4 minutes with…Gert Caspritz, CEO, Rho Renewables

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

Rho’s R&D efforts are directed towards the generation of genetically modified yeast capable of making various high value aromatic specialty chemicals, the high energy/high octane biofuel Rhoctane(TM), styrene and selected flavors and fragrances. Rho has a strategic partnership and is self financed as a semi-virtual corporation.

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

The objectives are;
1. Achievement of a defined conversion rate and yield of a given compound at a 1000 liter scale
2. Proof of concept for at least two more compounds
3. Adding at least one more strategic partnership
4. Exploring partnerships opportunities in Asia
4 Exploring partnership opportunities with other companies with a focus on making chemical intermediates from renewable feedstock.

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

Demonstration of industrial scale commercial viability of products made from renewable feedstock, revenue growth quarter over quarter and ultimately profitability

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

Reluctance of chemical companies to embrace renewable products as
a) an enrichment of their product portfolio and
b) demonstration of their commitment to environmentally friendly products

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?

Commercial attractiveness of specific products and the confidence in advanced molecular biology technologies as a catalyst for creating new metabolic pathways in well researched organisms as well as hundreds of years of fermentation technology history

Where are you from? 

Born in Varel, Germany, spending m childhood and adolescent years in the Hamburg-Hannover-Bremen triangle

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

Studied Biology and specialized in microbiology (yeast and lactic acid bacteria) with a diploma and doctoral degree from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany

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

1. Hero – The Life and Legend of Lawrence of Arabia by Michael Korda
2. Power, Faith and Fantasy -America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present by Michael B. Oren
3. My Share of the Task b Stanley McChrystal

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

1. Lone Survivor by Marcus Luttrell and
2. 1491 – New Revelations about the Americas before Columbus by
Charles C Mann

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

Clearwater Beach, Florida