4 minutes with… Michael R. Schuppenhauer, Ph.D. President & CEO, Farmatic

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

Farmatic is since 50 years an internationally successful biogas and waste water EPC and technology provider to customers from agriculture, industry and municipalities. With over 300 completed anaerobic digesters globally, Farmatic plants are technology leaders for distributed renewable energy and co-digestion of complex substrates.

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

Close R&D collaboration; achieve full parity and support for biogas within the US renewable fuel scheme, close one commercial digester contract

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

10-25% penetration of full maximal US biogas market potential (full potential: 8.8 bn GGE)

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

bankable permitting and reimbursement scheme for biogas

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?  

decrease dependency on fossil fuels to decrease effects of climate change

Where are you from? 

Hamburg, Germany

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

BS University Erlangen-Nuernberg

MS Chemical Engineering, TU Hamburg-Harburg

Visiting Researcher, UC Berkeley

PhD Chemical Engineering, ETH Zurich

An engineering degree with life sciences twist – focusing on biosciences driven solutions to world problems

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?

Gerd Becher, my first boss at Prognos

Bill Huyett, my second boss at McKinsey & Co.

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

All is well that ends well – if it isn’t well, it is not the end, yet.

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

Horseback riding, polo, sailing, diving, snow boarding

What are 3 books you’d want to have with you, if you were stranded on a desert island

The bible, finally time to read it back to back;

John le Carre’s Smiley trilogy

Facebook

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

McKinsey Quarterly

Flat, hot & crowded – T. Friedman

Innovator’s Dilemma – C. Christensen

Freakonomics – Dubner/Levitt

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

The Hawai’ian Islands