44 people worth knowing in advanced biofuels

August 30, 2012 |

44 biofuels thought-leaders, rock stars, and tellers of cautionary tales — in one place, at one time — to reflect on the present and chart a course for the future.

This October 29th, the Biofuels Digest community will be gathering again in San Francisco for Advanced Biofuels Markets. Complete event information is here.

Our dream is to have everyone who matters, together in one place, at one time, for real dialogue and real partnership development. Calendars never perfectly line up and there’s always some who miss out – but at ABM there are a ton of people who are “must-knows” in the industry.

Let me introduce 44 of them today – among the 400 or so that will ultimately join us at ABM.

Rock stars and thought-leaders

A phrase we hear very often is “integrated biorefinery”. It’s a lot easier to say it than to put a company like that together – develop the technology, figure the strategy (and adjust), build affordable capital, select, inspire and lead a team. It takes patience, vision, the arts of persuasion, and a lot of gumption.

That’s why I’ve asked CEOs like Pat Gruber of Gevo, Ed Dineen of LS9, Fred Cannon of KiOR, Guido Ghisolfi of Beta Renewables, and Jonathan Wolfson of Solazyme to join us. These are the rock stars who, when opportunity knocked, were there to answer the door – and have figured out how to turn opportunity into actual molecules with real value.

Then there are some thought-leaders, well worth knowing not only for their companies and strategies but also because they are sharp minds who point out interesting ways of thinking about the industry. For example, Aemetis CEO Eric McAfee, REG’s Dan Oh, Ceres CEO Richard Hamilton, ZeaChem CEO Jim Imbler, and Dupont Industrial Biosciences president Jim Collins (who will be opening up for us with a broad keynote). Also, Codexis CEO John Nichols, Coskata CEO Bill Roe and Virdia CEO Philippe Lavielle. When they are on stage, for sure you will see my pencil moving quickly.

Just there, I think you have a dozen people that, if you knew them, could knock months off your own company’s development timelines on just on the basis of sharpening your perspective or making a good partner. For instance, I think of the sector companies that successfully completed an IPO in the recent wave, you’ll have a chance to meet the CEO of nearly every one.

Partnership giants

Speaking of Gevo’s Pat Gruber, Virent CFO Jeff White and Avantium CEO Tom van Aken will also be on stage this year. Those are the three companies that Coca-Cola invested in to turn their dream of a 100% fully renewable Plant Bottle into a reality. How do you manage a relationship with a giant strategic that has much to gain and much to protect – such as the most widely-recognized brand in the world. How do you deliver on their vision while maintaining your own path?

Speaking of partnering with huge companies, imagine handling Bao Steel (the third largest steel producer in the world) and Malyasian oil giant Petronas (as in, er, the Petronas Towers) – at the same time, as well as rock star investors and partners like Richard Branson and Vinod Khosla? That’s what LanzaTech CEO Jennifer Holmgren does every day.

Sharing common investors in Khosla and the Malaysian Life Sciences Fund is a Segetis, whose CEO Atul Thrakar just closed a $25 million series C investment round. That’s no small feat for a pure-play renewable chemicals company in this market – also managing a disparate group of investors such as DSM and Saudi Basic Industries – as well as strategic customers such as Georgia Gulf, with whom they are developing bio-based flexible PVC compounds.

Investors with vision and moxie

Those two companies share Roger Wyse in their investment team, the visionary VC from Burrill & Co, who will join us on stage as well. He’ll be joined by Duke Leahey of Nidus Partners, which was formed with Novozymes, Monsanto and Bunge, and Annie Hazlehurst, now leading biobased investing at the massive Capricorn Investments (though you may know her best from DFJ).

Feedstock royalty

When we think about companies like Bunge and Monsanto, thoughts usually turn to feedstocks. I’ve already mentioned Ceres CEO Richard Hamilton, but there are some other visionary CEOs I think of as “must-knows” as well.

This year at ABM, SG Biofuels CEO Kirk Haney will be on stage to profile jatropha (jatropha 2.0, that is), Chromatin CEO Daphne Preuss will highlight sorghum, while Proterro CEO Kef Kasdin, Blue Sugars CEO Peter Gross, and Sweetwater Energy CEO Arunas Chesoni will be profiling breakthroughs in low-cost renewable sugars (and Arunas may share some secrets from closing Sweetwater’s recent $9 million Series A venture round after originally targeting $5 million). Dan Simon of Heliae will be taking us through some of the latest ion algae.

A lot of companies are looking to residues to work down the feedstock costs and a fast way to get to parity with fossil fuels. Waste is another thing easier to talk about than accomplish – its hard to work with, just because of the variability- sometimes really hard to contract for. REG has been a leader in transitioning biodiesel towards waste, and CEO Dan Oh is definitely a must-know, but we’re also lucky to have Enerkem CEO Vincent Chornet, Fulcrum CEO Jim Macias, and Terrabon CEO Gary Luce to join us.

Policy wizards

Since ABM is is late October this year, just before the US elections, policy will be on many minds. There are some people you should definitely know if you don’t know them well already. ABFA’s Mike McAdams, BIO’s Brent Erickson, Growth Energy’s Tom Buis, AEC’s Brooke Coleman and ABO’s Mary Rosenthal. They’ve had a rough year defending industrial biotech on Capitol Hill this year – but amazing that both President Obama and Republican nominee Mitt Romney have endorsed RFS2. They’ve taken a lot of bullets for you, but have maintained focus and definitely are worth buying a coffee if you want to really know what is driving the policy agenda in DC and around the world.

But some of this we’ll have an opportunity to get right from the source as well. USDA senior policy adviser Sarah Bittleman will join us on stage to give us an inside look at the thinking at USDA HQ, while Valerie Sarisky-Reed will highlight the opportunities with the DOE Biomass Program. Two better sources for ideas on incentives, grants, collective assistance – and the industry trends – would be virtually impossible to find. And we’ll have the government-as-customer on hand, with the US Navy’s director of operational energy, Chris Tindal will on hand to profile the latest with the Great Green Fleet.

Aviation and downstream high-flyers

Of course, most jets that will carry biofuels will not, in the long term, be just military. In commercial aviation, I hope you’ll have a chance to meet Rich Altman, the head of CAAFI; Susan Pond, who is chairing the newly-formed Australian Initiative for Sustainable Aviation Fuels (AISAF), and Boeing’s director of International operations and policy, Julie Felgar, and director of sustainable aviation fuels, Darrin Morgan.

Global nobles

Aviation is global, and so is this industry and some of your best opportunities are offshore, far from San Francisco. Joining us for the first time this year will be Canada’s consul-general in San Francisco, Cassie Doyle (formerly deputy federal minister for Natural Resources). Joel Stone, president of Green Biologics, will introduce opportunities in China. We’ll also have other voices on stage and on the floor addressing opportunities in the other BRIC countries. A ton of companies with operations in Brazil and Latin America – we’ve mentioned several that have a strong foothold in South and Southeast Asia or Australia, a number in the EU – even the Middle East. Building your own international team of rock stars? Gregory Duerksen, President of Kincannon & Reed – will give you the lowdown.

 

So there you have it. 44 people really worth knowing. There are so many more – but I’d like to think that what you come away with in three days is a fantastic set of leaders representing every key sector at this time.

The bottom line

Myself – later this morning I’ll be heading up to visit with a company and do two site visits. It’s a two-and a-half day odyssey to get there and back — and it reminds me of just how long it would take to meet every one of these leaders if I had to do it on a one-by-one basis. Even if the calendars worked out perfectly, it would take months and costs tens of thousands.

That’s the main reason that, in partnership with Green Power, we started this meeting back in 2010. It’s one of the reasons that I know so many of you come. These days, we all have to watch the budget and maximize efficiency, and do as many meetings as possible at industry gatherings where multiple meetings can be organized, formally or informally, at one time and place.

At ABM, we aim to provide just that. It a time-saver in a time-challenged world – and I hope you can join us in San Francisco this year, too. For more information on the event, click here.

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