CEO OF LARGEST NORTH AMERICAN BIOREFINERY JOINS CALYX TEAM
CEO OF LARGEST NORTH AMERICAN BIOREFINERY JOINS TEAM
John Plaza has agreed to join Calyx Bio-Ventures Inc.’s investee Agrisoma’s board of directors as Calyx nominee effective Jan. 20, 2014. Mr. Plaza brings extensive biorefinery and executive leadership experience to Agrisoma.
Mr. Plaza is president, chief executive officer and founder of Imperium Renewables in Seattle. Mr. Plaza started the company in February, 2004, by building the first commercial-scale biodiesel production facility in the western United States. By 2007, Imperium developed, built and now currently operates Imperium Grays Harbor, one of the largest biodiesel production facilities in the world at 100 million gallons per year. The company’s core focus was to develop and build advanced technology for biofuel production that differentiated itself in the market with fuel quality and scale. This innovative direction, which was led by Mr. Plaza, facilitated Imperium’s significant growth. Most recently, Imperium has been focused on renewable jet fuel production platforms. These include building commercial-scale facilities to produce renewable jet fuel, as well as research and development of future production pathways for renewable jet fuel from biomass sources. Prior to founding Imperium Renewables, Mr. Plaza was a commercial airline pilot for 20 years. Mr. Plaza has flown over 17,000 hours in more that 50 different aircraft, starting his career as a bush pilot in northern Alaska, then going on to fly B747, DC-10 and A-320 aircraft for Northwest Airlines. Mr. Plaza has acted as an adviser to the Clinton Global Initiative Americas, 2012 Clean Fuel and Transportation, and is a contributor to the Sustainable Alternative Fuels for Aviation Expert Group (SUSTAF) created by ICAO. He has been named one of the top-100 people in bioenergy the last three years.
“I am excited to be a part of the team for this innovative company and greatly support their efforts to assist with the diversification of agricultural products for farmers throughout the world. The vision and opportunities for the supply of a non-food oilseed crop like carinata is of critical importance for the future of renewable fuels. Biofuels produced from carinata provide an important option to meeting the rapid growth in energy demand, while effectively balancing social and environmental needs,” said Mr. Plaza.
“We are delighted to have John sit as a Calyx nominee on the Agrisoma board. John is a well-connected, big-vision guy with industry-leading bioenergy knowledge and the track record to back it up. His experience in both aviation and biorefining are vital in the commercialization of carinata,” commented Don Konantz, chief executive officer of Calyx.
