Management
and Key Staff Profiles
Chairman/CEO
Richard
Kent has been
instrumental in the creation of Kent BioEnergy through his
direct commitment of time and capital. His extensive
experience as a successful serial entrepreneur and investor
across diverse business segments is coupled with a passion
for technology- driven commercial opportunities. As founder
and chairman of Orval Kent Food Company, Inc. he built a
fledgling food company into an industry leader through
sound management and the acquisition of six competing food
manufacturers. By the time he sold Orval Kent in 1988,
annual revenues exceeded $180 million. Mr. Kent holds a
Chemical Engineering degree from the University of
Tennessee at Knoxville.
President and
Co-Founder
Jack
Van Olst is a pioneer
in marine biology and developed his expertise in commercial
aquatic species culture over the course of four decades.
For the greater part of the last 15 years, his attention
has been focused on developing and providing industrial
solutions using algae-based technologies - bioenergy
production, water pollution remediation, greenhouse gas
control, landfill liquid waste management, and production
of fertilizer and livestock feed additives. Most recently,
he has developed proprietary methods of producing liquid
biofuels using an overall systems approach centered on an
algae production platform. The total system perspective is
absolutely essential for commercial viability of
algae-based biofuels production.
Prior to founding Kent BioEnergy, Mr. Van Olst directed
projects for world-class academic and industrial
organizations across the U.S. (Kent SeaTech Corporation,
San Diego State University, Southern California Edison,
Pacific Gas & Electric) and abroad (Africa, Canada,
China, Mexico, Costa Rica, Chile, and others). He is also
an experienced industrial bioengineer and has designed,
built, and operated 14 state-of-the art aquaculture
research facilities. He received his M.S. in Zoology at San
Diego State University and went on to direct the
Aquaculture Program there until founding the predecessor
company to Kent BioEnergy with partner James Carlberg.
Executive Vice
President and Co-Founder
Jim
Carlberg is an expert
in aquaculture research and production, and the related
fields of water quality management and aquatic animal
health. He has directed major marine biology research
programs at San Diego State University, Scripps Institution
of Oceanography, Southern California Edison Company, Sea
World, and the Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute. His work
has focused on the use of algal production systems to
develop low-cost wastewater treatment methods to conserve
and recycle water to aquaculture operations and to restore
wildlife habitat. He has overseen numerous government
grants (USDA, DOE, EPA, and NSF) on the use of the
microalgae technologies to treat agricultural waste, dairy
waste, and to capture CO2 to reduce water pollution, produce
valuable products (including biofuels), and to recycle
atmospheric carbon dioxide to mitigate global climate
change. He has co-authored more than 100 publications and
technical reports on aquaculture and wastewater
remediation. He has worked on nearly 200 projects in over
40 countries.
Jim Carlberg received his MS in Marine Ecology and Minor in
Biochemistry from SDSU in 1972. He was President of Kent
SeaTech and is currently Executive VP of Kent BioEnergy,
with headquarters in San Diego and field operations in the
Coachella Valley.
Chief Business
Officer
Barry
Toyonaga, Ph.D., is
keenly interested in global strategic partnering of the
company's bio-fuel and renewable technology assets. He has
over 20 years of experience in the diverse activities
related to capital formation for technology-rich companies
– identification of disruptive technologies, implementation
of management practices, execution of operational
strategies, fund raising, corporate/business development,
and sourcing exit opportunities.
He was a partner
at Ventana Capital (San Juan Capistrano, CA) and held
executive/management positions in early-stage and
established biotechnology companies, as well as within
various divisions of Johnson & Johnson.
Additionally, he was the founder of Ontogen Corporation, a
pioneer in the field of automated synthetic chemistry and
one of the only combinatorial chemistry companies to move
an in-house discovery successfully through early human
clinical trials. As president and CEO for over 10 years, he
closed equity financings ($30MM), realized strategic
alliance revenues ($50MM), and grew the company to over 100
employees.
Dr. Toyonaga was a Visiting Research Scientist at The
Scripps Research Institute (La Jolla, CA), the California
Institute of Technology (Pasadena, CA), and Yale University
(New Haven, CT). He was also a MRC postdoctoral fellow at
the Ontario Cancer Institute (Toronto, ON) and involved in
the discovery of the human T Cell Receptor. He received a
Ph.D. in physical organic chemistry from the University of
Toronto (St. George Campus, Toronto, ON).
VP, Systems
Development/Co-Founder
Michael
Massingill has over 30
years of aquaculture engineering experience with extensive
expertise in water treatment technologies including
large-scale algal-based systems such as Partitioned
Aquaculture Systems (PAS), and the Controlled
Eutrophication Process (CEP) as well as mechanical
engineering, integrated circuit design, and culture system
design. He oversees algal process R&D including
advanced techniques for the production of lipids in
microalgae, outdoor mass production of algae, optimization
of algal productivity, and improvement in algal harvest
technology, including the development of advanced Artemia
Harvest and Conversion technology. Among other innovations,
he has co-designed and patented many aspects of the
company's innovative wastewater treatment systems including
the "SMART" nitrification reactors and constructed
wetlands.
Prior to Kent BioEnergy, Mr. Massingill conducted research
on the culture, feeding and spawning of several warm water
fish species at UC Davis. In addition, he was a lecturer
and teaching assistant giving courses in fish nutrition,
physiology of fishes, and fisheries biology. He also has
served more than nine years on the Board of Directors of
the California Aquaculture Association.
Director, Molecular
Research
James
C. Levin, Ph.D., has
current research interests in molecular approaches to the
improvement of biomass and lipid yields in aquatic algae
cultured for the production of bioenergy. He is also
involved in the development of technologies to track the
fate of selenium in tributaries of the Salton Sea.
Prior to joining Kent BioEnergy, Dr. Levin has also focused
on the study of how microorganisms interact with their
environment and mechanisms of eradicating harmful species.
He is an expert in bacterial microbiology, the development
of anti-infective agents for hard-to-treat pathogens, and
molecular biology techniques to elucidate relevant
questions of bacterial pathogenesis. He was Infectious
Disease research Group Leader at Gemini Science Inc., and
Group Leader, Pre-clinical Microbiology, at Quorex
Pharmaceuticals. His earliest research work focused on
mechanisms by which bacteria survive in cadmium laden soils
as part of a larger bioremediation program. Before that he
was an Instructor and Research Fellow in Medicine at the
Channing Laboratory of Harvard Medical School. Dr. Levin
received his Ph.D. in Microbiology from the University of
Maryland at College Park.
Director, Systems
Engineering
Gregory
Schwartz, Ph.D., has
considerable experience in aquaculture and wastewater
engineering. Dr. Schwartz was instrumental in the
development of the Controlled Eutrophication Process (CEP)
and has conducted extensive research and development
related to the Partitioned Aquaculture System (PAS). He is
an expert in fish production management, mechanical design,
water quality analyses, and data acquisition and analysis,
including the calculation of mass balances for oxygen,
inorganic carbon, and nitrogen.
Dr. Schwartz received his B.S. in Agricultural Engineering
from California Polytechnic State University. He also
obtained experience in the design of earthen ponds through
his work for the Soil Conservation Service at the Alabama
Fish Farming Center. Dr. Gregory Schwartz received his
Ph.D. from the Department of Agricultural and Biological
Engineering at Clemson University, under Professor Dr.
David Brune, one of the company's key scientific advisors.
Construction
Engineer
Wayne
Sterud is the company's
full time licensed contractor who has specialized in the
design and construction of aquatic and gas pipeline systems
for more than 25 years. He has constructed methane power
plants, large-scale intensive fish and algae culture
facilities, laboratory and office workspace, steel feed
silo systems, ozone generation and distribution systems,
liquid and gaseous oxygen systems, cooling tower systems,
and many other advanced equipment necessary for the
production of aquatic species. He also is a skilled
operator of earthmoving equipment, plasma cutters, and
electrical troubleshooting gear.
Research
Engineer
Christian-D. Henrich,
Ph.D., is an expert in
process design and modeling of biological and chemical
processes used in wastewater treatment operations. His
focus is the development and optimization of sustainable
waste treatment processes utilizing novel methods for
recycling energy and nutrients. Dr. Henrich obtained his
German Engineering Diploma in Process Engineering with a
concentration in Biotechnology from the University of
Applied Sciences of Bingen, Germany. For his thesis, Dr.
Henrich researched and modeled new extraction methods for
bioprocessing applications at the institute of Chemical
Engineering, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in
Karlsruhe, Germany. Dr. Henrich received his M.S. and Ph.D.
from the Department of Agricultural and Biological
Engineering at Clemson University under Professor David
Brune, conducting research leading to significant
improvements in the Partitioned Aquaculture System (PAS)
and KBE’s leachate treatment systems.
