4 minutes with…Leo Manzer, CEO, Catalytic Insights

Tell us about your organization and it’s role in the advanced bioeconomy.

Consulting in the renewable fuels and chemicals space. Have worked with numerous VC firms to fund start-up companies. Significant experience with patents (personally have >150 US patents) and have served as an expert witness for a company litigating at the ITC. Founded and directed DuPont’s Corporate Catalysis Center before retirement in 2005.

Tell us about your role and what you are focused on in the next 12 months.

My goal is to provide start-up companies doing catalysis, process development and commercialization with my 40+ years of experience. We need some success in this field to encourage more investment.

What do you feel are the most important milestones the industry must achieve in the next 5 years?

The renewable fuels and chemicals space needs some success. We have had too many failures, not because the technology is no good but because funding firms require success too quickly. Traditionally it has taken 5-7 years to commercialize new technology. Going directly from a lab unit to a multi-hundred million dollar plant will seldom work!

If you could snap your fingers and change one thing about the Advanced Bioeconomy, what would you change? 

I would encourage the investors to get experienced people, hire good members to their Scientific Advisory Boards and most importantly pay attention to their concerns. Process development cannot be rushed. The idea of solving the problems in a commercial plant rarely work.

Of all the reasons that influenced you to join the Advanced Bioeconomy industry, what single reason stands out for you as still being compelling and important to you?  

We definitely need fuels and products based on renewable feed stocks to give us independence from foreign governments. It is good for the country, the economy and the environment.

Where are you from? 

Born, raised and educated in Canada. Moved to the US and joined DuPont Central Research and Development.

What was your undergraduate major in college, and where did you attend? Why did you choose that school and that pathway? 

BSc in chemistry from the U of Waterloo and PhD from the U of Western Ontario. Great schools and great preparation to join DuPont CR&D.

Who do you consider your mentors. What have you learned from them?

My earlier mentors were the real leaders in organometallic chemistry, ie George Parshall, Earl Muetertties, Fred Tebbe, Dick Shrock, Ted Koch and many others at DuPont. I learned how to take lab results to pilot plants and on to commercial plants. At DuPont, my group had responsibility for over 169 catalytic process involving hydrogenations, fluorinations, oxidations, and acid-base catalysis.

The development of replacements for ozone depleting CFCs was the highlight of my DuPont career. The highlight of my company post DuPont has been working with young folks, helping them obtain funding, helping to build up the new company and eventually be sucessful with an IPO.

What’s the biggest lesson you ever learned during a period of adversity?

Do not give in to pressure to cut corners. New technology takes time to scale-up and be successful. If you can’t do it right don’t even start as the result of failure if too painful for everyone.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry? 

I love fishing, kayaking and hiking. I spend most of my recreational time fishing from my kayak in the Delaware bay and in the remote regions of Canada and Alaska fishing for bass, salmon and halibut.

What 3 books would you take to read, if stranded on a desert island?

Biography of Steve Jobs, Photoshop for Dummies and biography of JFK.

What books or articles are on your reading list right now, or you just completed and really enjoyed?

I read all articles on catalysis related to biomass conversion to fuels and chemicals.

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?

I love Hawaii, Colorado, many islands in the Caribbean and Italy.