After a career with multinational companies like Eli Lilly (USA) and Sandoz (Switzerland) as Director of R & D, marketing and strategic planning as well as sales, Mr. Körbitz made his first experience with Biodiesel when he was appointed General Manager of the world’s first industrial scale Biodiesel production plant in early 1990 in Austria, then already the leading country in research and development of the renewable transport fuel Biodiesel.

He founded the Austrian Biofuels Institute in 1995 as a world-wide active centre of competence with today 25 expert members, which is involved world-wide in a number of projects such as Biodiesel standardisation, feasibility studies for and implementation of commercial Biodiesel plants, due diligence studies for banks, Biodiesel process technology comparison and other studies for the International Energy Agency, several Biodiesel-projects in the R&DDD-programmes for the European Commission, for the International Energy Agency -Bioenergy, the IFC, IAEA and UNIDO.

Dr Piero Venturi has a degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Bologna. He obtained his PhD in Agricultural Engineering with the Italian Ministry of Scientific Research. He worked for several years as researcher at Polytechnic University of Madrid and Wageningen Agricultural University, dealing with energy and no-food crops production and non-food chains modeling.

Currently, Dr Venturi is working in the Directorate Agriculture, Food and Biotechnology - DG Research of the European Commission. He is dealing with policies on biotechnologies and their interaction with related issues as climate change, agriculture and energy. Furthermore he is the project officers of several projects funded by the European Commission on biobased material and biorefinery. He is also responsible for International Cooperation aspects related to research in biotechnology and bio-based materials. Dr Venturi has been lecturing on Energy Integrated Systems and Agricultural Mechanization while at present gives class in a Master in Agroenergy at the University Menendez y Pelayo of Madrid (Spain). He published more than 80 articles in scientific journals.

Mr Garofalo was appointed Secretary General of the European Biodiesel Board (EBB)  in May 2002. Previously he worked for four years within FEDIOL, the European Federation of Vegetable Oils Producers, dealing among others, with non-food uses of vegetable oils, which include bio-lubricants, bio-solvents and of course, biodiesel. In 1998 he worked temporarily in the European Commission (DG Agriculture) as well as within the Research Directorate of the European Parliament.

After graduating with distinction in Politics in the International Politics Department of the Institut d’Etudes Politiques (Sciences-Po), in Paris, in 1997, he was admitted as a foreign student at the French Ecole Nationale d’Administration (ENA). He obtained a Master’s Degree on European Administrative Studies at the College of Europe in Bruges in 1998.

Mr Falloux is a well-seasoned environmental expert with 25 years experience within the World Bank from 1975 to 1999. Starting in 1986, he was one of the pioneers of the World Bank environmental capacity, procedures and project portfolio, and alternate chairman of the WB environmental network. In 1996, he contributed to establishing and marketing the Bank carbon financing facilities particularly the Prototype Carbon Fund.

Since 2000, he has co-founded Eco-Carbone (EC), a start-up company advising key multinational companies on climate change strategies, developing carbon offset projects worldwide including in desertification prone areas and co-investing in projects. EC has currently two main lines of business: methane capture and energy production in coal-mining; and Jatropha Curcas agro-industrial development. François is currently the Vice President, shareholder and member of the Board.

He has recently been elected chairman of the investors committee of the World Bank-administered Bio Carbon Fund which counts Eco-Carbone as one its investors.

Francois has a MS in agriculture with complementary degree in economics and finances. 

Simon Gmuender studied at ETH Zürich, with a Master of environmental science with emphasis on Physics and Anthroposphere.

He has conducted on-site study of the environmental Impact of Jatopha used for rural electrification and transportation in India, and life cycle assessment for 6 month. He was also involved in the capacity building of an Indian NGO in life cycle thinking

Igor Dormuth is a Graduate in meteorology with additional postgraduate studies in environmental protection since 1992. He is currently the Project Leader in TÜV SÜD Industrie Service GmbH and is responsible for the development of a certification system for biofuels and bioliquids at the carbon management service section.

He was previously technical consultant for air pollution monitoring in several engineering companies for 14 years. He was in charge of some research studies concerning air pollution.  At the Fraunhofer Institute of Atmospheric Research Mr. Dormuth was a research assistant in the project air pollution monitoring of Mexico City. He has 16 years of experience in the field of air monitoring.

Ruud van Eck an entrepreneur, is the founder of Diligent Energy Systems. He built from scratch a company producing alternative fuels. Earlier, he was the director of a company in information and communication technology, Mr van Eck managed to successfully grow this company within a few years. After selling that company, he was determined to do something in alternative fuels. A big change in career, which he made with full conviction: "I believe in this product. The demand for alternative fuels is very large. Much larger than the supply."

Prof. Dr. Harinder P.S. Makkar is presently International Project Coordinator of a Sino-German Project on ‘Fuel and Feed for Tomorrow’, which aims at enhancing economic viability and sustainability of Jatropha-based biofuel production systems by introducing innovative industrial and livestock production systems.

He has been conducting research on Jatropha for the last 15 years. He has published over 200 research papers and 7 books, spread in the area of natural plant products and bioactive compounds and their interactions with livestock, soil, plant and environment. H

He obtained Masters Degree in Biochemistry from National Dairy Research Institute, India and PhD Degree in Agricultural Biochemistry from University of Nottingham, U.K. He was recipient of Commonwealth and Alexander von Humboldt Fellowships, and was awarded Mercator Professorship in 2006. He has acted as expert consultant for FAO, IAEA and other international organizations.

Jakob Rietzler started working at the Lao Institute for Renewable Energy (LIRE) in Vientiane, Lao PDR as the Managing Director since last year. His main responsibility is coordinating all LIREs research activities. Moreover, he coordinates projects within the LIRE Jatropha program such as processing of seeds and exploring possible Jatropha sites via GIS mapping in South East Asia. Another main subject of his work is to establish a network for biofuels partners in Lao PDR with all relevant stakeholders, starting from the farmers up to the end user of biofuels.

Jakob Rietzler graduated with a degree in Energy and Environmental Techniques at the Technical University of Ansbach, Germany. After gaining experience in Germany dealing in the field of renewable energies, he started focusing more in working with tropical energy crops and specifically on Jatropha curcas L. in Lao PDR. Jakob Rietzler represents LIRE at international conferences and continues his work in developing the second generation biofuels.

Samuel Neal Shiroff is the director for the market introduction of Protos, the plant oil cooking stove, at BSH Bosch and Siemens Home Appliances Group– located in Munich, Germany.  Sam is responsible for developing and implementing the business models necessary to reach the market segment for which Protos was designed – individuals who are purchasing wood, charcoal or kerosene for their cooking fuel source.  At present Protos is at various phases of introduction in the Dominican Republic, Haiti, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, and South Africa.  At BSH Sam is also responsible for conceptualizing and developing energy efficiency and carbon-savings related programs.

Born on 1976 in Pennsylvania, USA, Samuel studied Communication and History at Boston College in Massachusetts, graduating Phi Beta Kappa, and Magna cum Laude.  Samuel was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship in 1998, which was completed at Frankfurt University in Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Sam has an MBA from Colorado State University.

In 1999 he took a position in Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Responsibility Department.  There he focused on promoting, expanding and improving the bank’s sustainable development and corporate citizenship activities and impact internationally.  In 2003, Sam became executive director of the Bellagio Forum for Sustainable Development (BFSD) – an international network of corporate and private foundations, multi-lateral and media organizations striving to attain environmental balance, economic stability and social progress throughout the world.  Sam has several publications on the subject of sustainable development and responsible investment practices for foundations.

Dr. Laszlo Kondor is the establishing partner of BioDiesel Technologies GmbH, he currently acts as the Head of Business Development.

Dr. Kondor graduated from university as a physical geographer, and obtained his doctorate title in environmental geography.

After a period of hydrological research, he was in charge of different agricultural and industrial projects developments in Africa and the Middle-East, as project manager.

Later Dr. Kondor was employed in the Austrian and Hungarian plastic recycling industries and was positioned later as plastic recycling advisor in the USA and Norway. Subsequently, he held managerial posts in the used edible oil refining, and became on of the establishing partners of BioDiesel Technologies GmbH, a world-wide leader for modular biodiesel technologies. Dr. Kondor is a forerunner in the global promotion of biodiesel, and a devoted supporter of jatropha plantations in the developing world.

Prof. Dr. IR. H.J. Heeres is heading the Chemical Reaction Engineering (RE) research group of the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences of the University of Groningen. He has been involved in applied catalysis research for the last 20 years, both in academia (RUG, University of Oxford, UK) as well as industry (Shell Chemicals Research, 1991-1999).

Heeres is the Dutch projectleader of an international research consortium dealing with the application of the biorefinery concept to valorise the Jatropha Curcas plant. He is the academic director of the joint master program in Chemical Engineering between ITB Indonesia and RUG and guest professor at the Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.

Prof. Erik Heeres, Professor of Chemical Engineering
University of Groningen
BIOREFINERY CONCEPT FOR JATROPHA OIL
Day 2 [Tue 21, October], at 05:00 PM

Andreas Renner heads The Global Exchange for Social Investment’s venture philanthropy unit, and is founder and managing partner of the organizations consultancy arm, GEXSI LLP. A major achievement at GEXSI is having built up GEXSI’s Jatropha deal-flow pipeline

He holds a degree in international economics, and completed major PhD research on market-based approaches to sustainable development.

Andreas is also co-founder of two Jatropha companies, and represents GEXSI in international Jatropha fora such as the Roundtable on Sustainable Biofuels.

Before joining GEXSI, Andreas worked for a German CSR consultancy firm based that advised multinational corporations stakeholder relations and conflict management.

Andreas is also a director at ercolith gmbh, a German start-up engineering company that develops and markets earthquake resistant, energy efficient construction systems.

Jamey Hadden holds degrees in Economics and an MBA from the USA and for over fifteen years has owned and managed start-up operations in sun-rise industries from Hong Kong to Argentina.  Currently living in Vietnam, Mr. Hadden is a founding owner, business development manager and director of GreenEnergy JSC, Vietnam. 

In addition to Mr. Hadden’s key role in attracting new investment to GreenEnergy’s jatropha business, he also acts as Business Alliance Manager for Jatoil Ltd. (ASX) investigating new jatropha business opportunities world-wide.  Over the last three years, Mr. Hadden has been closely involved in over $20 million of successful placements (both private and public) for jatropha-specific ventures.

Mr Niklas Haga is a Master of Science in Chemical Engineering from Abo Akademi University in Turku, Finland. He has worked at the Power Plant Technology Department of Wärtsilä since 2002 and currently holds the position of Chief Development Engineer.

Mr Haga’s responsibility include new developments and technologies related to liquid fuel qualities and fuel feed systems. He also acts as technical advisor for sales and delivery projects related to liquid fuels like diesel oil, heavy fuel oil, heavy refinery residuals, crude oils and liquid biofuels.

Liquid biofuels, i.e. vegetable oils as fuel, has been the main area of focus for him since Wärtsilä´s first commercial vegetable oil fired installation in 2003. I have been working with our commercial liquid biofuel power stations in different project stages, from marketing and sales to system design, follow up and system optimization.