Virtual company model with strong leadership
Founded in 2008 and backed by Battelle Ventures and Braemar Energy Ventures, Proterro operates as a highly efficient virtual company with no full-time employees. Executive team members have expertise in building, managing, financing and scaling entrepreneurial ventures, and in taking nascent technologies to market.
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CEO — Kef Kasdin
CEO Kef Kasdin: nine years at 3Com Corp., where she was general manager of a $1B division; 10 years as venture capitalist; is general partner/cofounder of Battelle Ventures and affiliate Innovation Valley Partners ($255M under management), with company-creation, lab-spinout and energy-market expertise. Was named among "the top 100 people in bioenergy" for 2011-2012 by Biofuels Digest. CTO/Founder — John Aikens
CTO/Founder John Aikens, Ph.D.: 15+ years of experience in biotech R&D management; drove technical development for three start-ups that had successful exits (ThermoGen, Nanophase, MediChem Life Sciences/DeCode Genetics). Is co-inventor of Proterro technology and Proterro sucrose.
The Proterro Board of Directors
Responsible for overseeing the operation and guiding company progress as it moves forward is the Proterro Board of Directors.
» Click to read about Board members:
Board Chairman — Kef Kasdin
CEO Kef Kasdin: nine years at 3Com Corp., where she was general manager of a $1B division; 10 years as venture capitalist; is general partner/cofounder of Battelle Ventures and affiliate Innovation Valley Partners ($255M under management), with company-creation, lab-spinout and energy-market expertise. Was named among "the top 100 people in bioenergy" for 2011-2012 by Biofuels Digest.Board Director — John Aikens
CTO/Founder John Aikens, Ph.D.: 15+ years of experience in biotech R&D management; drove technical development for three start-ups that had successful exits (ThermoGen, Nanophase, MediChem Life Sciences/DeCode Genetics). Is co-inventor of Proterro technology and Proterro sucrose.
Board Director — William D. Lese
William D. Lese, a co-founder and managing partner of Braemar Energy Ventures, has more than 28 years of research, operating and venture capital experience in the energy and environmental businesses. In additon to Proterro, Mr. Lese currently serves on the boards of directors of Coaltek, Utility Associates, Stion, Ciris Energy, OPX Biotechnologies, Solazyme and General Fusion, and is chairman of the board of Solicore and Ioxus. Previously, he served on the boards of directors of EnerNOC and Verenium, and was a board observer to Enerkem, Fractal Systems and Convey Computer. (
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The Proterro Advisory Board
Providing invaluable and diverse perspectives that supplement and complement those of Proterro's directors are Proterro's advisors. They are:
Advisor — Harrison F. Dillon, Ph.D.
Harrison F. Dillon, Ph.D., is a co-founder, the president and the chief technology officer of high-value renewable oil producer Solazyme, Inc.. A pioneer and thought leader in the renewables field, he is an inventor on more than 30 Solazyme patents and patent applications. Dr. Dillon's diversified background includes a law degree from Duke University and a doctorate in genetics from the University of Utah, where he had managed the institution's biotechnology patent portfolio in its technology transfer office. Dr. Dillon was an associate in the biotechnology group at Townsend and Townsend and Crew (now Kilpatrick Townsend & Stockton), specializing in intellectual property. He is a member of the State Bar of California, is licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office, and has authored articles in legal, scientific and business journals.Advisor — Thomas Dries
Thomas Dries is founder and managing partner of NCN Partners, which specializes in providing strategic direction and analysis for resolving critical business development and supply issues facing clients in renewable chemicals and fuels markets. As vice president of business development for Gevo Inc., Mr. Dries led market development efforts for renewable fuels and chemicals based on biobutanol and established partnerships with ethanol producers. As operations vice president at Cargill Biofuels Operating Services, he headed development of four major ethanol plants, and, as project manager for the Cargill Emerging Business Accelerator, he developed protected amino acid products for commercialization. At Midwest Lysine, a joint venture between Cargill and Degussa AG, he helped build an advanced, fermentation-based production facility to produce a value-added form of lysine, essential to the animal feed industry. Advisor — Christos G. Papadopoulos, Ph.D.
Christos G. Papadopoulos, Ph.D., is a chemical engineer with almost four decades of experience in petrochemical industry research and production. He led BP Chemicals' efforts that resulted in Department of Energy funding of the Green Olefins Machine project, and served as senior advisor for BP's Research & Education Clean Energy Centre partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Beijing's Tsinghua University, focusing on clean coal technologies and green energy issues. Credited with six patents for exploration and production (E&P) and chemical industry technologies, Dr. Papadopoulos headed research activities for several Amoco divisions and R&D groups, for which he led programs to formulate intellectual property strategies and development of risk assessment and mitigation tools for new technology development and commercialization across BP Chemicals.
Proterro Inventors
The company is turning creative efforts led by the following scientists into technological reality:
Co-inventor — John Aikens
CTO/Founder John Aikens, Ph.D.: 15+ years of experience in biotech R&D management; drove technical development for three start-ups that had successful exits (ThermoGen, Nanophase, MediChem Life Sciences/DeCode Genetics). Is co-inventor of Proterro technology and Proterro sucrose.
Co-inventor — Robert Turner, Ph.D.
Co-inventor of Proterro technology; is an expert in molecular engineering with 7+ years of biotech R&D management experience. Holds a doctorate in biochemistry from University of Illinois; was an NIH postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Professor Paul Schimmel at the Scripps Research Institute.