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Team |
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Stephen Fernands, Board Chairman
Founder and President of Customized Energy Solutions (CES). Stephen has been involved in more than 100 consulting projects helping municipal utilities, industrial and commercial customers, and alternative energy suppliers make better decisions with their energy purchases across North America and abroad. CES has been named one of the fastest growing 100 private businesses for 5 of the past 7 years by the Philadelphia Business Journal and Wharton Business School, as well as ranked by INC magazine as the 16th fastest growing privately owned energy company. Stephen was selected as one of the 40 Individuals Under 40 years of age making positive contributions to the Philadelphia region by the Philadelphia Business Journal and was admitted to the Wharton School of Business’ Entrepreneurs Hall of Fame. |  | Charles Howland, Board Member
Charles B. Howland is Counsel to the Penn Real Estate Group, Ltd. companies, including Penn Energy Trust, LLC. (“Penn Group”). The Penn Group is engaged in the renewable power business (including wind and solar) across the United States. In addition to its utility-scale renewable energy projects, the Penn Group is installing distributed solar power production facilities on properties in its commercial real estate portfolio, and is developing several technological advancements in the field of renewable energy. Prior to coming to the Penn Group, Mr. Howland served as Senior Assistant Regional Counsel for EPA in its Region III office in Philadelphia, where he worked most recently on legal issues associated with military-related contamination, brownfield redevelopment and liability matters, and innovative environmental policies. He also served as the legal project manager within EPA’s Office of Reinvention, resolving legal issues and leading stakeholder groups associated with XL projects involving use of bioreactor techniques at solid waste landfills; low level mixed (radioactive) waste; and deployment of new technology for recovering wood pulping chemicals from pulp & paper mills. For this and other work at EPA he has won various awards, including the Department of Justice’s Commendation for Outstanding Service, EPA’s Instructor of the Year and Public Service awards, and a bronze award for public service from the Philadelphia Regional Federal Executive Board. He has taught environmental law courses in graduate programs at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School and Institute for Environmental Studies, and Drexel University. Mr. Howland is a member of the Philadelphia and American Bar Associations, and is serving his second term as a member of the Lower Merion Township Planning Commission. He received his J.D. from Villanova University School of Law, and his B.A. from Cornell University. |  | Bob Bradley, Board Member
President of Atlantic Coast Energy, an independent petroleum distributor that sells over 35M gallons of petroleum products annually, ranging from marine bunker fuel to heating oil to diesel and gasoline. Bob has over 35 years of experience in the petroleum industry including sales, terminal management, energy trading, and financial risk management. | | Peter Shaw, Board Secretary
Director at Navigant Consulting, Inc. (NYSE: NCI), an international strategy and management consultancy specializing in industries undergoing substantial regulatory or structural change. Peter has twenty years of experience advising energy companies on integrated resource planning, new product development and customer strategy. He has assisted numerous companies in developing business plans and launching new lines of business selling energy commodities, energy services and related outsource solutions. He is a recognized thought leader in the development of utility “smart grid” infrastructures and leads two industry consortiums focused on integrating energy efficiency, renewable and distributed energy resources into utility marketing and customer management operations. He holds a Masters degree in Energy Policy from the University of Pennsylvania. |  | Emily Landsburg, CEO, Board Member
Joined BlackGold in 2003 as a member of the founding team. A keen entrepreneur, she established Philadelphia’s leading biodiesel distributorship, on track to exceed $10M in annual revenue in only its 3rd year. Here she honed expertise in bio/petro-diesel markets and with municipalities and utilities, her target customers. Emily successfully started and sold a business addressing sewage disposal in the marine industry and has been involved in several start-ups in energy and technology. A nationally recognized leader, she was appointed the first Chairman of the National Biodiesel Board’s Sustainability Task Force and is an international speaker. She graduated magna cum laude in Applied Math from Columbia University, is an Environmental Leadership Program Fellow, and was named an Emerging Connector by Leadership Philadelphia. |  | Stephen Kasprzyk, Engineering
Chemical Engineer responsible for the day-to-day operations of BlackGold’s pilot plant since its construction, including plant commissioning, process development, fuel production, and quality assurance. From daily hands-on experience, Steve has developed unique, specialized expertise in brown grease characterization, handling, and conversion. He graduated from Drexel University in 2005 with a BS in Chemical Engineering. Steve is also a world class rower, competing in the 2007 World Championships in Munich in the Men’s Pair with Coxswain. |  | Elaine Feldman, Engineering
Licensed professional engineer with 3 decades of experience developing and implementing multimedia environmental and energy programs, including running physical processes such as WWTP and power plants in heavy industry for large multinational corporations, in hands-on and corporate oversight positions. Elaine has pioneered numerous resource conservation programs that yielded substantive reductions in operations environmental footprint and costs. She has developed and taught university level courses in environmental sustainability and been a frequent presenter at professional meetings and graduate level courses. She earned a B.S in Environmental Resources Management, a B.S. in Biology, a certificate in Marine Science and a Masters in Environmental Pollution Control from Pennsylvania State University. |  | W. Wes Berry, Engineering
Chemical engineer with over 20 years of experience in process design and over 10 years of technology development and commercialization experience in the biodiesel industry. Berry is named on 22 patents for various chemical manufacturing applications, has authored numerous publications, and is affiliated with the American Institute of Chemical Engineers, the American Chemical Society, the American Oil Chemists’ Society, Tau Beta Pi, and Phi Kappa Phi. He received an MS in Chemical Engineering from the University of South Florida in 1976. |  | Michael Haas
Research Biochemist with the USDA’s Eastern Regional Research Center. He is nationally recognized as a leader in developing methods for the production of biodiesel from low-cost lipid feedstocks by enzymatic or nonenzymatic methods and has over 20 years of experience in lipid chemistry and biochemistry. He has published over 65 research articles and over 70 scientific abstracts as well as 12 book chapters and holds 4 US Patents. He received the Alton E. Bailey Award for outstanding contributions to lipid research from the North Central Section of the American Oil Chemists’ Society. Dr. Haas is the former President of the American Oil Chemists Society. He has a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and received a postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Institute of Health. |  | Karen Scott
Support Scientist with the USDA’s Eastern Regional Research Center. She has nearly 20 years of experience working on a variety of projects related to agricultural fats and oils. Her recent research focus is on the transformation of low-cost materials into biodiesel. Karen performs analysis of BlackGold Biofuels' feedstocks and products to assess conversion efficiency. She earned a B.S. in Food Science (minor in Chemistry) and a M.S in Food Science (minor in Microbial Genetics) from the University of Minnesota. |
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