Meet The Team
Rowdy Yeatts
I am originally from Casper WY and attended High School and College in Oklahoma. I graduated from Oklahoma State University with a business degree and an entrepreneurial spirit.. I always had an interest in building and metal fabrication, and owned a boat dock construction business in Oklahoma. I also Lived in Texas and Nebraska which is where High Plains Biochar was founded just outside Chadron NE.
I was living in Nebraska farm country watching industrial methods ruin the land. Piles of timber on USFS land was simply piled and burned and thought there has to be a better use for the resource.
Then my dog Ginger brought me a piece of charcoal while we were out at a local lake. I was really interested in the material because it was so light and rich in carbon. Found out it was called biochar and did some searching and hooked up with the Nebraska Forest Service where they were also looking at biochar from a wood utilization standpoint.
My life focus is making a difference for the next generation including my 15 year old daughter Paige and biochar is how I plan to do so. I am also are creating the world's first biochar cooperative where our members will verify and sell the carbon credits from producing biochar as a group.
Kevin Johnson
Kevin Johnson has a 38 year entrepreneurial career in educational publishing, online learning and training, and more recently regenerative agriculture.
He started his career in sales management and editorial at the world’s largest educational publisher. With the advent of the internet he helped found the New Media group at Prentice Hall / Simon and Schuster, now Pearson. The New Media Group produced the first online textbook products and the first online catalogue and bookstore.
He joined eCollege, the first company to take higher education and K12 school programs online, as VP of Business Development in 1999. eCollege went public in 2001 and was subsequently acquired by Pearson. He worked with the founder of Evergreen Education Group, in a business development capacity to build the leading digital learning collaborative in US K12 education.
He was a founding member of InTheTelling / Narrasys / activeMedia Group a video narrative and augmented media company that develops video centric online degree programs, training and online institutes for educational institutions like the Kellogg School of Management, Columbia Business School, Engineers Without Borders, and Understanding Ag.
He joined High Plains Biochar as an advisor to help founder Rowdy Yeatts commercialize the biochar production and carbon negative energy line of products he invented. Education and training on the myriad uses of biochar in regenerative agriculture, environmental remediation, and carbon negative energy production are in the works
