Leadership

Josh Anders joined Savage in 2024 as our Chief Financial Officer (CFO). Anders has more than 20 years of financial leadership experience in both public and privately held companies.

Prior to joining Savage, Anders was President and CFO at Sage Natural Resources LLC, a private equity backed company with upstream and midstream operations in the Eagle Ford and Barnett shale plays. Anders also served as CFO at Samson Resources II, LLC, a private upstream oil and gas company, and as Executive Vice President and CFO at Adams Resources & Energy, Inc., a midstream-focused company with crude oil marketing, transportation and storage operations. He also served as Vice President and Controller of Southwestern Energy Company.

Anders earned a bachelor’s degree in finance from Louisiana State University and an executive MBA from Texas A&M. He’s also a licensed certified public accountant (CPA) and a United States Army National Guard veteran.

Benjamin W. Bates became Savage's Executive Vice President, Secretary and General Counsel in January 2026. Bates brings more than 20 years of legal experience to the role, including expertise in mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance and commercial transactions.

Bates joined Savage in 2012 as a Senior Attorney and was promoted to VP & Deputy General Counsel, Corporate Development, in 2022. During his time with Savage, Bates has played a key role in facilitating mergers and acquisitions, financing transactions, carve-out divestiture transactions, and other strategic transactions that have had a significant impact on the company’s growth and diversification.

Prior to joining Savage, he served as Partner, Corporate Securities at Stoel Rives LLP and as a Corporate and Securities Associate at Kirkland & Ellis LLP. In those roles, he counseled public and private entities on mergers and acquisitions, public offerings and other capital markets transactions, corporate governance, restructurings, venture capital transactions, private offerings, general corporate and securities matters and entity formation issues. Bates also served as a foreign attorney for Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu in Tokyo, Japan.

Bates earned a bachelor’s degree in linguistics from the University of Utah and his Juris Doctorate from the University of Utah’s S.J. Quinney College of Law.

Joe Griffith was named Bartlett’s president in 2025.

Griffith joined Bartlett in 2000, working in origination and trading on the wheat desk. Since then, he’s worked in a variety of roles with increasing responsibility at the company including supporting the transportation group, serving as the St. Joe origination manager and working in domestic wheat trading. In 2017, he was named vice president of Bartlett Milling and was promoted to senior vice president in 2018.

Griffith graduated from Southwest Missouri State University with a bachelor's degree in agricultural business. 

Scott Hall serves as Savage’s Vice President, Energy and Mineral Services Leader.

Hall joined the company in 2007 as a Business Manager and moved into operations leadership in 2012. In 2015, Hall combined those skillsets to become the Business and Operational Director for Wyoming and North Dakota, and in 2019 was promoted to Vice President and Unit Leader of the Mountain Transportation Unit.

Throughout his time with Savage, Hall has led the development of trucking, rail, transloading and material-handling operations across industries including oil midstream, wellhead services, coal, mining, construction and industrial markets. He also helped launch Savage’s first oil-hauling operations.

Prior to joining Savage, Hall served eight years as a U.S. Navy officer in financial leadership roles. He’s earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Brigham Young University, a master’s degree in health care administration from Indiana University, and a master’s degree in financial management from the Naval Postgraduate School. Hall is also a certified financial manager and a certified management accountant.

Bob Knief serves as our Executive Director of Bartlett. Knief joined Bartlett in 2004 where he began in domestic wheat merchandising and moved to managing Bartlett’s Mexico business as Vice President. In 2011, he was named President of Bartlett Grain and, following our acquisition of the Bartlett business in August 2018, was named President of Bartlett and our Sector President, Agriculture, in October 2019.

Knief began his career in the grain industry in 1992, working in origination with Continental Grain in Minneapolis, and in facility management in several locations before becoming an export wheat merchant in Kansas City for Continental. After Continental, Knief was a wheat merchant for Scoular Grain in Kansas City.

Knief is a graduate of the University of Illinois with a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics.

Brandi Mechling became Savage’s Executive Vice President, Chief Administration Officer (CAO) in 2025 and oversees information technology operations, information systems, procurement and organizational project management.

Mechling started her career at Savage in 1997 and has served in a variety of leadership roles on our IT team as well as overseeing the operation of our core services. She’s also played a crucial role in driving change initiatives across the company.

Mechling has a bachelor’s degree in English and an MBA from the University of Utah.

NJ Pesci joined Savage in 2024 as our Executive Vice President, Chief People & Strategy Officer.

Prior to joining Savage, Pesci served as President and Founder of the Ovid Groupe. Through this consulting firm, he’s offered strategic guidance designed to enable organizations and executives to transform their businesses since 2017.

He also served as Chief Strategy Officer for KLAS Research from 2021 through 2023. In this role, Pesci was responsible for the development of the firm’s business strategy as well as the growth of each of its business units. Additionally, he was the managing director of KLAS’ new consulting business.

Before founding the Ovid Groupe and driving the strategy at KLAS Research, Pesci was the Executive Vice President, Chief Human Resources Officer for Scripps Networks Interactive (SNI) – one of the leading developers of lifestyle content for television and the Internet. At Scripps, Pesci oversaw SNI’s global human resources operations and aligned the company’s long-term strategic growth priorities with its design and objectives. He also introduced the company’s process for developing and delivering its business strategies, worked with the Board, and focused on executive compensation.

Prior to joining Scripps, Pesci spent 19 years in a number of line and human resources roles at The Procter & Gamble Company, including leading the human resources team that supports P&G’s largest organizational unit, Global Supply Chain and Labor Relations. He also completed a three-year assignment in Frankfurt, Germany where he played a prominent role in integrating the Wella Professional acquisition.

Before venturing into a career in human resources, Pesci worked as an analyst for the United States Department of Defense in Washington, D.C.

Pesci earned a master’s degree in organizational behavior from Brigham Young University and serves as a member of the HR/OB advisory board.

Jason Ray serves as Savage's Chief Commercial Officer. Ray started with Savage in 2005. Since 2015, he has held executive vice president positions leading Business Development and Engineering Groups, Industrial Facility Solutions Group and prior to that he led Marketing and Business Development Group.

Previously, Ray led the Refinery and Power Solutions Group as Senior Vice President. He has also held various positions at Savage related to the refinery business, including positions in finance, operations management and business development.

Ray holds a bachelor’s degree in marketing from the University of Utah and an MBA from Brigham Young University.

Jeff Roberts became Savage’s Chief Executive Officer on Jan. 1, 2025, after being named as President in May 2024. Roberts joined Savage in 2016 as Chief Financial Officer, leading Savage's finance team as well as mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In 2022, he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Throughout his time at Savage, Roberts has led initiatives that have had a significant impact on the company’s growth.

Prior to joining Savage, Roberts served as Chief Financial Officer of Maxum Enterprises, an integrated marine and land-based chemicals, petroleum and lubricants supply company, partially owned by Pilot Flying J. In that role, he led the company’s Risk, M&A, Corporate Finance, IT, Credit, Tax, Treasury, Collections and Accounting teams and served for seven months as Interim President.

Prior to his time at Maxum, Roberts served in numerous financial roles within the Pilot Flying J organization, including divisional CFO.

Roberts earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting at Utah State University and a master’s degree in professional accountancy from Weber State University.

Steve Stewart serves as Savage’s SVP, Refinery Services Leader. Steve joined Savage in 2009 as a Director of Operations and has nearly 40 years of experience in chemical manufacturing, consumer products and petroleum refining industries in many diverse roles, including engineering, supply chain management and facility management.

Prior to joining Savage, Steve spent many years with The Clorox Company and Ecolab Inc. where he led various functions within chemical processing and customer packaged goods. Steve graduated with a bachelor’s degree in industrial engineering from Mississippi State University and was a member of several prestigious honor societies, including Alpha Pi Mu and Tau Beta Pi.

Martha Elena Federica Bárcena Coqui has served as a member of our Board since December 2021. Bárcena is a member of the Advisory Council of the Atlantic Council’s Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, a Senior Advisor to the Center for Strategic International Studies and a former ambassador of Mexico to the United States. During her tenure from December 2018 to February 2021, she assisted with negotiations that set out the foundations for the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement and dealt with the vast array of issues on one of the most complex bilateral relationships.

Bárcena previously served as Mexico’s permanent representative to the United Nations agencies based in Rome as well as to the Governing Council of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law from April 2017 to December 2018. She was also the Mexican ambassador to Turkey and concurrent non-resident ambassador to Georgia, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan from 2013 to 2017 and previously served as the Mexican ambassador to Denmark and concurrent non-resident ambassador to Norway and Iceland from 2004 to 2013.

Prior to these ambassadorships, Bárcena served in numerous roles with the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and she has represented Mexico as delegate at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Organization of American States, as well as head of delegation at the Forum on Migration and Development.

Bárcena earned bachelor’s degrees from the Universidad Iberoamericana and the Pontifical Gregorian University, a Master in Philosophy from the Universidad Iberoamericana and a Master in International Relations from the Diplomatic School of Spain.

Jeff Olsen has served as a member of our Board since October 2023. Olsen is President and CEO of Boart Longyear, the world’s leading provider of drilling services, drilling equipment and performance tooling for mining and drilling companies. The company also has a substantial presence in aftermarket parts and service, energy, mine de-watering, oil sands exploration, production drilling and down-hole instrumentation. Boart Longyear is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.

Before joining Boart Longyear, Olsen served as Chief Commercial Officer for Rio Tinto's Iron & Titanium business since 2010. Prior to that, he was Chief Financial Officer for Rio Tinto Minerals for approximately five years and Chief Financial Officer for Rio Tinto Borax for approximately four years. He also held other financial roles at Rio Tinto and financial roles at General Chemical Corporation and Xerox Corporation.

Olsen holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Utah and a Masters of Business Administration from the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester.

Jeff Roberts became Savage’s Chief Executive Officer on Jan. 1, 2025, after being named as President in May 2024. Roberts joined Savage in 2016 as Chief Financial Officer, leading Savage's finance team as well as mergers and acquisitions (M&A). In 2022, he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer. Throughout his time at Savage, Roberts has led initiatives that have had a significant impact on the company’s growth.

Prior to joining Savage, Roberts served as Chief Financial Officer of Maxum Enterprises, an integrated marine and land-based chemicals, petroleum and lubricants supply company, partially owned by Pilot Flying J. In that role, he led the company’s Risk, M&A, Corporate Finance, IT, Credit, Tax, Treasury, Collections and Accounting teams and served for seven months as Interim President.

Prior to his time at Maxum, Roberts served in numerous financial roles within the Pilot Flying J organization, including divisional CFO.

Roberts earned a bachelor’s degree in accounting at Utah State University and a master’s degree in professional accountancy from Weber State University.

John Savage has served as a member of our Board since July 2002. Savage was a team member for our company for 51 years and retired from his position as Executive Vice President and Leader of our Sourcing & Reliability Group in April 2021. In this position, he was responsible for the design and construction of materials management systems and facilities; the acquisition, maintenance, and sale of all equipment; the procurement of materials and services; and the acquisition and sale of all real estate holdings.

Savage initially joined Savage in 1970, and his wide-ranging experience included operations administrations, startup, construction, and project management. During his tenure with Savage, he has been instrumental in the development of many of our company’s key productivity and financial management tools. As Operations Vice President, Savage led the development of lightweight, state-of-the-art transportation equipment and contributed to the expansion of our business into the national bulk materials management industry.

Savage attended Brigham Young University to study interpersonal communications and organizational behavior. He has since earned certification from the University of Chicago in advanced management development.

Nathan N. Savage has been a member of our Board since May 2004. He also serves on the board of EnviroServe, a One Rock Capital company, and as an adjunct professor at the Brigham Young University Marriott School of Business. Savage joined Savage in 1995 and served as Sector President from August 2018 to January 2023. Previously, he led our Oil & Gas Solutions Group; served in operations management, finance, and business development; was Group Leader for our Refinery and Sulphur Solutions Group; and was Group Leader for our Commercial Development Group.

Savage has a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Brigham Young University and an MBA from West Virginia University.

Todd Savage serves as the Non-Executive Vice Chairman of our Board, and has served as a member of our Board since November 1999. Having worked with our company since 1979, Savage’s career grew with the company. His experience with Savage includes operations management; business development in the coal, power generation, and refinery industries; and project development from creation through implementation on many projects.

His insight and creativity in developing innovative solutions for challenging materials management, transportation issues, and facility operations has been integral in shaping the philosophy and business model of Savage. He served 18 years as an Executive Vice President of Savage, and retired from day-to-day business operations in July 2017 to serve as the Non-Executive Chairman of the Board.

He serves on the Executive Committee for the National Coal Council, an appointment by the Secretary of Energy. He also served on the Executive Committee for the Great Salt Lake Council of The Boy Scouts of America until 2020.

Savage earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Management from the University of Phoenix.

Patrick Sissman joined our board in January 2025. Sissman is a partner at Redwood Holdings, a privately-owned holding company based in Baltimore, Maryland. He’s responsible for sourcing and evaluating investment opportunities and supporting Redwood’s existing businesses. Sissman also serves on the board for The Center for Urban Families, a Baltimore-based non-profit organization.

Sissman joined Redwood in 2016 as a vice president on Redwood’s investment team. Prior to joining Redwood, he worked at Berkshire Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm, where he assisted in underwriting new investments and working with portfolio companies across a range of industries. He began his career in the investment banking division at Goldman, Sachs & Co.

Sissman earned a bachelor’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.