of Alinta Energy), Copano Energy, L.L.C., Energy Future Holdings Corp. (formally TXU Corp.), Graphic Packaging Holding Company, Harvester Holdings, L.L.C. and its two wholly owned subsidiaries, Petro Harvester Oil and Gas, LLC and 2CO Energy Limited, Kraton Performance Polymers, Inc., Northern Tier Energy LLC and Nexeo Solutions, LLC, and is a director of the general partner of Valerus Compression Services, L.P. He is also a member of the board of directors of the Dwight School Foundation, Islesboro Affordable Property, The Opportunity Network, and The University of Texas Development Board. Mr. MacDougall received his B.B.A., with highest honors, from The University of Texas at Austin and received his M.B.A., with distinction, from Harvard Business School.

Eric Liaw has served as a director of our company since December 2010. Mr. Liaw is a vice president of TPG Capital. Mr. Liaw is focused on the firm’s global energy and natural resources investing efforts. Prior to joining TPG Capital in 2008, Mr. Liaw was an Associate at Bain Capital, where he focused on private equity investments. He is a director of Harvester Holdings, L.L.C. and a director of the general partner of Valerus Compression Services, L.P. Mr. Liaw received his B.A., with highest honors, and B.B.A., with highest honors, from the University of Texas at Austin and received his M.B.A., with distinction, from Harvard Business School.

Thomas Hofmann has served as a director of our company since May 2011. Since December 2008, Mr. Hofmann has been retired. Mr. Hofmann served as senior vice president and chief financial officer of Sunoco, Inc., an oil refining and marketing company, from January 2002 to December 2008. Mr. Hofmann also serves as a director of West Pharmaceuticals Services, Inc. and a director of the general partner of Penn Virginia Resource Partners, L.P. In the last five years, he has also served on the board of directors of the general partner of Sunoco Logistics Partners, L.P. and VIASYS Healthcare Inc.

Scott D. Josey has served as a director of our company since May 2011. Mr. Josey is the owner of Chromatic Industries, which provides engineered valves to the energy industry, and the former chairman, president and chief executive officer of Mariner Energy, Inc. He served as the chairman of the board of Mariner Energy, Inc. from August 2001 until November 2010, when Mariner merged with Apache Corporation. He was appointed chief executive officer of Mariner in October 2002 and president in February 2005. From 2000 to 2002, he served as vice president of Enron North America Corp. and co-managed its Energy Capital Resources group. From 1995 to 2000, Mr. Josey provided investment banking services to the oil and gas industry and portfolio management services to institutional investors as a co-founder of Sagestone Capital Partners. From 1993 to 1995, he was a director with Enron Capital & Trade Resources Corp. in its energy investment group. From 1982 to 1993, he worked in all phases of drilling, production, pipeline, corporate planning and commercial activities at Texas Oil and Gas Corp. Mr. Josey is also a director and serves on the executive committee of Apache Corporation. He is a member of the board and chairman of the Compensation Committee of the Association of Former Students of Texas A&M University and is also a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers and the Independent Petroleum Association of America. Mr. Josey obtained a B.S. degree in Mechanical Engineering from Texas A&M University, his M.B.A. from the University of Texas at Austin, and his M.S. in Petroleum Engineering from the University of Houston.

Rocky Duckworth has served as a director of our company since May 2013. Since October 2010, Mr. Duckworth has been retired and a private investor. Mr. Duckworth is a former partner of KPMG LLP, who retired from KPMG after more than 38 years including more than 29 years as a partner. Mr. Duckworth became a KPMG partner in 1981, partner in-charge of the audit practice in Oklahoma City in 1984, and he was the Managing Partner of the Oklahoma City office from 1987 to 2000 when he relocated to the Houston office to serve global energy clients and as the energy industry leader of the audit practice. Mr. Duckworth served as the lead audit engagement partner on large, multi-national clients operating in different segments of the energy industry including upstream oil and gas exploration and production companies, energy marketing and trading companies, and merchant independent power producers and retail power providers. Mr. Duckworth is a member of the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy. He has a Bachelor of Science degree with honors in accounting from Oklahoma State University and is a certified public accountant.