Organic Chemistry, Biotechnology, Fermentation, Fine Chemical Product and Application Development, Chemical Manufacturing and Renewable Fuels

Derek has been involved in the industrial chemicals and biotechnology fields for over 35 years. He first worked for 14 years in the Crop Protection Division of Uniroyal Chemical, where he developed a no-waste process for the manufacture of Vitavax®, a seed-protectant systemic fungicide, work for which he received a Uniroyal Chemical Worldwide Technical Achievement Award in 1989. He was also part of the teams that developed the miticide bifenazate (Floramite™/Acramite™) and the anti-AIDS non-nucleoside RTI drug UC-781. At the company’s plant in Elmira (Canada) he was part of the operational staff of a $10M pilot plant and worked on troubleshooting global manufacturing processes for the Crop Protection and Rubber Chemical Divisions. After Uniroyal, Derek spent 2 years at Apotex Pharmachem, developing processes for the manufacture of generic APIs. Subsequently, he worked for the contract synthesis and specialty chemical reagent catalog company Astatech Inc, as Director of Chemistry and later as VP of Astatech Canada. Following a period as founder and principal of Derek McPhee and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in matching up clients with CROs/CMOs and process troubleshooting, in 2005 he joined the synthetic biology pioneer Amyris as its Director and later Senior Director of Chemistry, leading the team that successfully completed the chemistry portion of the BMGF-funded Artemisinin Project. After the handoff of the technology to Sanofi in 2008, two years ahead of schedule, his team first developed an EPA-approved and car manufacturer-homologated 100% hydrocarbon drop-in diesel replacement made from fermentation-derived β-farnesene, technology for which the company received an EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Award in 2014, and later an ASTM-approved Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF). Using this fuel Cathay Pacific established in 2017 the record for the longest non-stop flights (Toulouse in France to Hong Kong) during the deliveries of their fleet of new Airbus A350-900 planes. Afterwards, in various roles as Senior Technical Director of Technology Strategy, Industrial Products and the Center for Product Innovation he was responsible for the development of novel ingredients and their applications for all the Amyris B2B and B2C businesses, as well as global sales of the company’s industrial chemicals portfolio. Following his retirement from Amyris in 2023, he founded ChymbioTech Consulting, which specializes in chemical/biotech industry problem-solving and business intelligence projects. He has over 100 issued US and international patents and is the author/co-author of 30 publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals, two technical book chapters, and 60+ papers presented at scientific conferences, published technical book reviews, and miscellaneous other articles in trade publications.

Dr. McPhee earned his Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from The University of Calgary in 1986, under the direction of Prof. Tom Back. He then conducted postdoctoral research at the Division of Chemistry of the National Research Council of Canada in Ottawa. Contact Dr. McPhee.