Our Leadership

Joel holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Polytechnic University; and an M.S. in Chemical and Biochemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. Joel was a previous Board Member of Green Biologics and presently serves on the Technical Advisory Board for the BioRenewable Deployment Consortium, and Board Chair for Fermentum.  He is the President of ConVergInce Advisers and has been a long term visionary and respected leader in commercialization of industrial biotechnology and present day commercial developments in synthetic biology. Joel is an accomplished executive and leader in start-up companies including business, operations, and technology development oversight. He has held leadership roles at Green Biologics Inc., Butylfuel™, Osage Bio Energy, AS Alliances Biofuels, Abengoa Bioenergy, Balchem, Opta Food Ingredients, and Genencor.  Joel’s successes and expertise include strategic planning, design and construction, fermentation design, process development, technical transfer, troubleshooting, process analysis, optimization, cost reduction, downstream recovery, plant startups, scale up/scale down planning, and commercial product deployment. Most notable accomplishments included: as President of Green Biologics development of the commercial platform for renewable n-butanol and acetone; as COO of AS Alliances Biofuels planning, construction, and startup of three 100 MMGPY fuel grade ethanol; and, as Vice President of Operations for Opta Food Ingredients, commercialization of multiple products including functional starch, protein, and fiber ingredients. Earlier in his career Joel served as Director of Manufacturing for Genencor, a biotechnology developer and manufacturer of food and industrial grade enzymes. Contact Joel.

Glenn was named by European Institutional Investors Services as one of the 5 most influential people in renewable energy in North America.  He has spent over 25 years in project development as well as developing, advising and commercializing new technology in the biomass energy field. He was the project manager for the Vermont Gasification Project, a public-private partnership with the US Department of Energy, featuring biomass gasification technology. The project won an R&D 100 Award, signifying it as the most important development in the field of renewable energy worldwide in 1998.  Most recently, Glenn served as part of AGCO Corporation’s Strategic Marketing Group.  He was Director of Product Strategy, North America, based out of the AGCO’s corporate headquarters in Duluth, GA, USA. One of Glenn’s major roles was the development and perfection of methodologies in the biomass supply chain , using both agricultural waste products and purpose grown crops for feedstock in second generation cellulosic biomass for conversion into fuels and chemicals. Glen managed operations on behalf of both the company and customers for over 1,000,000 bales of cellulosic feedstocks including corn stover, miscanthus, wheat straw, switch-grass and sorghum. He has developed and advised developers on biomass projects throughout the United States and Caribbean Basin.  Glenn’s primary focus now is to assist clients in recognizing and developing strategies for new trends in agriculture, agricultural equipment, and the use of crops and crop waste as a feedstock.  Contact Glenn.

Doug has 40+ years of recognized success developing, optimizing, and commercializing bioprocess technologies. During his career, Dr. Rivers has served in positions from lab manager to COO.  He has commercialized new technology through internal corporate initiatives, start-up companies, joint ventures, and technology licenses.  In these roles, he identified new technology, conducted due diligence for technology acquisitions, and managed the technology portfolio.  Dr. Rivers’ experience ranges from bench to commercial operations in key bioprocess technology areas including integrated operations for corn and cellulosic ethanol production, fermentations, downstream processing, corn fractionation, cellulose pretreatment, cellulosic feedstocks, and animal feed co-products. He also provides expert witness services.  Immediately prior to initiating his consulting business, Dr. Rivers was corporate director of R&D at ICM for 10 years where he reported to the owner/CEO.  He was directly responsible for leading corporate development of new and improved bioprocess technology to produce ethanol, other liquid fuels such as isobutanol and biojet, renewable chemicals, and animal feed co-products from corn, milo, and cellulose feedstocks.  He was responsible for the build-out and operation of ICM’s 35,000+ sq.ft. integrated corn and cellulose pilot/demo plants valued at about $100 million, initiating external contract development services, identifying technology partnering opportunities, and facilitating the transfer of commercially ready technology to production facilities.  Before joining ICM, Dr. Rivers served in a variety of leadership roles at SAIC, Michigan Biotechnology Institute (MBI), Southern Research Institute, ADM, University of Arkansas, and Gulf Oil Corporation. Doug earned a B.S. in Microbiology from Kansas State University, an M.S. in Microbiology from Auburn University, and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from University of Arkansas with specializations in enzymes, fermentation, and cellulose conversion technology.  Contact Doug.