4 Minutes With…Chris Groobey, Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

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

We are a law firm dedicated to serving technology, life sciences, energy and other growth enterprises and the institutions that finance them. We started in Silicon Valley more than fifty years ago and now have offices around the world. Our energy practice focuses solely on renewable and other advanced forms of energy, including fuels and chemicals.

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

I am a project finance lawyer who helps companies and financiers with debt and late-stage equity transactions, with project development and M&A, and with joint ventures and other strategic relationships. I have been very active in the biofuels industry since 2001. My role is and always has been to close good deals for clients. My wish is to do more of them. That sounds trite but it is the truth. We in this industry absolutely must finance and complete a handful of successful projects in the very near future — otherwise we will never be able to convince the doubters that we have a viable industry and the investors and policymakers will move on to the next “new new thing.” In my law firm I am surrounded by colleagues doing IPOs and other major transactions for companies with no revenues and no products other than an app. Something is wrong with this picture and we need to fix it.

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

In five years we need (1) drop-in fuels that drivers don’t notice are in their tanks, (2) plastics that biodegrade so that we can focus on cleaning up what we have already produced, (3) the building blocks of a new era of nutritious and abundant food for all, and (4) products that clean, or at least don’t further pollute, our land, air and water.

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

In my world of project finance, I would change the pace of action of the federal government, especially USDA and DOE. The programs are in place, the good intentions are there and the people are dedicated and outstanding — but good companies and projects are dying because the process takes too long.

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?

For me it all comes down to energy security. I still don’t understand why more of the electorate and political class do not support the idea of growing our own energy rather than importing it (and spending huge amounts of money defending its sources and the shipping lanes from there to here).

Where are you from? 

I was born in Richmond, Virginia. My parents split when I was very young and my mother decided she could not be a single mother in the south, so we moved to Washington DC and I consider that city my home.

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

I tested well but was a lousy student in high school and my college choices were limited. I ended up attending Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts. Hampshire was a “no grades, no exams, follow the Grateful Dead” college, but I managed to avoid all of the bad aspects of that environment and found a professor who taught me to love the law.

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

Keith Martin (of Chadbourne & Parke) and Jerry Peters (of Energy Power Partners) took me under their wing starting in 1995 and I have been fortunate to have them as mentors, friends and clients since then. I literally owe my entire professional career to them.

On the personal side, I owe everything to my mother, who raised me as a single mom and sacrificed everything in her life to make mine better. She was also smart enough to send me to an all-boys Episcopal school here in Washington, and the teachers, clergy and classmates I had there finished the job of raising me (albeit sometimes a bit more roughly than I would have preferred).

More recently, there’s a long list of ocean adventurers in whose wake I hope to follow one day.

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

The truth is I have been an extraordinarily fortunate person all of my life and can’t reasonably point to any period of adversity. What I can say is that, as I close in on turning 50, I’ve become increasingly aware of the importance of long-term relationships, both personal and professional, of taking the long view, and in the end of just working harder and better than anyone else.

My wife and I have also become involved over the past few years with the United States Naval Academy, including sponsoring a number of midshipmen each year. These are young men and women who, at age sixteen or seventeen, had the maturity and self-awareness to commit to completing a rigorous college education and then serving in the military for a minimum of five years after graduation. We are constantly in awe of them and, through them, of those who serve in our armed forces. I am fortunate that part of what I do professionally is in support of their mission and contributes toward our national security.

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

My wife and I are rabid sailboat racers and do it as much as we can around the country. Next step is more ocean passages.

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

A biography of Sir Ernest Shackleton (my personal hero)
The Art of Racing in the Rain (race cars, dogs and the meaning of life, what more could you want?)
My old book of inspirational quotes from Hurricane Island Outward Bound School

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

Unbroken, as recommended by my wife and everyone else I know
Pretty much anything about racing sailboats
Whatever my friends post on Facebook (I’m an addict)

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

Mount Desert Island, Maine, is the second home for me, my wife and our dogs. We hope one day to own a home there. MDI has it all — sailing, hiking, a dog-friendly national park, great food, people and towns and, most important, clean air and water that cleanse away all the stresses that have accumulated since our last visit.