Dan Chiles is a former member of the Springfield City Council and the visionary whose activism resulted in the formation of Ozarks New Energy. He is vice president of Emerald Ops, a management company with investments in operating divisions in agriculture, property and business development.

Dan and his brother Mike have been in business together since 1975 as building contractors, manufacturers and distributors in several businesses. Most recently he was vice president of marketing at Watts Radiant, a manufacturing and marketing company that supplied radiant heating components to thousands of radiant heating projects in North America. He and Mike have invented, patented, developed and sold more than $200 million of new products in their careers.