Our Management
Our team is made up veteran entrepreneurs and petroleum industry chemical engineers with proven track records in building companies and chemical production plants.
Our executive team members have many years of combined experience in large-scale infrastructure business start-ups, executive management, chemical engineering and fuels production. We have the expertise needed to manage the risks associated with significant capital investments, and to maximize the profit potential of new products.
Chief Executive Officer
Ed Driscoll is an entrepreneur who has founded a variety of high-growth service and infrastructure companies. As co-founder, chairman and CEO of WAM!NET Inc., Driscoll led the company from a two person start-up to a global IT service provider with more than $1 billion in contracted revenue. In the process, he raised over $1 billion in capital through a range of financial facilities. Today the company is owned by Harris Corporation, and manages the entire Internet infrastructure for the U.S. Navy and U.S. Marine Corps. Ernst and Young selected Mr. Driscoll as Entrepreneur of the Year in 2000. He serves on a variety of corporate and non-profit boards, including the Science Museum of Minnesota where he serves as audit committee chair. Formerly, he served on the board of the Center of Graphic Communications Management and Technology at New York University. A native Minnesotan, Driscoll is a graduate of St. John’s University and holds an MBA from the University of St. Thomas. He and his wife, Michele, live in Chaska, Minnesota, and have two young boys.
Chief Technology Officer
Ian Mackay has over 30 years of experience in forming and managing high-technology companies. He founded an Internet services company that grew to a client base covering six states. He founded a high-technology research and development organization that developed novel methods for thin and thick film processing. He also founded a computer company that developed a unique file server product and was eventually acquired by EMC. Mackay spent 18 years in the computer industry with Digital Equipment, Data General Corporation and Tricord Systems of Minneapolis, Minnesota. At these organizations, his roles included executive management, strategic planning, product management, marketing, sales, sales management and systems engineering. He has led new product development programs, developed sales and business development teams, created strategic partnerships and closed major new business deals with Fortune 50 companies. Mackay has a BS in Chemistry from Tufts University, an MS in Material Science and Engineering from the Rochester Institute of Technology, an MPA from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota and an MBA from the Carlson School at the University of Minnesota. He and his wife and children live in Eden Prairie, Minnesota.
Chief Financial Officer
Geoff Boyd is a veteran CFO with over seventeen years of experience in business and finance. He has arranged over $3 billion of financings in a variety of forms including private and public debt and equity. From 2000 to 2007 he was the Chief Financial Officer of Eschelon Telecom where he was instrumental in helping to grow the business from a private company with approximately $40 million in revenue to a public company with over $345 million in revenue. The company was generating EBITDA of approximately $80 million and was solidly profitable at the time of its sale to its closest competitor for $711 million in September of 2007. From 1997 to 2000 Mr. Boyd served in a variety of executive roles at Dobson Communications, one of the largest rural cellular telephone providers in the United States. He started his career in banking, working for CoreStates Bank in telecommunications finance. He is currently on the board of Worldgate Communications (ticker WGAT.OB) and is the audit committee chair. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1989. He and his wife, Valerie, live in Minneapolis, Minnesota with their two children.
Senior Engineer
Juan Pearcy is a veteran chemical engineer with world-class expertise in energy generation, chemical manufacturing process design and process optimization. He has worked for companies around the world such as Sasol, Codelco, Energia Verde, ConocoPhillips and Lyondell. At Sasol Technology PTY LTD, a leading company in the application of coal and natural gas conversion into liquid fuels and chemicals, Mr. Pearcy acted as a Principal Process Engineer managing process development projects, conceptual studies, commercialization of new technologies as well as full project implementation. At Energia Verde S.A., Mr. Pearcy was responsible for several business development and engineering projects throughout the world, ranging from power generation, transmission and the sales of electric and thermal energy for industrial clients utilizing a wide range of biomass feedstocks as well as coal and natural gas. He received his Master of Science and Chemical Engineering degree from the Universidad de Concepción where, as a member of the faculty, he has lectured and conducted research in the areas of Fluid Mechanics, Transport Phenomena and Automatic Control, Mineral Processing and Chemical Reaction Engineering. He also received an MBA from the University of the Witswatersrand, Johannesbergo, South Africa. Mr. Pearcy and his wife live in Concepción Chile and have two daughters.
General Counsel
James B. Lockhart is entrepreneur and attorney with deep experience in business formation, corporate strategy, and intellectual property. He is currently “of counsel” to the law firm of Smith Partners PLLP in Minneapolis Minnesota. From 2001 to 2005, Lockhart was General Counsel and Executive Vice President of Fiserv Health, Inc., which was primarily involved in the processing of medical claims on behalf of self-insured employers. From 2000 to 2001, he served as Chief Financial Officer for Medtox Scientific, Inc., a toxicology company offering on-site and laboratory drug testing; the company is also an FDA-certified manufacturer of drug-testing devices. Lockhart has a law degree from the University of Minnesota and practiced law with Popham, Haik, Schnobrich and Kaufman, and subsequently with Hinshaw and Culbertson from 1975 to 2000. He also has a degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame. He and his wife, Janie, live in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Business Advisory Board Chair
Nate Garvis is an accomplished business executive, communications and public engagement expert and political strategist. He is Vice President of Government Affairs for Target Corporation, responsible for political, legislative, and regulatory affairs at all levels of government. Garvis is recognized as a thought leader in integrated public engagement strategies and emerging trends in relationships between multi-national corporations, non-governmental advocacy groups, and government institutions. He is a past chairman of the Washington, D.C.–based Public Affairs Council, and immediate past chairman of the Foundation for Public Affairs. He serves on the executive committees of several business and academic boards, including the California Business Properties Association, on which he serves as chairman, and the Boston College International Center for Corporate Citizenship. A former policy fellow at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Policy at the University of Minnesota, he serves on the board of the Institute’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, and on the executive committee of the non-partisan Citizens League. He holds a BA in History from the University of Minnesota and a JD from the University of Oregon. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife, Trissa, and their two daughters.
Technical Advisory Board Chair
Lanny Schmidt, PhD Chemistry, is a Regents professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science at the University of Minnesota. After earning a BS in Chemistry from Wheaton College, Schmidt began working as a research scientist for Abbott Laboratories. At the same time, he earned a Ph.D. in Physical Chemistry, and conducted postdoctoral research, at the University of Chicago. At the University of Minnesota, Schmidt has supervised approximately 85 Ph.D. theses and 15 M.S. theses at Minnesota, and 11 of his former students hold university teaching positions. He holds 15 patents, and has published more than 340 papers in refereed journals. Schmidt has served on advisory committees for the University of Wisconsin and UCLA, on a review panel for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and on a technical advisory board for Dow Chemical Company. He has been named a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and a founding fellow of the Institute on the Environment at the University of Minnesota. Schmidt is a member of the National Academy of Engineering, and of the Working Group Initiative for Renewable Energy and the Environment. ^