Meghan Sapp, Secretary General, PANGEA, and Senior Editor, The Digest

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

PANGEA is a leader in the promotion of technology transfer and investment into Africa’s growing bioeconomy, the key opportunity to leapfrog the continent beyond fossil fuels much in the same way mobile phones revolutionised the region. We focus on promoting our members, creating a global network and providing value addition to project development.

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

PANGEA in 2015 is breaking out beyond its traditional policy-oriented focus, away from Europe, and looking more toward supporting project development and implementation on the ground.

With key partnerships under the Sustainable Energy for All umbrella, we’re working to direct private sector efforts into the creation of sustainable businesses and industries by matchmaking, providing project development support, and of course linking to finance while supporting necessary policy infrastructure.

We also have new partnerships, again under SE4ALL, focused on bringing bioenergy to the rural electrification space through our relationship with the Alliance for Rural Electrification.

We’re bridging the finance gap with our key partner Everest Energy in the Netherlands, working in the midcap area of $2MM to $50MM while helping to lower investment risk and ensuring strong business development from the start.

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

The industry must stop apologizing for itself and get to the business of implementing projects. Policy will not set the path, so private sector must jump in head first to demonstrate the economic, social and environmental viability of the businesses we’re building. Policy will follow. Create the market, follow the demand.

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

I would snap my fingers so that investors could see that there is no other choice than to invest in the transition to the advanced bioeconomy. It is at the heart of everything else that makes the global economy operate and therefore requires a strong foundation, and guts, to get it in place for a successful future.

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.

If we’re going to survive on this planet, we must at last treat it with the respect it deserves so that it can continue to function and we can continue to thrive in it. Money can and is made by doing just that, which is what makes the whole system work and is the only way to a truly sustainable future.

Where are you from? 

San Francisco, California.

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

Montana State University, livestock management. I was a cowgirl at heart and wanted the knowledge and skills to achieve to live that life. It gave me the background I needed to get into agricultural journalism, which has led me everywhere else (lobbying, business development, creating businesses).

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

Steve Werblow of Ashland, Ore. trained me up as an agricultural journalist at the tender age of 19 and helped me to secure my first magazine sales, setting me down the path that brings me to where I am today.

Hillary Clinton has broken just about every glass ceiling there is, never gave up in the face of tragedy or adversity or pain, and has always put the good of the people first.

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

When you fall off, get right back in the saddle. It’s the key to being an entrepreneur–to fail, learn from your mistakes, and try again to do it better–but it’s also the key to life. Never give up.

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

I’m an avid horseback rider and soon-to-be breeder, following my mother and grandmother.
I absolutely love to cook, and thankfully people love to eat my food.

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

The Alchemist
Future of Love
2150

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

Hard Choices (Hillary Clinton)
Bring up the Bodies & Wolf Hall (just finished them)

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

Barbados!