Leadership

Lee Edwards – President & Chief Executive Officer

Lee joined Virent as President and CEO 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.

Dr. Randy Cortright, PhD – Founder & Chief Technical Officer

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-Madison. 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.

Jeff Moore – Executive Vice President, Business Operations, Interim CFO

Jeff has focused on building successful start-up companies through his expertise in structuring strategic business alliances, attracting early stage funding and developing effective business infrastructure. He co-founded and was COO of nGimat, a provider of engineered nanomaterials and technologies, which grew to 120 people and nearly $10M in revenue primarily on a bootstrap model. Jeff remains on nGimat’s Board of Directors. He has held key consulting positions at other start-ups and began his career as a corporate counsel for IBM. He earned a BS in Business Administration-Accounting from Miami University of Ohio and a JD from Ohio State University College of Law. Jeff passed the CPA examination and has been admitted to the State Bars of New York and Georgia.

Greg Keenan – Vice President, Business Development and Engineering

Greg specializes in developing business opportunities for and managing the commercialization of emerging technologies, primarily in the chemicals and alternative energy industries. At Air Products, a provider of industrial gases, he led the commercialization activities for several hydrogen and energy related technology platforms, developed strategic alliances with Fortune 500 companies, start-ups and venture investment firms, and led process and product engineering efforts for distributed hydrogen and power projects. Greg received a BS in Chemical Engineering from Pennsylvania State University and a MSE in the Management of Technology from the Wharton School and the School of Engineering & Applied Science, both at the University of Pennsylvania.

David Kettner – Vice President, Legal Affairs

Dave Kettner is a licensed patent attorney with over ten years of experience in intellectual property management, including prosecution, licensing, enforcement, and strategic planning. Before joining Virent, Dave served as chief legal counsel for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF). In this role, he developed and managed WARF’s Contract Management Department and served as in-house patent counsel and lead counsel with respect to contract drafting, negotiation and litigation management. Prior to WARF, Dave provided similar services to a variety of clients as an attorney in private practice. Dave holds a JD in Law and BS in Genetics and Cell Biology from the University of Minnesota.

Mary Tilton – Vice President, Plant Operations

Mary has held leadership positions in research and development and operations in high tech organizations for nearly 30 years. She has leveraged her strong technical, team building, and communication skills to structure effective organizations and integrate continuous process improvements. She has also assessed emerging technologies for incorporation into product offerings and technology roadmaps. Mary has worked for Fortune 500 companies such as General Electric and Hewlett Packard, and in general and manufacturing management at Planar Systems where she focused on the development of display technology and processes from research concept to operation and commercialization. She holds a BS in Chemistry and Mathematics from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater and a MS in Chemistry from Oregon State University.

David Hitchcock – Vice President, Government Affairs

David joins Virent from Next Autoworks, a start-up automaker backed by Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers and by Google Ventures. At Next, David led the company’s plant site selection team as well as governmental affairs efforts at the Federal, state, and local levels. Additionally, he supervised operational planning for Next’s first manufacturing facility and was also responsible for public relations and human resource management functions. In 2008, David retired at the rank of Lieutenant Colonel after 20 years’ service in the US Marine Corps. An F/A-18 Hornet pilot, his career spanned a variety of disciplines, including operations, aircraft maintenance, training, strategic planning, and logistics, and culminated with squadron command. Assignments included a three-year tour in Japan, service at the Pentagon and combat service in both Iraq and Afghanistan. David holds a BS from the US Naval Academy and a MA from the Naval War College.

Mary Willoughby Blanchard – Director, Public Affairs

Mary has 15 years of experience leading marketing and product management initiatives, primarily at Tellabs, an S&P 500-listed worldwide provider of telecommunications equipment. There Mary directed marketing and sales activities including European and Asian product launches and led the product validation of a highly complex, million dollar software product. She has expertise developing strategic solutions for complex market and organizational challenges, including two years designing and implementing global corporate governance initiatives as Tellabs’ legal, financial, and ethical compliance officer. Mary earned a BS in Electrical Engineering and a BA in English from the University of Notre Dame, a MSc from the London School of Economics, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.

Dr. Paul Blommel, PhD – Director, Process Chemistry

Paul is an expert in catalysis who brings significant process development as well as biological system experience to Virent. During eight years at UOP, a provider of refining process technologies for the petroleum and petrochemical industries, he worked on the development of novel catalysts for light paraffin isomerization and the commercialization of several technologies for aromatics production. In addition, Paul has conducted research in the genetic engineering of enzymes for improved function and productivity at the University of Wisconsin. He holds five issued patents and has 10 patent applications pending in fields as diverse as petroleum refining, micro scale methane reforming, and enzymology. He received his BS in Chemical Engineering and his PhD in Biophysics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Andrew Held – Senior Director of Feedstock Development

Andrew has ten years of operations and R&D experience at Cargill, an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services, where he played instrumental roles on technical, engineering, and operations management teams scaling production processes for commercialization. His work has included the manufacture of organic acids and edible polyols by fermentation, lactic acid for polymers, and natural polyols for polyurethanes. Andrew specializes in the integration of biological and chemical processes and has worked extensively with natural feedstocks and biocatalytic conversion methods. He earned his BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities and an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Kieran Furlong – Director, Chemicals

Kieran Furlong has extensive experience in the global chemical industry, in addition to his time spent in the world of clean technology start-ups. Currently, Kieran leads the business development and commercialization activities for Virent’s technology in the chemicals field. Previously Kieran worked in the catalyst businesses of ICI, plc. and Johnson Matthey, plc. and during that time he gained experience in fields as diverse as oleochemicals, natural gas processing, biofuels and polymers. Immediately prior to Virent, Kieran worked at Solazyme, Inc., a pioneer in the application of industrial biotechnology to renewable fuels and chemicals. Kieran received his BS in Chemical Engineering from University College Dublin, Ireland and his Masters of Business Administration from the Graduate School of Business at Stanford University.