28th Annual Torch Awards Luncheon

Join us on Wednesday, September 24, 2025!

Join BBB to celebrate an inspiring group of businesses, charities, and leaders who put integrity into action. 


Celebrate ethics and integrity!

Wednesday, September 24, 2025
11:30AM to 1PM
Doors open at 10:30am

A View West Shores
110 S 243rd St, Waterloo, NE 68069

Event emcee
Rob McCartney of KETV NewsWatch 7

SAC Eugene Kowel

Keynote speaker: Eugene Kowel

Eugene Kowel is the Special Agent in Charge of FBI Omaha 

Eugene Kowel serves as the Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Omaha Field Office and eight resident agencies across Nebraska and Iowa. Appointed to the role in October 2020, Mr. Kowel overseas all FBI personnel, operations, and criminal, national security, and cyber investigations across the two states.

Mr. Kowel joined the FBI as a special agent in 2005.  His assignments have included the Joint Terrorism Task Force in the New York Field Office, where he led counterterrorism investigations and criminal cases involving drug trafficking, firearms trafficking, and fraud. Mr. Kowel completed deployments to Iraq in 2008 and Afghanistan in 2009 in support of the FBI’s counterterrorism mission.

He was promoted to supervisory special agent in 2010 in the Counterterrorism Division at FBI Headquarters. In 2011, Mr. Kowel was selected as a unit chief in the International Terrorism Operations Section.

In 2013, Mr. Kowel was named the supervisor of the Savannah and Brunswick resident agencies in southeast Georgia. He oversaw all FBI criminal and counterterrorism investigations and led four task forces across 19 counties.

Mr. Kowel was promoted in 2016 as an assistant special agent in charge in the Los Angeles Field Office. He led the violent gang, transnational organized crime (Western Hemisphere), violent crime, and drug trafficking investigative programs in Los Angeles. In 2019 he was selected as the chief of staff and section chief in the Intelligence Branch in Washington, DC. 

Mr. Kowel graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in political and social thought and earned his law degree from the New York University School of Law.  Mr. Kowel served as an assistant district attorney in New York City before joining the FBI. He currently serves as an adjunct Professor at Creighton University School of Law.


Thank you to our sponsors!

Jeremy McKinnis Torch Award sponsor


McKinnis Inc logo
McKinnis Roofing & Sheet Metal

Media sponsor



Ethics sponsor


Logo for Omaha Steaks
Omaha Steaks
Logo for Union Bank & Trust
Union Bank & Trust

Justice sponsor


CombOver Contracting
Mutual of Omaha

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