The principals of the firm have a proven history of success in financing, operating, developing and implementing advanced energy and biotechnical systems. The technical personnel, Dr. Gjert Knutsen and James McElvaney, are global leaders in their respective fields, bioprospecting and bioconversion. Each  has a demonstrated resume of practical results that are unique in their scope. Together with other specialists and business support, the team is in a unique position to innovate in the identified high-impact areas because they have the experience, clear solutions and supporting tools that are unavailable to others. Overall, ProterraBio's experienced group of professionals has 25 years of successful bioconversion experience; designing, developing, constructing, operating and producing beneficial by-products from a varied number of wastes.

Carl Avers, Chairman, has been in the district energy business for more than 30 years. From 1980 to 1989, Avers was chairman and president of Catalyst Thermal Energy Corp., a publicly-listed company that acquired and grew district steam and cooling systems. During Mr. Avers nine-year tenure, Catalyst’s revenues grew from under $3 million to $125 million. Avers served two terms as a board member and one term as president of the International District Energy Association (IDEA). Mr. Avers received IDEAs highest honor, the Norman Taylor Award, in 1986. He has published numerous articles and presented many technical papers on energy and environmental issues. 

Mark Hodges, CEO has had a distinguished 20 year corporate and entrepreneurial background having worked for Ford and founded three companies. Mr. Hodges has specialized in bringing "disruptive" yet proven systems to market working with industry to deliver bottom-line improvement through new, breakthrough energy infrastructure. Active in the steel industry as well, Proterra has projects in the US and others under development internationally.

Jim McElvaney, SVP, has a 30 year background as one of the world’s leading authorities on the bioconversion of organic waste having worked as a practitioner, developer and advisor on over 30 major projects in the field. Jim’s successful implementation of two bioconversion projects in Hawaii resulted in the award of over $350 Million of contracts in California.  McElvaney provides the intellectual property, including trade secrets and know-how to produce and refine the variety of organic co-products, as part of the license to use the bioconverter technology available to clients.

Dr. Gjert Knutsen, VP of R&D, an emeritus professor from the University of Bergen in Norway, leads all biotechnology development. Over the past 35 years, Dr. Knutsen has gained a reputation as a recognized research microbiologist who specializes in bioprospecting and bioengineering of unique micro-algae species. 

Jeff McElvaney, Director of Marketing, has 16 years of service providing complete marketing solutions and business development results to top-tier service firms and to clean technology companies. 

Frank Cipriani, Director of Development, brings 25 years of applied R&D knowledge in bio-systems development. He has designed industrial-scale Algae production systems and brings advanced field-based expertise on applied Algal Phycology to increase production yields.

THE NEW BIOCONVERTER WEBSITE

If you expected to see content from www.bioconverter.com, you've still arrived at the right place. All the information you're looking for is available. Just send us an email concerning any question or request for information on bioprocessing or biorefining from the old site and we'll send you more information than you expected to find! After sending us an e-mail, browse our site to find out more about bioconversion and the BioConverter.