4 Minutes with…Tim Sklar, President, Sklar & Associates

May 31, 2015 |

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

Sklar & Associates (S&A) is a South Carolina based consulting firm specializing in Bio-fuels project development. S&A is expert in biorefinery project finance and conducting extensive due diligence investigations and viability assessments, prepares business plans financing strategies, investors’ memoranda and loan request packages

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

S&A had recently developed a strategic plan for establishing a 60,000 tpy torrefied wood pellet plant and obtain commitments from power utilities and cement manufacturers in the EU, to purchase bio-coal to be produced,
S&A negotiated with wood waste suppliers who will provide this plant with pre-commercial woody biomass and wood waste.
S&A had assisted three Coastal Carolina counties in evaluating the efficacy of diverting municipal solid wastes (MSW) now going to landfills by converting it into high value biofuels.
S&A has assessed the financial viability of various waste-to-biofuels pathways and is assisting with the selected technology providers in a biorefinery tproject hat can process forestry wastes and other RDF into jet fuel or into LNG.
S&A is currently assisting a County Government in forming a public-private partnership to build, own and operate such a biorefinery and market biofuels it will produce. S&A also plans to assist in the project’s financing.

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

The biofuels industry must “standardize” on processes that are scalable and less capital intense, and will produce biofuels at costs that are comparable to those derived from fossil fuels, without having to be subsidized. However. the biofuels industry should support legislative programs that tax carbon rather than mandate biofuels use.

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

The advanced bio-economy would benefit the most if the major integrated oil & gas companies embraced biofuels as a significant blendstock or as a valuable alternative to conventional fuels. If they do become pro-active, it would foster growth in bio-refining by providing much needed project financing

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?
Renewable energy development is a practical way to meet energy demands without adding to global warming and environmental pollution. Biofuels that are produced from wastes has the added attribute of making high value products from such wastes and alleviating the need to manage waste streams at high cost.

Where are you from?

I grew up in the Greater Philadelphia area and received my education there. My consulting career had me living in the greater Washington area and traveling all over the US and internationally. For the past 9-years I have semi-retired in the lovely coastal Carolina area

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

I attended Temple University in Philadelphia with a BA and a BS. I majored in accounting and initially practiced as a CPA before joining major management consulting firms. My initial choice of schools was influenced by my father, as I had planned to join his CPA firm and my father and his partners were all Temple alumni.

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?  

In my early years as a consultant specializing in building management information systems and financial models, I was part of a multi-disciplinary group of mathematicians, statisticians computer scientists at PwC’s headquarters in NYC, At the time, I was the only member of this group with formal accounting and finance experience, and I got my “graduate school training as part of this team headed up by Dr. Michael Shegda, a former professor of Mathematics at Temple. The tools that our team developed were then used by hundreds of PwC’s management consultants on client projects all over the world. Dr. Shegda made sure that I was part of this innovative initiative.

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

I had experienced a mid-career crisis, having made a wrong choice of accepting a financial executive position with a company with whom I was engaged as a management consultant. My role as a consultant was in providing solutions to improve their profitability. Once I became an employee, and continued to advise the key executives on changes that were needed, they stopped listening to my advice.. We had a parting of the ways and I was forced to re-invent my career. Due to my age and unusual background, I was unable to find a position as a financial executive.

I then redirect my turn-around management skills and teamed up with other practitioners of turnaround management to help a number of companies avoid insolvency, This led to additional engagements in turnaround management, and then into project development and project finance. The big lesson learned is to seek other opportunities for one’s skill set,and try harder. and do not repeat mistakes previously made.

What hobbies do you pursue, away from your work in the industry?
Reading,writing articles for BFD.. boating, wand car collecting, but not fishing or golf. I plan to sky dive when I reach Bush ’41’s age

What are 3 books you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a desert island?
Hopefully my Kindle will work and I will have more choices. I do enjoy biographies and historical novels.

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

I have started several books and plan to finish reading only one. I get the New York Review of Books that allows me to get a flavor for the large number of book I will never read. I subscribe to The Economist, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Fortune and read them all

What’s your favorite city or place to visit, for a holiday?
Southern France; Washington, DC

Category: Million Minds

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