The core board members are all executuives who have "been there" in their respective area of specialization; from inventions development and testing, to forestry, chemical plant operations and start-up business development, ensuring professional development and operations.  

EXECUTIVE TEAM:

Mr. James B. Davis received a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology from Thiel College in 1969 and his Master of Forestry from Duke University in 1971.  He and Mr. Wefelmeyer were comrades in arms, serving in the same unit in the U.S. Marine Corps.  He has worked in forestry continuously since leaving the military in 1976.  Mr. Davis' experience as a forester has given him an understanding of the quality, quantity and potential availability of unused biomass harvested from managed and unmanaged forest lands and currently wasted or disposed of at considerable cost.  Together with Mr. Wefelmeyer's chemical engineering capabilities, he provided the conceptual foundation for Biomass Converters, Inc. and co-founded Biomass Converters.

Mr. Herman A. Wefelmeyer, Jr. received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Maryland in 1971 and went directly into the U.S. Marine Corps.  Upon leaving the military in 1976 he began his industrial chemical engineering career as a Process Engineer, progressing to roles supervising production and quality control.  He served many years as a Plant Manager, resulting in a growth of sales from $35 to $60 million per year.  During this period of expansion, various product lines were added to the plant and he was involved in the transfer and scale-up of these processes, thereby ensuring smooth startups.  In 1990 he assumed the position of Director of Operations with his current employer.  Currently, he is Vice President of Supply Chain.  Mr. Wefelmeyer provides the chemical engineering expertise essential to this project and is a Co-Founder of Biomass Converters.

Ms. Katie Krier is Managing Director of Kalebas Limited, a management consultancy specializing in delivery of start-up enterprises and companies who are undergoing major transformation programs.  She has a B.A. in Communications from DePauw University and additional study at the University of Colorado School of Engineering, Master of Science in Telecommunications.  In 2002, Ms. Krier founded a London-based consultancy servicing international clients with a focus on large technology and process change  programs.  Prior to that time, she was employed for many years by Accenture, a tenure that included international relocations to Latin America and Europe.  In both secondments she was responsible for building a specialized technology practice for the firm, as well as delivery of major client programs.


ADVISORY TEAM:

Dr. Lee N. Polite is principal and Vice President of Laboratory Services for Axion Labs.  He has a B.A. in Chemistry from DePauw University, a PH.D. in Analytical Chemistry from Virgina Tech, and a Master of Management degree from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.  Dr. Polite trains over 1000 professionals in chromatography each year for every major pharmaceutical, chemical and petroleum company in the U.S., as well as for the DEA, FBI, FDA, USDA, and U.S. Customs Service.  He is a national lecturer for the ACS, conducting HPLC (high pressure liquid chromatography) short-courses at national and regional meetings.  Prior to founding Axion in 1995, Dr. Polite worked for Amoco Corporation for 8 years.  While at Amoco, he was responsible for establishing and supervising all analytical work for Amoco's biomass to ethanol programs.  He has numerous refereed publications and has written three book chapters on HPLC.

Dr. Robert E. Lumpkin received a B.Ch.E. from the University of Delaware and an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Rochester.  Dr. Lumpkin managed R&D in alternative fuels for three major oil companies (Occidental Petroleum, Getty Oil and Amoco) and has worked closely with U.S. Government agencies, National Laboratories, industrial partners and academic contractors.  His experience includes being a member of the National Coal Council Executive Committee, winning the University of Pittsburgh Award for Innovation in Coal Conversion in 1991, and teaching a graduate level course in Oil Shale at the University of Southern California.  He has been working to develop a commercial process for converting biomass to ethanol since 1992.

Dr. Christine E. Walker is a consulting engineer with over ten years of experience in project management, project and program development, and in various roles in supply-side, demand-side and bio-energy fields. She has a B.S. in Architecture from the University of Illinois - Champaign/Urbana, M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Ph.D. in Building Technologies with a major in thermal fluid sciences and minor in energy from MIT.  Dr. Walker's past work has included business development, project management, energy procurement and building diagnostics.  She has worked in industry and academia, working for private companies as well as as research groups at major Universities.  Her skills include identifying and combining market needs, government programs and the newest university research into effective programs that promote new technologies, reduce operating costs, increase profits and promote business growth.