Mike Sticklen

Ethanol Protein/CI, Bioplastics, Mfg. Best Practices, Green Hydrogen, Hydrogen Derivatives

Mike has held a variety of leadership roles in renewables and polymers with LEC, Flint Hills Resources, Hawkeye Renewables, Dow Chemical, and DuPont during his 40+ year career in biological and chemical process industries, including Innovation Director, Engineering & Technology VP,  VP Operations, Plant Manager and Project Director for projects ranging from $200MM to $3+ billion.

His most recent experience includes 15 years in fuel ethanol, protein co-products and biodiesel operations, engineering & technology with Flint Hills and Hawkeye. Mike was responsible for building two greenfield 125 MGY ethanol plants, evaluating and implementing new ethanol for protein co-products, carbon intensity reduction, yield and energy efficiency and production rate improvements.   He completed due diligence for the acquisition of 7 ethanol plants.  He was a key player in merging diverse company cultures while developing and implementing operational best practices.  He is passionate about practicing Koch Industries Market-Based Management® to achieve business results.

Prior to entering the ethanol industry, Mike led operations for DuPont Dow Elastomers’ polyolefins and elastomers business in the US and Europe.  Mike has a B.S. in Chemical Engineering (University of Queensland, Australia).

As Project Director for LEC, Mike has completed projects for plastics recycling and bio-based plastics, renewable hydrogen, and hydrogen derivatives including renewable ammonia, biochar technology evaluation, ethanol industry due diligence, and biomass feedstock utilization. Contact Mike.