Top 100 People in Bioenergy: profiles of #21 through #40

In today’s Digest, leaders ranked #21 through #40 in the Biofuels Digest Top 100 People in Bioenergy rankings are profiled. Throughout the remainder of the week, the bioenergy leaders ranked #41 through #100 will be profiled in the publication. More than 400 leaders received votes in the poll, which honored biofuels leadership in 12 countries.

The complete Top 100 is here.

Profiles of leaders ranked #1 through #20 are here.

21. Pat Gruber, PhD, CEO, Gevo / Jack Huttner, EVP Corporate Development and Public Affairs, Gevo

Gevo scored surprisingly well in this poll, considering all the major execs are muzzled in the quite period relating to the company’s IPO registration, filed earlier in the summer. The company’s biobutanol technology has been getting heaps of attention for its high blending rates, relatively low cost of conversion from first-gen ethanol to next-gen fuel, and the company’s acquisition of capacity in Minnesota this year also put the company into a revenue-generating mode. Pat Gruber received the Carver Award a few years back for Lifetime Achievement from BIO< and corporate affairs head Jack Huttner has also been active on BIO’s key committees and industrial biotech board – both polled so strongly with readers that we’ve paired them at #21.

22. Bruce Dale, PhD, Michigan State University

Second among all academics in this year’s poll is Dr. Bruce Dale at Michigan State, who in addition to being a noted pioneer in cellulosic ethanol has been out in front in terms of opposing some of the excesses of indirect land use change theory, measurement of which has bedeviled efforts to stabilize the demand for various biofuels feedstocks and fuels.

23. Jim Sayre, Senior MD, Cargill Ventures / Ian Purtle, Director of Sustainable Energy, Cargill

The “quiet company” in biofuels produced voting surges for two candidates, Jim Sayre on the investment side and Ian Purtle on the Sustainable Energy development side. Sayre also received a slew of write-in votes from US based voters.

24. Rich LaDuca, Genencor / Bjarne Adamsen, Danisco

Voting was divided this year for Genencor between Danisco, Genencor and its investment in Dupont Danisco Cellulosic Energy, but a big series of product introductions in the spring ranging from enzymes to its signature investment in bioisoprene produced a slew of votes for both Rich LaDuca, based in the Bay Area, and Bjarne Andersen on the European side.

25. Joe Skurla, CEO, DuPont Danisco Cellulosic Ethanol

One of the biggest grass roots campaigns produced votes for just about every executive associated with DDCE, Genera Energy and the University of Tennessee’s biofuels programs. In this anti-incumbent political year, even Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen picked up enough votes to make it into the Top 100. But heads and shoulders above the rest were DDCE and its CEO, Joe Skurla, who have been working on corn cob and switchgrass-based biofuels and are readying their commercialization package.

26. Rob Vierhout, Secretary General, eBIO

At the top among European association execs was Rob Vierhout, Secretary General, EBIO, who supervises the organization of the EU effort on ethanol. The EU has been an up-and-down market for ethanol in terms of the popularity of proposed 2020 mandates, but producers lioke Abengoa have been expanding their tentacles for home years now around the globe, and the global readership rewarded that effort with a high 20s ranking for Rob Vierhout.

27. Valerie Reed, Acting head, DOE Biomass Program / Paul Bryan, DOE Biomass Program manager

With Paul Bryan just now making the switch from Chevron to manager of the DOE’s critical Biomass Program, readers were split between interim head Valerie Reed and Bryan, so we have paired them at #27. Reed for a job well done in keeping the Biomass Program evolving while the search was on for a permanent head, and now Bryan as he takes the reins at a critical juncture for bioenergy.

28. Lee Edwards, CEO, Virent / Randy Cortright, PhD, CTO

Lee Edwards recently ascended to the chairmanship of the Advanced Biofuels Association in addition to helming Virent – but voters recognized not only Edwards with strong votes, but also CTO Randy Cortright, who heads the efforts to bring the sugar-to-diesel technology via bioforming) from lab to commercial scale. We’ve paired them at #28.

29. Bill Sims, CEO, Joule Unlimited

Joule has come out of stealth mode with a roar over the past 18 months, and CEO Bill SIms, while managing expectations for the early-stage company, has been attracting waves of support for the company’s “fuel from thin air” technology that converts sunlight, CO2 and water directly into drop-in renewable fuels as well as ethanol and other bio-based materials. Other groups are working on direct conversion, but Joule is miles ahead in its race, and has set a goal of being competitive with $30 oil. That’s got the attention of a global readership which awarded him a slot at #29.

30. Collin Peterson, Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin, Earl Pomeroy, US Congressman

Three Midwestern House Democrats – two of them running into stiff headwinds in their re-election efforts, in Herseth-Sandlin and Pomeroy – have been among the loyal workhorses for first-generation ethanol in the House. Peterson is not considered seriously at risk this year, but may well lose the gavel at the House Agriculture Committee, where he has been a formidable opponent of the EPA’s current view on indirect land use change.

31. Mary Rosenthal, Executive Director, Algal Biomass Organization

The ABO’s first full-time director, responsible for a slew of policy and membership issues, received near-unanimous support for the Top 100 from the algaerati, and would have placed higher if international awareness had been equal to US votes. One of the top women in this year’s poll, this veteran of Cargill’s NatureWorks unit has been helping to marshal a formidable US effort on algal fuels.

32. Bill Haywood, CEO, LS9

LS9 has been trailing Amyris on its timeline towards commercialization, but has been making significant stride sof its own, including one of the neatest demo plant concepts to come along in some time, a 12 Mgy set of fermenters in Florida bought out of bankruptcy for peanuts and upgradable to LS9’s profits. The king of capital light, Bill Haywood, has been rumored to be in the running for the next couple of companies to test out the public markets for an IPO-based capital raise. That’s probably premature, but indicative of the heat on sugar-to-diesel technologies like Amyris and LS9 have.

33. Chuck Grassley, John Thune, Jeff Bingaman, Tim Johnson, US Senators

If Pomeroy, Peterson and Herseth-Sandlin have been getting it done on first-gen fuels in the House, among the leaders pushing for biofuels on the Senate side are the bi-partisan trio of Grassley, Thune, Bingaman and Johnson. Two Democrats, two Republicans, all committed to a vision of renewable energy. Thune is widely rumored to be mulling a run for the Presidency in 2012.

34. Lisa Jackson, US EPA Administrator

Lisa Jackson polled surprisingly low among Digest readers, who have been thumbs-down on the EPA over foot-dragging on E15 and over what the industry regards as its embrace of “not ready for primate time”  emerging science on indirect land use change. Still, others recognized the powerful role that the EPA plays in regulating fuels, and also now in regulating emissions from ethanol plants now that CO2 has been placed ion the the polluting gas lists.

35. Ray Mabus, US Secretary of the Navy

Secretaries of the Navy generally have a low profile, but former Mississippi governor Ray Mabus has been charting a high-profile course for the Navy to establish a fossil-fuel free Green Strike Force by 2016, which will commence testing as soon as 2012. They’ve become the largest customer for algal fuels, and though they are paying $500 toilet seat prices for the small quantities of military-spec fuel they are buying, they are moving the needle in ways the readership has clearly embraced.

36. Barry Cohen, Executive Director, National Algae Association

Since establishing the NAA several years ago, Barry Cohen has been a consistent advocate for commercial-ready fuels, and moving emphasis from R&D to commercialization, right down to establishing a NAA_sponsored algal testing facility.

37. Chris Somerville, PhD, Professor, UC Berkeley, Director, EBI

Chris Somerville checked in at #37 as one of the highest rated academics in the poll, supervising a huge BP-funded effort on biofuels at the Energy Biosciences Institute, as well as participating in the founding of LS9. A godfather in West Coast research.

38. Jennifer Holmgren, CEO / Sean Simpson CTO, founder Lanzatech

Both Lanzatech founder Sean Simpson and CEO Jennifer Holmgren picked up strong support this year and we’ve paired them at #38, especially considering the number of write-ins that came in for Jennifer from fans of her work at UOP. This steel-gas ethanol company hasd been figuring heavily in the news this year as one of the first Western advanced biofuels technologies to gain some real traction in China.

39. Joe Jobe, CEO, National Biodiesel Board

Biodiesel has been in the dumnps in the past 18 months, and on the volumes has never been as formidable as corn ethanol, but fitting biodiesel into the category of “advanced biofuels” under the US’s Renewable Fuel Standard, as well as supplying biodiesel for Canada’s mandates has proved a boon to the industry. Joe Jobe has proven adept in steering the NBB during hard times, and with large mandates looming, will have his hands full balancing the tightrope between overcapacity and shortages.

40. Rich Altman, Exec Director, CAAFI

Rounding out the top 40 is Rich Altman , heading the Civil Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative, which has been one of the key drivers on aviation biofuels. He was a founding member of the US Transportation Research Board Committee on Aviation effects on the Environment and a member of the PARTNER Center of Excellence Advisory Board.