Full Name
Patrick Scates
Job Title
CEO
Company
Elite River Services, LLC
Speaker Bio
As CEO of Elite River Services, LLC Patrick is leading the team operating and building fertilizer and grain river terminals on the Ohio, Mississippi and Arkansas River. Patrick is an entrepreneur driven by building large-scale agricultural operations from the ground up. With a focus on inland river terminal development, he works at the intersection of infrastructure, finance, and terminal operations. Patrick is passionate about strengthening domestic food production, improving the agriculture supply chain, creating jobs in rural communities, and developing projects that are both economically strong and operationally efficient.
Patrick has leveraged his long-term relationships with global agriculture companies to structure vertically integrated river terminal assets, by bringing together state and federal grants, land acquisition, permitting, capital formation, and operational strategy. Patrick has been involved in developing high-capacity fertilizer distribution centers designed to optimize supply chain efficiency, providing high quality service to the agriculture community. His work centers on building scalable infrastructure, forming strategic equity partnerships, and driving long-term value in the farming and agribusiness sectors.
Before coming back to family operations Patrick was able to use his passion for agriculture and his knowledge of transportation and logistics to serve a US Senator and a US Congressman for five years before serving at USDA during the 2012 Farm Bill debate. Patrick continues to stay heavily involved in agriculture and transportation policy on federal and state level issues and serves on the Illinois Freight Advisory Committee and is involved in several community service projects.
Patrick grew up on the family’s large corn, soybean, wheat and cattle farm in southeastern Illinois and continues to stay involved in day-to-day operations of that farm. He also holds the positions of General Manager for Scates Valley Irrigation and Well Drilling and SGI Transportation both serving farmers and fertilizer retailers in IL, IN and KY.
Patrick has leveraged his long-term relationships with global agriculture companies to structure vertically integrated river terminal assets, by bringing together state and federal grants, land acquisition, permitting, capital formation, and operational strategy. Patrick has been involved in developing high-capacity fertilizer distribution centers designed to optimize supply chain efficiency, providing high quality service to the agriculture community. His work centers on building scalable infrastructure, forming strategic equity partnerships, and driving long-term value in the farming and agribusiness sectors.
Before coming back to family operations Patrick was able to use his passion for agriculture and his knowledge of transportation and logistics to serve a US Senator and a US Congressman for five years before serving at USDA during the 2012 Farm Bill debate. Patrick continues to stay heavily involved in agriculture and transportation policy on federal and state level issues and serves on the Illinois Freight Advisory Committee and is involved in several community service projects.
Patrick grew up on the family’s large corn, soybean, wheat and cattle farm in southeastern Illinois and continues to stay involved in day-to-day operations of that farm. He also holds the positions of General Manager for Scates Valley Irrigation and Well Drilling and SGI Transportation both serving farmers and fertilizer retailers in IL, IN and KY.
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