OMAHA, NEBRASKA, U.S. — The board of directors of The Scoular Co. has begun a search for a new chief executive officer (CEO). Charles (Chuck) Elsea, who has been CEO since April 2009, recently had been on sabbatical and has returned to the company as a senior vice-president.
Elsea took over as CEO after spending eight years as senior vice-president and director at Scoular. In total, he has been with the company for 35 years.


“Mr. Elsea has returned from his sabbatical and is serving as senior vice-president,” Julie Heiliger, director of brand marketing and corporate communication at Scoular, said in an emailed statement. “Scoular has commenced an outside search for CEO candidates.”

The pending change at the top of Scoular’s leadership follows other top executive changes at ranking grain companies. In February, Lewis Batchelder was named CEO of The Gavilon Group, LLC, Omaha, while last November Patrick E. Bowe was named president and CEO of The Andersons, Inc., Maumee, Ohio, U.S.

Scoular had sales of approximately $5.9 billion in fiscal 2015 and has about 1,200 employees across the Americas and Asia. The company operates 74 grain storage facilities with capacity of 120 million bushels, making it the ninth largest grain company in North America, according to theGrain & Milling Annual 2016published by Sosland Publishing Co. The company also operates 53 country elevators, 14 subterminal facilities, 4 river facilities and 3 terminal facilities.