Board of Directors
Dr. Randy Cortright, PhD
Founder & Chief Technical Officer, Virent
Randy is a leading figure in the field of catalytic processing of biomass-derived feedstocks into chemicals and fuels. He is the co-inventor of Aqueous Phase Reforming, the innovative pathway to biofuels and bioproducts used by the BioForming® technology platform. His background includes research and development, process design, start-up and operations of large-scale industrial catalytic processes at UOP, a provider of petroleum and petrochemical process technologies. He received BS and MS degrees in chemical engineering from Michigan Technological University. After leaving UOP, Randy earned his PhD in chemical engineering from the University of Wisconsin. At Wisconsin, he specialized in catalytic systems for the clean manufacturing of fuels and petrochemicals. He is the inventor on more than 125 patents and patent applications worldwide and is the author of over 40 technical publications.
Lee Edwards
President and CEO, Virent
Lee Edwards joined Virent as president and chief executive officer in January 2009. In 2010 he was elected chairman of the Advanced Biofuels Association, which is based in Washington, DC, and represents 25 member companies. Prior to joining Virent, Lee had 25 years’ global energy experience at BP, including CEO of BP Solar, president of BP Pipelines, North America, chief information officer for Downstream, and vice president, BP Global Brand. He holds a BS in chemical engineering from Bucknell University, an MBA in finance from the Wharton School and is a graduate of the Stanford Business School Executive Program.
David Jacober
Business Opportunity Manager – Americas Team Lead, Shell Oil Products US
David is the Business Opportunity Manager — Americas team lead at Shell Downstream where he leads the development and implementation of large, strategic capital projects for process safety, growth and energy conservation across Shell’s global Downstream Manufacturing assets. David has over 30 years of refining experience with Shell Oil Company including multiple technical, environmental, operations and business/commercial assignments. He has led the business management organization for the Deer Park Refining Limited Partnership and the development and implementation of Shell Oil Products refinery fuels strategy including the California MTBE phase-out and introduction of low sulfur gasoline and ultra-low sulfur diesel fuels. David holds a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois.
Dr. Jay Kouba, PhD
Chairman of the Board, Virent
Jay has more than 25 years of top management experience in the chemical and petroleum processing industry including as senior vice president, Strategy, Marketing and Technology at Innovene, Inc., and vice president of Chemical Technology and vice president of Marketing, Sales and Logistics at BP Petrochemicals. Jay is also chairman of the board of Metabolix, a developer of bioplastics, biopolymers, and other renewable products. He holds a BS in chemistry from Stanford University, an MS and PhD in chemistry from Harvard University and an MBA from the University of Chicago.
John Neis, CFA
Managing Director, Venture Investors
John is managing director of Venture Investors, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on opportunities emerging from leading research universities in the Midwest. He currently serves on the Board of Directors at Cellectar, Inc., Deltanoid Pharmaceuticals, Inc., the Wisconsin Technology Council and is a science and technology advisor to Wisconsin’s governor and legislature. He serves on the Dean’s Advisory Board, the Advisory Board of the Weinert Applied Ventures Program in the School of Business and the Tandem Press Advisory Board in the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He graduated Magna Cum Laude with a BS in finance from the University of Utah and received an MS in marketing and finance from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a chartered financial analyst.
Jim Sayre
Senior Managing Director, Black River Asset Management
Jim founded Cargill Ventures in 2000 and was appointed president of the group overseeing Cargill’s venture investments. The Cargill Ventures group was subsequently transferred to Black River Asset Management, where Jim is now serving as a senior managing director. He currently serves on the boards of Aspectrics, Ecosynthetix, GuardianEdge, MarkMonitor and Virent. He also oversees investments in Dust Networks, Redpoint Bio and Fortiva. Jim’s past investments include DemandTec (NASDAQ:DMAN), iTrade Networks (acquired by KKR/Accel) and Ecovation (acquired by EcoLab). Before starting at Cargill Ventures, he was director of mergers and acquisitions for Cargill, where he led global acquisition and divestitures exceeding $5 billion in value between 1995 and 2000. Prior to that, Jim worked at Deloitte Consulting as a senior manager and worked in various positions in the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Jim earned a BA in economics from the University of California at Davis and an MBA from Harvard University.
Bradley J. Bell
Director at IDEX and Compass Minerals
Brad served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Nalco Company from October 2003 through 2010. For six years prior to joining Nalco, he was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Rohm and Haas Company, now part of Dow Chemical. His previous experience included the Vice President and Treasurer roles at both Whirlpool Corporation and Bundy Corporation. Earning a B.S. in Finance, he graduated with high honors from the University of Illinois. He holds a M.B.A., conferred with distinction, from Harvard University Graduate School of Business. Brad is a member of the Board of Directors at IDEX Corporation, Compass Minerals International and Opportunity International, a not-for-profit pioneer in microenterprise development attacking poverty among the world’s poorest communities in 30 countries.