Milling & Baking News - July 19, 2016 - 22

Signature Interview X

be said about that because their bosses
are not there at 5:00 a.m. and they still
go there at 5:00 a.m. Nobody forces
people to do that. And that's why we
are able to do so much with 32,000
people. They are unique, and that, to
be honest, is what made me say 'yes.'"
When he began as chief operating
officer, Mr. Luciano's first months
were spent listening and learning
the new lexicon of the grain and processing industries. ADM is one of the
world's largest oilseeds and corn processors as well as flour millers and
biofuels producers. Its corn processing business, for example, operates
facilities (both corn wet milling and
dry corn milling) in the United States,
Bulgaria, Turkey, Morocco, Mexico
and China.
"It's difficult to grasp the size of
the company," he said. "Because you
may understand the businesses, but
you can go deeper and deeper -
more complexities and more units
and more products and more geographies. I tried to have a goal in the first
year to visit every facility, but I don't
think I achieved it. I think I failed
miserably. There are so many."
Still a force in milling
For many years, ADM Milling Co.
was the largest or nearly the largest
flour milling company in the United
States. The creation of Ardent Mills
L.L.C. in 2014 through the merger of
Horizon Milling and ConAgra Mills

ADM is one of
the largest oilseed processors
and refiners in
the world.

has made ADM a distant second in
terms of daily milling capacity. The
shifting competitive landscape has not
undercut ADM's prospects for success,
Mr. Luciano said. He described wheat
milling as a "cornerstone" business for
the company.
"We are not tied to a specific market
position, if you will," Mr. Luciano said.
"I think the important thing is that we
have a size that allows us to continue
to be relevant to customers and continue to provide quality products to our
customers. So, the fact that now we're
not exactly the largest milling company hasn't changed that position. We
are No. 2, and I'm fine with that.
"We continue to invest. The milling

industry is an industry in which some
of the facilities are getting old, in general. It was less than two years ago
we invested in Beech Grove, Ind., increasing capacity there by nearly 50%
when we added a new mill adjacent
to the existing mill. We continue to
consider how to upgrade our asset
base and continue to remain efficient
and more relevant to customers."
Silver linings in ethanol
While not unconcerned by the ethanol business in a period of depressed
oil prices, Mr. Luciano said many
positives in the sector have not been
sufficiently appreciated.
"It's interesting, that if you separate

At Dow Chemical, everything but agriculture

hile his earliest roots were related to agriculture, Juan Luciano
had spent his entire working career in the chemical industry
before joining Archer Daniels Midland Co. in 2011.
"I'm from Argentina, and it's very difficult to be in Argentina and not
have roots in agriculture," he said.
Mr. Luciano was born in San Nicolas, in what he
described as the heart of Argentina's soybean producing area, 40 miles southeast of the major river port of
Rosario.
On his father's side, Mr. Luciano comes from a long
line of lawyers, each named Juan Luciano, dating back
many generations.
"My father passed away when I was six, so we went
to live with my mother's parents, and they have been
farmers for many generations," he said. "My grandfather, with his brothers, used to own an elevator, and
people would come and unload grain, and they would buy fertilizer,
seeds and all those things. I spent a lot of time playing around in the
mountains of seed bags.."
Breaking the tradition of attorneys named Juan Luciano, Mr. Luciano
chose to study engineering at the Buenos Aires Institute of Technology,
where he graduated with bachelor's and master's degrees. He joined Dow

22 / July 19, 2016 XMilling & Baking News

Chemical Co. in South America in 1985 in a position in commercial sales.
After about eight years with Dow in Argentina, he was promoted to a
position in São Paulo, Brazil. At numerous points in Mr. Luciano's career,
across different countries, continents and divisions, he rarely considered
whether his skills would translate to new assignments.
He credits his educational background as a significant factor in his success. His two children studied engineering at the University of Michigan.
"As engineers, you don't learn anything in particular
other than the method to solve problems," he said. "In
that sense, it's very useful because it helps you with
your mindset about how to approach problems in a rational way and to get to the best decision. I don't think
I have ever worked as a true engineer in my life, but it
is very helpful for whatever you approach in terms of
business."
At Dow, Mr. Luciano retired as president of the Performance Products
and Systems Division, having worked before as head of Plastics and
Hydrocarbons and Energy. When he left the company to join ADM, Mr.
Luciano was a corporate executive vice-president.
"I had worked in every division with the exception of the agricultural
division," he said. "Interestingly enough I didn't run that one." MBN

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Milling & Baking News - July 19, 2016

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