4 minutes with…Tim Lust, CEO, National Sorghum Producers

Tell us about your organization and it’s role in the advanced bioeconomy.

National Sorghum Producers is concentrated on the policy side of the advanced bioeconomy and how it affects sorghum – grain, sweet and biomass. Sorghum is a very sustainable feedstock, and our goal is to achieve policy that recognize sorghum’s benefits in this sector.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

NSP is focused on several items at the moment: successful advanced biofuel RFS2 pathways for grain sorghum oil to biodiesel and sweet sorghum to ethanol, a cellulosic RFS2 pathway for biomass sorghum, and improved and more accurate Low Carbon Fuel Standard pathways for grain sorghum to ethanol.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?

The most important item for the industry in the next five years will be defense of the RFS2 and a rational implementation of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change?

Regulator agencies move at a very slow pace and use thin data sets for policy implementation. These are items I would change.

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you?  

It provides domestic demand for sorghum.

Where are you from? 

Lazbuddie, Texas

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway? 

I received a Bachelor of Science in Animal Science from Angelo State University where I went to play football initially.

Who do you consider your mentors. What have you learned from them?

Jack Eberspacher was my first boss and a great mentor in the business world. I was also blessed to have a wonderful dad and grandfather that were my personal role models and mentors.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?

Relationships matter.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry? 

I continue to operate the family Angus cattle business.

What 3 books would you take to read, if stranded on a desert island?

1. Bible
2. Deep Change
3. Good to Great…or How to Survive on a Deserted Island

What books or articles are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?

Managing Yourself

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?

My family farm and ranch