4 minutes with… Eddy Christensson, VP Sales & Marketing, North America, Taurus Energy AB, Lund Sweden

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

Taurus Energy is a Research & Development company specializing in strain development of pentoses both xylose and arabinose in biomass derived streams. Taurus has extensive know-how in lingo cellulosic ethanol production with 11 patent families and 60 patents approved around the world.

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

Our company’s goal is to continually improve and strive to be that best in what we are doing. My role is to help Taurus find partnerships and commercial use of our products in a global market, presently focused on United States.

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

We need a comprehensive energy policy, emphasizing the importance of bioenergy for our future; environment, job creation, national security, etc. Milestones for our industry:

1. Keep RFS

2. Mandate car companies to build more flex-fuel cars

3. Increase subsidies for installment of E15-E-85 pumps

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

A wake-up call to our political leaders to take a stand and stick with it (political courage) in support of Advanced Bioeconomy. Increased private investments and new innovations would be the direct result of such commitment from our leaders. Until then we need your (excellent) daily newsletter.

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?  

I believe striving for excellence is important and inspiring to all of us. Striving for excellence in an area that help solve our increasing energy needs in a more responsible and beneficial way to all of us is a bonus. It is very satisfying for me to play even a small role in the is endeavor.

Where are you from? 

I was born in Lund, Sweden, and spent my childhood in the county of Småland, where most of the good-hearted, hard-working Swedish immigrants to Minnesota came from.

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

My undergraduate degree was in Business at Lund University, leading to a Rotary International scholarship at Northern Illinois University, DeKalb, IL, where I completed an MA in Journalism (very useful) and and an MBA plus found a wife and a new home in America.

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?

From a personality standpoint I admire Winston Churchill and both the Roosevelt presidents (Ted & Franklin) for their vision and courage to stand firm and get the job done.

Closer to home I have great respect for Ray Defenbaugh of Big River Resources and winner of the High Octane reward at this year’s FEW conference in Minneapolis. His vision and message for all of us in the industry to unite was inspiring. Ray lost an arm in a farm accident but not his spirit. He is a good man with lots of common sense.

I also respect ADM’s Charles Abbas whom I had the honor to nominate for the Award of Excellence in a prior FEW conference. Charles is a true professional, dedicated to the survival and growth of our industry. He is also a man of integrity, prouding himself in not to sell and promote anything he does not believe in himself. He compares his vision to that of Henry Ford, making great inventions available and affordable to all.

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

Adversity is an experience we can learn from and with the right attitude it builds character. Persistence and determination to keep going are qualities that hopefully comes out of it. It has worked for me.

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

My hobby is to keep learning. I like to travel with the purpose of learning about other cultures. I read. I exercise. At home I like to tend a garden and design and build new things for our home. Next is a sauna. What true Scandinavian can live without a sauna?

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

If I was stranded on an island I probably would not spend time reading. I would look for ways to get out of there. A book on boat building would come in handy though.

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

1. One Handed Catch by M.J. Auch

2. Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate

3. To Kill a Mockingbird, Harper Lee

(My wife is a librarian, She gets me all this good stuff.)

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

It’s a toss up between a quaint village in Italy’s Tuscany district and the fabulous island of Kauai, the closest to the Garden of Eden I can imagine.