|
The people making renewables work Forging a successful business in cutting-edge markets requires a powerhouse team of people with exceptional skills, clarity of vision, and passionate determination. We've developed our strengths in a wide variety of backgrounds, and now we've come together to put our answer into action. Dr. Peter Loggenberg, CEO Peter has 20 years of successful leadership experience in commodities and specialty chemicals, specifically ethanol, and has commercialized several proprietary products over the years. His technical knowledge of both ethanol and methyl esters (biodiesel), their derivatives, and their applications as base fluids and fuels has been fundamental to his vision for building Organic Fuels into a sustainable renewable fuel enterprise. He established Infinium Products, Inc., a renewable fuels and chemicals company, and Alcochem, Inc., an industrial ethanol distributor. He also assisted in establishing the first U.S. office of a large South African company in the alpha olefins business. As a Strategic Business Manager for Sasol Alpha Olefins, he helped successfully launch two new products globally. As a Product Optimization Engineer, amongst other projects, he assisted in the development of a high-purity synthetic ethanol production facility. As a Senior Scientist at Sasol, he assisted in the development of a commercialized synthetic fuel production catalyst. He has authored several publications. Education and Training
Mr. Don Power, CTO As our Chief Technology Officer, Don developed the design of our Galena Park biodiesel plant. Don is responsible for all process design, plant operation, biodiesel R&D development, and biodiesel and ethanol capacity expansions. Don Power has over thirty years of chemical plant processing design and operation experience. Don served twelve years as Senior Vice President of Operations and two years as Vice President of Marketing for Haltermann Custom Processing Houston. During this time, the company doubled in capacity and grew to have two plants of 50 acres each with 290 employees and an output of about 500 million pounds per year. His responsibilities included plant safety, health and environmental performance, operations, maintenance, logistics, engineering, and construction. Don has extensive experience in ester production, distillation, hydrogenation, and synthesis as well as chemical process computer modeling. His technical innovations and unique process designs contributed significantly to the business's financial performance. Prior to Haltermann, Don worked sixteen years for Union Carbide as Department Head of the Marine Terminal, the Vinyl Acetate Unit, the Oxo Alcohols 400MM lb/yr expansion, and as New Products Development Manager. Total construction projects implemented over this time exceeded US$100MM. Mr. Stephen Fodo, CFO Steve recently joined the Organic Fuels team to support our rapid growth. He brings a wide range of experience in taking forward-thinking companies to the next level, and his expertise and character is already lending new strength and focus to our company's financial operations. Steve also serves as an Advisory Board Member at Ingenero, Inc., a Mumbai-based engineering firm, and Kilimanjaro Partners, a Houston-based boutique investment and consulting firm. Additionally, Steve serves as the Chief Compliance Officer for Commonwealth International Series Trust, a family of mutual funds also based in Houston. Steve’s past experience as the Managing Director of Morris Anderson, a national turnaround management firm, and as a Partner of Tatum CFO, a financial operations consulting firm, will be of direct and immediate value to the future of our company. His prior experience in the energy industry includes serving as Treasurer and VP Business Development of Westlake Chemical Corporation, a NYSE commodity chemical manufacturer, VP and Treasurer of Citgo Petroleum, then a joint venture between Southland Corporation and PDVSA, and Treasurer of Gulf Oil USA, formerly an integrated energy company. Steve has an MBA from the University of Kentucky and attended executive development courses at the University of Pittsburgh. Additionally, Steve is a faculty member of the University of Phoenix, instructing graduate-level courses in corporate finance and economics. Mr. Thomas Gieskes, VP Business Development Thomas is the primary force behind Organic Fuels’ exciting project pipeline and development of emerging technologies, such as oil from algae. With his eyes on the details of our existing global partnerships and projects in development, his commitment is to the ongoing success of our company and those with whom we’ve joined forces. His development of our operations in Mexico and South America has been key to our global strategy. Thomas has more than 30 years experience in the petrochemical and energy sector. Prior to joining Organic Fuels, he was a partner in Stillwater Associates, an energy sector consultancy specializing in energy policy issues and M&A work. Prior to that, Thomas held various managerial and executive positions at ARCO, with assignments in Europe and Asia as well as the US. His work experience includes all aspects of the value chain, including production, logistics and marketing, as well as project development and management. He successfully managed a joint venture company at ARCO and turned the US$30MM revenue operation around from significant losses to profitability.. Education and Training
Dr. Mark Betts, VP Europe, Africa Mark holds dual UK and South African citizenship and represents Organic Fuels in Europe and Africa, developing sales and production operations in those highly-competitive markets. He joined Organic Fuels after a brief spell as Commercial Directory for UK bioethanol start-up Ensus in 2006. Prior to that, he was Vice President of Supply Chain and Logistics Solutions with Elemica, a successful B2B start up founded by 22 leading chemical companies in 2001. He has more than sixteen years experience in the petrochemicals industry, in management roles for international marketing, operations, and technical areas of Sasol Olefins division, as well as undertaking and securing projects with Morgan Grenfell Private Equity of Deutsche Bank. Mark has authored process and application patents now being commercialized by Sasol. Education and Training
Mr. Chris Alexander, VP Marketing Sales and Administration Chris is your point of contact for all biodiesel and ethanol sales throughout the world. Upon joining Organic Fuels in 2005, he quickly tapped the enormous demand for our clean-burning product in markets both locally and worldwide. Under his direction, we have remained in a "sold out" status from day one. His commitment to our product and our vision extends throughout the company and makes our full resources available to our customers. Chris is a relative newcomer to the energy and renewable fuels industry. Before joining Organic Fuels, Chris served in a variety of management and senior management positions in the live entertainment business. Chris was the Senior Vice President of Ticketing for Clear Channel Entertainment, the world's largest live entertainment company. Among many successes, Chris is responsible for building the profitable in-house ticketing system for what is now Live Nation. Chris received his BA in Sociology/Anthropology from Denison University in Granville, Ohio. Chris lives with his wife and three daughters in Houston. |