Management Team

Hank Kuchta – President and Chief Executive Officer

Hank was a member of NTR Partners LLC and was President and COO of NTR Acquisition. Prior to NTR, Hank was President and COO of Premcor which operated 4 refineries in the United States and had approximately 750,000 barrels per day of refining capacity. Premcor tripled in value between its IPO 2002 and its sale to Valero in April 2005. Prior to Premcor, Hank served as business development manager for Phillips 66 Company following Phillips’ 2001 acquisition of Tosco Corporation. Prior to Phillips, Hank 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.

CHET KUCHTA – CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER

Chet most recently served as our Vice President, Supply. Prior to joining Northern Tier Energy in August 2011, Chet held the position of Chief Operating Officer of Petroplus Holdings AG, a leading European independent refiner and wholesaler of petroleum products. He worked as Petroplus’ Chief Commercial Officer from June 2006 until November 2009, when he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. He was previously Vice President of Crude Oil Supply and Trading at the Premcor Refining Group Inc. from 2002 until Premcor’s sale to Valero Energy Corporation in 2005. Chet also served as Crude Oil Supply Manager for Phillips 66 Company’s East Coast and Gulf Coast Systems, following Phillips’ acquisition of Tosco Corp. in 2001. Additionally, he served in various commercial and refining positions at Tosco from 1996 to 2001. Prior to joining Tosco, Chet spent five years at the Exxon Corporation in various refining, economic and environmental engineering positions. Chet graduated from Brown University with a BS in Chemical Engineering.

Dave Bonczek – Vice President and Chief Financial Officer

Dave is Chief Financial Officer of our company. Prior to joining us, Dave was Assistant Corporate Controller at Chemtura Corporation. Prior to that, Dave held finance management positions within Eastman Kodak and also served as Corporate Controller at Kodak Polychrome Graphics. Dave began his career as a Certified Public Accountant with KPMG where his last position was a senior manager in their audit practice. Dave received a B.S. degree in accounting from Binghamton University.

Peter Gelfman – Vice President and General Counsel

Peter is Vice President and General Counsel of our company. Prior to joining us, Mr. Gelfman was General Counsel & Secretary of Handy & Harman Ltd, a diversified global industrial company that is traded on the NASDAQ Capital Market (HNH), from April 2008 to May 2011. Prior to joining Handy & Harman Ltd, Mr. Gelfman served as the Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel for Rheem Manufacturing Company, a manufacturer of water heaters and HVAC equipment, from June 2006 to April 2008 and as Rheem’s Deputy General Counsel from July 2005 to June 2006. Mr. Gelfman was a Senior Associate General Counsel for Sequa Corporation, a diversified industrial company, from June 1999 through June 2005 and was a Senior Attorney for Westvaco Corporation, now Mead Westvaco, from June 1996 through June 1999. Additionally, Mr. Gelfman served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Criminal Division, from February 1992 through May 1996. Mr. Gelfman began his legal career as a litigation associate with the New York City law firm, Cravath, Swaine & Moore from September 1989 through December 1991. Mr. Gelfman received an AB degree in Government, magna cum laude, from Harvard College in 1986 and a JD Degree from the Yale Law School in 1989.

Greg Mullins – President, St Paul Park Refining Company, LLC

Greg has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Wayne State University and worked for Marathon Petroleum Company from 1978 until 2008 at which time he retired from Marathon. Greg has worked at several of Marathon’s refineries as well as the Findlay, OH corporate offices. He has extensive experience in all aspects of refinery operations and management as well as major project development and project management. Greg has developed and managed refining capital and expense budgets, worked in business development, and lead Marathon’s due diligence team for the prospective purchase of BP’s Lima refinery. He developed and sponsored the Detroit refinery expansion while incorporating the requirements for Ultra Low Sulfur fuels while staging the refinery to include significantly larger volumes of heavy, sour Canadian crudes. Greg is currently a member of AICHE, served as an expert panel member for the 2007 NPRA Q & A, a former member of the API Operating Practices Committee, and chaired the Wayne State University Industrial Advisory Board for the Chemical and Metallurgical Engineering Department from 2002 to 2007.

Rex Butcher – Vice President, Commercial

Rex has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Cleveland State University with experience in commercial trading, planning & economics, process design and project management. Most recently Rex was Director of Planning & Economics at Western Refining, Inc where he oversaw short & long term planning and helped reorganize the Supply & Trading organization. Before Western, Rex worked for several years as a consultant specializing in refining acquisitions, where he helped multiple clients assess & integrate refinery opportunities as well as evaluate their existing refining assets. Prior to that Rex worked for Premcor Refining Group, Inc. in several different roles which included strategic planning, commercial trading and process engineering.

Christine Carnicelli – Vice President, Human Resources

Christine Carnicelli has over 15 years experience in Human Resources working in both consulting and operational roles. Christine brings extensive experience in developing and executing HR strategies, acquisition integration, employee relations, and organizational development. She has worked for companies including Premcor, PepsiCo, and Ernst & Young and provided consulting services to PBF Energy and Maxum Petroleum. During her tenure at Premcor, Christine was one of the key HR leaders in the startup of corporate office and subsequently a principal support in the transition of corporate functions to Valero Energy. She received her B.S. in Business from University of Vermont and Masters in Organizational Development from Columbia University.

Jack A. Helmick- President – Retail

Jack is President of Retail for our Super America convenience stores and our Super Moms Commissary. Mr. Helmick has had a distinguished career spanning over 30 years that included senior positions at 7-Eleven, Coastal Corporation, and Thornton Oil. These positions included operations, marketing, and accounting. Jack has a Bachelor of Science degree from Southwest State University in San Marcos Texas.

Rick Locke – Vice President and Chief Information Officer

Rick is an Information Technology executive with over 34 years of experience, including over 20 years managing IT systems in the petroleum refining industry. He is the former Vice President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) at The Premcor Refining Group where he was responsible for IT strategy and overall support and operations of the company’s information technology systems and processes. Before joining Premcor, Mr. Locke held senior IT management positions at ConocoPhillips, Phillips Petroleum, Tosco Refining Company and Amerada Hess Corporation. He received his BS degree in Mathematics from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in finance from Rutgers University.

Oscar Rodriguez – Vice President and Treasurer

Oscar is a finance executive with over 20 years of experience in the oil refining and petrochemical industry. He has worked in corporate development, structured financing, cross border project finance, and liability management. He is the former Chief Financial Officer of WorldTelemetry Inc, a VC backed software company that served the fuel and chemical distribution space. Prior to that, Oscar headed the Budgets and Performance Analysis group at Citgo Petroleum where he came from Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA). Oscar received a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Universidad Metropolitana, Caracas, Venezuela and an MBA from the University of Iowa.