Shawn Rana is an experienced senior executive and consultant. He has 26 years of successful experience when it comes to fertilizers, manufacturing, agrichemicals, and gas/oil. Currently, he lives in Canada and the USA. He received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Manitoba, focusing on mechanical engineering. Ever since his graduation, he has played a variety of roles in the field of mechanical engineering and the fertilizer industry specifically. He is a well-recognized expert when it comes to plant management and fertilizer projects that have to do with ammonia and nitrogen. Rana has held a variety of leadership positions with many different companies in this arena, including Austin Powder Company, Iowa Fertilizer Company, Fortigen LLC, and Agrium.
There are many examples of the expertise that Rana has to offer. He prides himself on having piloted construction of the first world-scale, greenfield nitrogen fertilizer facility that was built in the United States in over 25 years. This manufacturing plant was recognized as being extremely efficient and innovative, also opening the door to other countries in terms of operation.
Iowa Fertilizer Company, of which Shawn Rana was President at the time, was known to produce 1.5 to 2 million metric tons of fertilizer products, as well as diesel exhaust fluid. Rana and other professionals at the company were committed to creating products that could help improve fuel efficiency and air quality, ultimately being very good for the environment.
In addition, Shawn Rana has a vested interest in the emerging field of Green Ammonia and Green Hydrogen and he knows the keys to make these products competitive with grey ammonia and grey hydrogen. In addition, he has worked on artificial intelligence control systems for fertilizer plants, as he feels that these will make their operations even more streamlined and efficient. Because the fertilizer market is very unpredictable, he believes that fertilizer producers have to really take into account how much time it is going to take to safely and efficiently optimize plant operations, which can be heavily assisted by artificial intelligence. Additionally, because these plants depend on so many moving parts, any one of which can malfunction and devastate the entire process, AI can help ameliorate these effects as well. Artificial intelligence can also help farmers get everything possible out of the fertilizers that they are using, rather than having to rely on human abilities.
In addition to everything that he has contributed to the world of agriculture, Shawn Rana also likes to share advice that will help other people become successful as well. For example, he speaks of his own good habit of setting goals for every day, week, month, and year. He reviews those goals every time he starts to feel unfocused so that he can get himself back where he needs to be. He also advises people to picture themselves where they want to be at a certain point in the future and hold onto that picture no matter what. Rana also believes that it is very important to treat people as you want to be treated, even while keeping success in mind.
