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Chris Skinner
Chris Skinner is a Certified Public Accountant with 16 years of finance and accounting experience. As LF’s VP of Accounting, Chris ensures timely and accurate financial reporting and forecasting, and manages internal processes that foster LF’s success.
Chris began his career as a member of EY’s audit practice, where he focused on real estate and transportation services. Following EY, he served in multiple roles including financial reporting, technical accounting and joint venture reporting with MPLX, a Marathon Petroleum subsidiary, gaining experience in technical accounting issues including derivatives, fair value accounting, revenue recognition and consolidation. Chris then moved to Athens, Georgia, to become the Controller at Creature Comforts Brewing Company, the largest craft brewery in Georgia.
Chris currently lives in Erie, CO, with his wife, two young sons and dog Franklin. In Athens, he donated his time and expertise as Treasurer of Love Craft, a non-profit serving adults with developmental disabilities. Chris’s hobbies include outdoor adventuring with his family and visiting new breweries to sample the wares.
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Ashley Garber Browner
Ashley is responsible for all legal matters related to LF Bioenergy and its subsidiaries. A seasoned legal executive with broad expertise in project development, M&A, contract drafting and negotiation, corporate governance, capital markets and restructuring, she brings more than fifteen years of public and private company in-house and private practice experience to LF.
Prior to joining LF, Ashley served as general counsel or in senior legal roles with various upstream and midstream oil and gas companies, including Nine Point Energy Holdings, Inc. and Kinder Morgan Inc.
Ashley received her J.D. from the University of Houston and a B.A. from Colgate University. She lives in Golden, Colorado with her husband and two young kids. When not with her family or working, Ashley is an avid tennis player, competing in leagues and tournaments around the country.
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Lee Laviolette
One of LF Bioenergy’s co-founders, Lee has a long track record of driving growth and leading global teams on behalf of energy and process industry companies. Breakthrough approaches to deliver operational excellence have created enormous value for both the firm and investors.
Early in his career, Lee held engineering, commercial and operations management roles at Exxon and Total (Fina). As a consultant with Arthur D. Little, Navigant and Accenture, he helped National Oil Companies (NOCs) and Majors like Saudi Aramco, Pemex, Marathon, Rio Tinto and US Steel implement new operating models and achieve step changes in operating performance.
He has been a frequent speaker, panelist and 3-time conference Chair at operational excellence and compliance management events in multiple countries.
Lee earned a BS with highest distinction in Chemical Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He lives in the Houston area with his wife of 41 years, their four adult children and 14 grandchildren. When not dashing across Houston to attend some grandchild’s event, he spends his free time camping in National Parks, saltwater fishing in Galveston Bay, or tinkering with one of many unfinished projects in his woodworking shop.
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Cyn S. French
One of LF Bioenergy’s Co-Founders, Cyn is a nationally recognized agricultural sustainability leader, speaker and a steadfast advocate for the belief that farmers are at the heart of climate solutions. With a career spanning corporate, government, industry, crisis communications, livestock biosecurity policies and political leadership, Cyn bridges the worlds of dairy, livestock, bioenergy, and policy to deliver solutions that are both profitable and sustainable.
She has a keen understanding of the economic and policy forces shaping agriculture and dairy, informed by relations with top economists, US industry, farmers, and policymakers. This keeps her deeply attuned to both market realities and the needs of producers.
Cyn was recently featured in Newsweek as an Ambassador for “How Bioenergy is Powering Climate Solutions and Rural Prosperity,” providing her farmer-first perspective on renewable natural gas and rural prosperity. Her leadership experience spans vastly from endeavors such as: a former and first female elected County Commissioner in Washington County, Colorado, a Senate appointed Colorado Water Quality Control Commissioner, recognized by President Obama’s Energy Cabinet and Governor Hickenlooper for Dairy Energy Efficiency leadership, the recipient of Colorado Commissioner of Ag’s Meritorious Service Award, and Co-leadership to the US Dairy Innovation Center’s Sustainability and participant in the first Life Cycle Assessments (LCAs) of U.S. dairy — helping establish the foundation for sustainability in today’s industry.
Cyn enjoys time with her two successful daughters, sons in law and four grandchildren. In addition to mentoring young professionals on a volunteer basis, she also manages to achieve her own fitness goals including #75Hard, LiveHard and a round of golf!
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Brent Lilienthal
Brent brings decades of energy development, operations and engineering experience and innovation to help dairy farms realize their climate and financial goals. Prior to joining LF, he served as SVP at Worley, managing $1billion refinery and gas plant process operations safety improvement projects across multiple customers and President of EMEA for Total Safety, the world’s leading process operational safety and equipment company, overseeing all growth and operations in the Eastern hemisphere.
Brent also has experience in the process optimization industry and is a minority owner in Sky 1, a 50MW power plant in Texas. Brent earned a BS in Chemical Engineering from University of Texas, Austin.
He lives in Houston with his wife and has two grown children and a grandson. Brent is an avid traveler, having done business in or visited over 90 countries. He has a passion for the environment and for scuba diving with his family on the rare occasions he can get everyone together.