>History   >Mission   >Management Team   >FAQ   >Partners

MANAGEMENT TEAM / KEY PERSONNEL – Naturally Iowa

William Horner, President & CEO: As a serial entrepreneur, William Horner has a lifetime of experience developing and managing socially responsible, innovative businesses in the fields of agriculture and education. From concept through startup, Bill Horner has established many successful ventures during his career, the most recent being Naturally Iowa.

For the past 16 years, Bill has partnered in multiple international agricultural marketing ventures throughout the Caribbean, Asia, and Africa. But it was on his own Iowa farm where he grew up in the l940’s and 1950’s that the impetus for the development of an organic dairy processing plant (Naturally Iowa) came about. After extensive research into the economic viability of organic farming, Bill went on to own, and successfully manage an organic dairy farm (established in the mid 1990’s), which is still in operation today.

Mr. Horner is the co-founder of Naturally Iowa (founded in 2003), an innovative force in the dairy industry. Having grown up on his family’s farm in Iowa, Bill learned early on many of the nuances of managing a business, and in particular running a dairy farm.

Naturally Iowa is the first dairy plant in the world to utilize bottles made from corn. It is also the first plant to be IMS Certified to manufacture PLA bottles for other dairies.

From his background as an entrepreneur and educator to his ventures in agriculture and the organic dairy industry, Bill has spent his lifetime establishing, and managing successful, socially responsible organizations.

Mark Kloster, Chief Operating Officer: Mark joins Naturally Iowa with more than 30 years of dairy industry background and experience, including his background in fluid milk bottling, cultured dairy products, ice cream production as well as juice and water bottling. Mark has many years of facility management that include building expansion oversight, employee development and safety programs with several large organic and conventional dairy production operations located around the country. He has extensive training in dairy plant layout and production operations as well as operational and budgetary controls and has had many years of involvement with regulatory and dairy industry educational programs.

Mark's knowledge of dairy plant operations, regulatory requirements, employee development programs and his strong roots to Iowa is an important part of a Chief Operations Officers responsibility and his understanding and desire to help develop a successful and environmentally friendly company in Naturally Iowa.

Paul Horner , Chief Financial Officer : Paul brings nearly 20 years of experience in the financial arena. He received a BS in marketing from the University of Arizona, then went on to earn an MBA in Finance from Loyola University of Chicago. Paul spent the next several years working for RPI Inc., a business research firm in Chicago, where he directed projects for contracted clientele in areas such as corporate strategy, finance, marketing, competitive analysis and product development. Paul established himself as the firm’s top revenue producer within his first year.

After spending a year with the Culver Marketing Group/Redstone Communications in Omaha, Nebraska, Paul took a position in 1996 with a Berkshire-Hathaway company – Central States Indemnity. Until he recently stepped down to become CFO of Naturally Iowa, he was a Vice President at Central States Indemnity, overseeing a staff of analysts and programmers. Paul’s responsibilities included strategic planning, system design, and new product development efforts, developing custom models which assist in the pricing of contractual agreements, and the financial management of marketing campaigns.

Paul has worked as a financial consultant on several offshore agricultural ventures over the last 15 years. He completed detailed financial projections and market analysis for Sunshine Meats LTD. in Grenada. He also served as the on-site Manager of Finance during the implementation period and developed a custom accounting system before returning to Omaha, Nebraska.

Paul’s involvement with Naturally Iowa began when the company was organized in 2003. Since that time, he has provided assistance by constructing detailed cash flow projections for the business. These financial projections were critical in securing start-up capital as well as determining a strategic direction for the company.

Richard Jensen, Director, PLA Systems: Richard Jensen’s career and experience in production management, manufacturing layouts, development engineering, and development engineering management spans over a 20 year period. Richard brings a strong background in hiring, training, leading, and supervising both high level development engineering activities, as well as administrative, clerical, and manufacturing personnel.

Richard possesses both depth and broad experience in the areas of procurement, packaging, food safety, inventory control, maintaining customer databases, and developing routing and scheduling of deliveries to a customer base.

His knowledge of DOT (Department of Transportation) regulation, as well as State, Federal, and USDA packaging and labeling requirements, makes Richard a perfect fit for Naturally Iowa’s Management Team.
Richard’s extensive background in the management of personnel, development engineering projects, and production/manufacturing facilities brings the right blend of experience and leadership to the operations of Naturally Iowa.

Having grown up on a dairy farm near Omaha, Nebraska milking cows with his Dad the old fashioned way, Dick has now come full circle, back to his roots, joining the management team of an organic dairy producer, Naturally Iowa.

Bill Lambert, Consultant: Mr. Lambert received his degree from Iowa State University in Dairy Science. He has over fifty years’ experience in the dairy industry, consulting with existing and start-up dairies worldwide. Lambert designed dairy processing facilities, and trained personnel in their operations in the Middle East and the former Soviet Republic. Before his “retirement”, he served as General Manager for Anderson-Erickson's Ice Cream Division. He is responsible for formulating all of Naturally Iowa’s ice cream products.

David L. Bracht, Legal Counsel: Mr. Bracht holds a B.S. from the University of Nebraska, and a law degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Bracht practiced with several of the Midwest's largest law firms, representing agribusinesses and agricultural processors and worked eight years as a commercial banker. He also served as an Associate Manager of the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation (with the U.S. Department of Agriculture) and Director of Management and Finance of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture. In 2001, Bracht established an independent practice, specializing in agriculture, risk management and environmental projects, and compliance issues. He is currently At Counsel with a major law firm.