Vilsack, heads of BP, Amyris, Raizen, Solazyme head Top 100 People list

In Florida, US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack headed the “Top 100 People in Bioenergy” as voted by the readers of Biofuels Digest and the Digest’s editorial board, just edging out BP Biofuels chief Philip New, and the heads of Raizen, POET, Solazyme and Amyris.

In total, industry executives from 11 countries made the list. Overall, more than 400 individuals received votes.

“For the second year in a row, readers and our editor overwhelmingly identified US Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack as the most significant personality in the global bioenergy movement and industry.

“This year, the votes veered sharply towards growth opportunities, and especially towards the commercialization of advanced biofuels, which focused voters on commercial organizations with the capital and technology to scale, especially in Brazil and the US,” commented Digest editor & publisher Jim Lane.

Among association executives, the RFA’s Bob Dinneen, BIO’s Brent Erickson, ABFA’s Mike McAdams, the NBB’s Joe Jobe, Growth Energy CEO Tom Buis and co-chair Wes Clark, UNICA’s Marcos Jank, and the ABO’s Mary Rosenthal were the highest in the poll, although the success of their efforts in commercializing advanced fuels led to a number of their members passing the association heads in the polling.

Among advanced bioenergy executives, Vasco Dias, CEO of Raizen, Jonathan Wolfson and Harrison Dillon of Solazyme, Amyris chief John Melo, Gevo CEO Pat Gruber, and Neste Oil CEO Matto Livonen in the top 10.
Among researchers, Berkeley’s Jay Keasling and Chris Somerville, and Michigan State’s Bruce Dale, were the leaders. Joining Tom Vilsack at the top among policy leaders was US Secretary of Energy Steven Chu, and Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.

This year’s top 100 will be profiled throughout the remainder of the week in Biofuels Digest.

The complete Top 100 list is here.