If you’ve seen Bill Randany’s face lately, it’s probably in a photo opp recently in Malaysia with the Malaysia prime minister Najib Razak and US President Barack Obama — at the time the company was announcing an investment of $48 million led by Malaysian multinational conglomerate, Sime Darby Berhad that included BP Alternative Energy Ventures, […]
Innovative finance? We think that’s John May’s middle name; it’s certainly his trademark. Stern Bothers rolled up a tremendous clientele in the Advanced Bioeconomy — primarily on its innovative bond financing approach to first commercial projects backed by USDA (and DOE) loan guarantees. For his clients, he’s been a steady counselor in getting new companies […]
If you’ve been to Missoula of late, you’ll note that there’s a bit of an innovation corridor building up in what insiders have known for a long time as one of the really great college towns in the country. A couple of years ago, the combination of a great lifestyle and a highly promising technology […]
If you’ve been to ABLC, you’ve likely seen a hugely-popular session where we turn the tables — instead of having CEOs present their companies and technologies, we have technical diligence experts look at companies and technologies with a critical eye — pointing out the question marks and “still to be proven” aspects as well as […]
There’s a rumor going around that the original technology for LS9 (now, REG Life Sciences) was sketched out by Harvard’s George Church and Berkeley’s Chris Somerville on a cocktail napkin. If true, it would have to be one of the most interesting and valuable artifacts that will some day adorn a Museum of Industrial Biotechnology. […]
It seems to us in Digestville that if you open a door in Emeryville, California — roughly thirty companies tumble out, so hot is the early-stage activity there — and a lot of it about companies chasing high-value targets via methane. In the case of Mango Materials — the products are bioplastics, via bacteria — […]
You probably know him best as the VP for Biofuels at Chevron, and later the Program Manager for the DOE Biomass program until late 2012. But he’s also a noted consultant on technology development and current lectures in chemical engineering as well at Berkeley. One little known fact is that he is a direct descendant […]
Mike McAdams is well and widely-known in the advanced bioeconomy for his work in bringing the Advanced Biofuels Association to life. Less known are his years as a policy advisor to Lord Browne, CEO of BP, back in the days when the slogan was “beyond petroleum”. A passionate advocate on the Hill for advanced biotechnologies […]
If you’ve been watching this space, you’ll remember that Evonik and BP share one known investemt — in Biosynthetic TEchnologies, a renewable chemicals venture that has also attracted funding from Monsanto. At the helm — you might be surprised to find the former CFO of Buy.com, Allen Barbieri. Buy.com was one of the highest of […]
If you’ve known her as the globe-trotting CEO of LanzaTech — managing an enterprise based in Chicago, with lab operations (and historic ties to) in New Zealand, and progressing towards scale-up in China — well, there’s more to the story. The original GM of Honeywell’s UOP efforts in the biobased space — she won a […]
