4 minutes with… JL Kindler, CCO at OriginOil

Tell us about your company and it’s role in the Advanced Bioeconomy.

OriginOil has developed a breakthrough water cleanup technology for water-intensive industries. The company’s patent-pending Electro Water SeparationTM process rapidly and efficiently removes insoluble inorganic and organic material (fine suspended solids) from large quantities of water without the need for chemicals.

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

Establish the ground for recognition of our company’s technology as a potential player in wastewater treatment processes

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

To achieve recognition as something being more than merely an alternative to fossil sources for the time when these won’t be available any longer.

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

Move past the political and economical shortsightedness about the benefits of economy relocalization…

Oh and also make products’ environmental impact a significant factor for purchase decision.

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?

Years ago I was involved with building the first Blue Tower process (a gasification technology), and I remain excited about advanced biotechnologies. What’s interesting is that, since I’ve been at OriginOil, I’ve run into three separate people who are now directly involved with that technology, and they were amazed about my involvement at the technology’s inception. This made me realize that I had made an impact in the early days of our industry, and that I could continue to help alongthe advanced bioeconomy industry in the future.

Where are you from? 

France. I was born and educated in France, and began my professional career in Japan.

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

Political Sciences., France. I chose this for the broad overview of economics, law, history as well as basic business training it provided me with.

Who do you consider your mentors – could be personal, business, or just people you have read about and admire. What have you learned from them?

No one in particular. There are great ideas to pick up here and there that fit a specific situation or context. I don’t know of anyone whom I could consider as a mentor.

Maybe I am trying to walk my own path. I read a lot and admire a Russian born French journalist, Joseph Kessel. He taught me a lot about failure and how to survive from it.

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

That failure, if well analyzed and understood, can be a formidable key to success.

What matters is to find the strength to start again.

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

I am trying to learn how to play the double bass.

What are 3 books you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a desert island.

Odysseus, by Homer

The Horsemen, by Joseph Kessel

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

Any place where there is sunshine, the ocean or plenty of green, and where I have never been.