The leadership of the Algae Biomass Organization is critical is assisting the industry to move forward towards commercialization.
The Algae Biomass Organization’s Board of Directors come from a broad range of backgrounds and have a diversity of expertise and experience that spans science, technology, engineering, public policy, education, business, and entrepreneurship. All board members share ABO’s vision of a world where humankind universally thrives with access to sustainable and productive resources and their active and engaged leadership is critical in propelling the algae industry forward towards commercialization.
Mike LaMont – Chairperson, ABO
As a Biotech and an Agtech executive, Mike LaMont has led the technical development of algae-based ag products from concept at R&D through product and process development into final implementation at full-scale production.
While at Heliae, Mike led the development of multiple products in the PhycoTerra line, including seed treatment which has won numerous awards. Mike has directed efforts across multiple platforms, from head of operations to design of growth systems to downstream processing. Mike has also worked in a derivative of the classic petrochemical industry focused on smaller footprint, higher-efficiency chemical processing. This ultimately led Mike to direct the design, construction, and operations of a first-of-its-kind small scale gas-to-liquids pilot plant in Columbus, Ohio. His time working in the EMSL at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory galvanized Mike’s belief in the power of cross-functional, cross-trained teams.
During his 25+ years of research and production experience, Mike has authored multiple publications, spoken at numerous conferences from Thailand to Hawaii, worked in multiple countries, holds numerous patents and trade secrets, and is a member of several professional and trade organizations.
Mike holds a Master of Science in Environmental Engineering from Washington State University, and a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from SD School of Mines & Technology.
Jen Johansen –Vice President of Quality, Regulatory & Government Affairs, Cyanotech
Ms. Johansen has 18 years of experience in quality, regulatory & government affairs. In addition to her service on the Board of Directors of the Algae Biomass Organization (ABO), she is a Board Director for the Kona Kohala Chamber of Commerce (KKCC), and is also a member of KKCC’s Economic Development, Government Affairs, and Sustainability Committees.
Ms. Johansen is a member of the Regulatory Affairs Professional Society (RAPS), the American Herbal Products Association (AHPA) Government Affairs Committee, the American Herbalist Guild, is an American Society of Quality certified HACCP Auditor, and is a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI). Since 2012 she has been working to develop the next generation of congressional champions for the Dietary Supplement and Natural Products industry.
Ms. Johansen attended the University of Oregon on a full athletic scholarship for basketball and obtained her degree in Psychology, with a minor in Organic Chemistry.
Zach Gates – UHY Transation Services; Treasurer, ABO
Zach Gates leads the UHY Client Accounting and Advisory Services (CAAS) practice in Iowa. He also leads various engagements within Iowa’s transaction services practice, including due diligence/quality of earnings analysis and capitalizations. Zach focuses on startups and high growth businesses from a CFO role by being their trusted advisor, assisting with capitalization and financing transactions, developing financial models, and providing timely and accurate financial information to foster decision making and the achievement of strategic plans and goals. Zach serves clients in numerous industries, including startups, technology, real estate, and manufacturing. Prior to leading the Iowa CAAS team, Zach spent seven years in the audit department at UHY, providing audit and assurance services to clients in various industries, including real estate and construction, manufacturing, technology, and employee benefit plans.
Mr. Byrne has a passion for the emerging algae-to energy-industry. His company co-hosted the inaugural Algae Biomass Summit in November 2007 in San Francisco, California and the 2008 Summit in Seattle, Washington, which were the foundation for establishing the Algal Biomass Organization in 2008. Mr. Byrne was elected to the ABO’s Board of Directors and serves as Board Secretary.
Dr. Amha Belay – Founder / CEO, Algae4All
Dr. Belay is currently a Visiting Scholar at UCSD and CEO of Algae4All, LLC, a consulting company focused on algae biomass production, quality assurance, product development, regulatory guidance, management, project evaluation and education. Up to recently, Dr. Belay was Sr. Vice President and CTO of Earthrise Nutritionals, a company that has been engaged in outdoor Spirulina biomass production for food, feed and nutraceuticals for about 40 years. He oversaw all scientific, technical and regulatory aspects of Spirulina production. Dr. Belay has an extensive experience in microalgae biomass production, algal product development, quality assurance and health and other applications of algae in general and Spirulina in particular.
He is actively engaged in research on algae production for food, feed, fuel and biochemicals. He serves as a technical advisor, board member and expert reviewer of several organizations. Dr. Belay is a founding and past executive committee member of the International Society for Applied Phycology, a member of the Phycological Society of America, the International Society of Food Technologists and the American Association for the Advancement of Science to mention a few. He is also a board member of the Algae Biomass Organization.
Prior to joining Earthrise, Dr. Belay was Associate Professor and Head of the Biology Department, Science Faculty, Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia, Senior Fellow of the Third World Academy of Sciences, Italy, a research fellow at the Freshwater Institute, UK and a Senior Fulbright Fellow at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dr. Belay has published several scientific papers, and has served as an editor, editorial board member and reviewer of many journals.
Dr. Belay is a recipient of the “Distinguished Applied Phycologist Award” from the International Society for Applied Phycology and the “Lifetime Achievement Award” from the Algae Biomass Organization.
Dr. John Benemann – CEO, MicroBio Engineering
Dr. Benemann has both a B.S. in Chemistry and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry, both from the University of California Berkeley; in addition, he spent three years as postdoctoral fellow, Dept. of Chemistry, U.C. San Diego; then rejoined U.C. Berkeley in the Department of Civil Engineering, where, as an independent researcher where he supervised half dozen Ph.D. thesis students in Civil Engineering, Biophysics and Plant Physiology. In 1980, he started a small microalgae biotechnology company and from 1983-1988 was Associate Professor at Georgia Inst. of Technology.
For the past 20+ years he has been a part time researcher at the University of California Berkeley (Depts. of Civil Engineering and Plant and Microbial Biology). and at the University of Hawaii (adjunct Professor), and a full-time consultant. His current research interests are the areas of microalgae products, aquaculture, wastewater treatment, photosynthesis, municipal solid wastes management, biofuels and all aspects of greenhouse gas abatement.
He is the author of numerous publications and reports and belongs to a number of professional and trade organizations. He was the manager of the “Microalgae Bio fixation Network” operated by the IEA Greenhouse Gas R&D Programmer.
Joshua Rhein – General Manager, Eurofins Scientific
Josh is a General Manager with Eurofins Scientific, a world leader in analytical testing services. He oversees multiple testing sites for the Specialty Testing Group within Eurofins Food, Feed, and Supplement Testing Division, specializing in method development services and testing to support new and emerging market trends, including but not limited to phytochemical, carotenoids, and seaweed/algae industries. As part of these specialized services, Josh works closely with industry leaders to ensure Eurofins is positioned to support the testing needs of evolving industries, including a strong focus on algae/seaweed testing platforms.
Prior to a leadership role, Josh has over 10 years of bench Chemistry experience, including method development and validation using Chromatography, Spectroscopy, Elemental and other Wel Chemistry platforms. Josh received his BS in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire.
Jean-Paul Cadoret, PhD, HDR – CSO, AlgamaFoods
Dr. Cadoret is a former President and Vice-President of EABA , the – European Algae Biomass Association. He has 35 years of experience in research (Ifremer) and industry in the field of algae and marine biotechnology, dedicated to innovation. He is also former Managing Director of the private Marine Biotech Company GREENSEA. He has been Researcher, Team leader, Lab Director and Unit Director in the governmental Institute IFREMER and is Co-Founder of the company Algenics, and the company Iaso-Biotech. He has authored 80 publications and holds 10 patents.
Martin Gross – President/Co-Founder, Gross-Wen Technologies
Dr. Martin Gross is the President and a founder at Gross-Wen Technologies (GWT). GWT is a next generation wastewater treatment company that is commercializing the revolving algal biofilm treatment technology (RAB). The RAB system sustainably recovers nitrogen and phosphorus from wastewater. The byproducts from the process are clean water, clean air, and algae biomass, which can be used to create products ranging from fertilizers to nutraceuticals.
During his role as President at GWT, he has raised over $5M in equity investments, served as Principal Investigator on over $1M in non-diluting SBIR grant funding, applied for and been granted numerous patents, and helped orchestrate the first commercial sale of GWT’s core RAB technology.
Prior to founding GWT, Gross attained dual doctoral degrees from Iowa State University in the fields of Bioprocess Engineering and Food Science and Technology. Gross also serves as a professor of entrepreneurship at ISU.
David Hazlebeck – CEO/Founder, Global Algae Innovations
David Hazlebeck, Ph.D., founder & CEO of Global Algae Innovations, is a proven leader and innovator in the algae industry. He has over 30 years’ experience in chemical and biological research and development from laboratory-scale through piloting and commercial implementation. His biofuel experience includes leading the development of large-scale photosynthetic algal biofuels, sugar and waste conversion via heterotrophic algae and oleaginous yeast, cellulosic conversion to drop-in fuels, and conversion of plastics to fuel.
Prior to Global Algae Innovations, he led the biofuels and algae products program at General Atomics where he was the principal investigator for the DARPA Algal-Derived JP-8 project that included collaborative algal process research and development with 28 outside organizations and culminated in the design and operation of a large-scale, advanced algae production facility.
Dr. Hazlebeck has a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the University of Delaware and a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of California, San Diego.
Nagatoshi Ide, PhD – Senior Technical Division Manager, Earthrise Nutritionals LLC
Dr. Nagatoshi Ide is Senior Technical Division Manager at Earthrise Nutritionals LLC, and has overseen their Quality, New Product Development and Regulatory since 2019.
Dr. Ide has more than 25 years of experience and knowledge in the pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and food industries in both research and management roles. He has a PhD in Natural Organic Chemistry and published over 50 scientific papers during his research career in Japan, US and Germany. Following his research career, he was appointed as R&D Director at a Japanese pharmaceutical/nutraceutical company and returned to the US in 2006.
He has cooperated on more than 20 research projects with universities and research institutions around the world, including many human clinical studies using dietary supplements; leading to 30 scientific publications, and in addition, launched over 50 new products for the pharmaceutical/nutraceutical markets worldwide. He has also been involved in product registration and has knowledge in regulatory for dietary supplement/nutraceutical products in Japan, US, EU and China.
With all of these experiences, including customer support from previous companies, he has helped maintain Earthrise’s high-quality products in the current position of Earthrise Nutritionals.
Earthrise Nutritionals LLC is a subsidiary of Dainippon Ink and Chemicals (DIC) Corporation in Tokyo, Japan, and has produced and cultivated spirulina, an amazing environmentally sustainable algae, for over 45 years and its extract, a natural blue pigment Linablue® since 2015 in southern California. Earthrise is the world’s largest spirulina farm, and together with our sister company’s farm in China, DIC group is the largest spirulina producer in the world.
Daniel J. Levy, PG – Vice President, AECOM
Dan is the National Director for AECOM’s Algae Mitigation Practice. AECOM is the world’s premier infrastructure and consulting firm. With offices in over 150 counties and annual revenues in 2020 of $13.2 billion, AECOM provides a collaborative force of innovators, problem solvers and visionaries to solve the world’s most complex challenges. As AECOM’s National Director for Algae, Dan’s team is focused developing innovative solutions to restore our nation’s nutrient impacted waterways by valorizing the transformation of wild and harmful algae into commercial products, biofuel and fertilizers.
Dan’s experience includes research and development of ground-breaking treatment technologies and is the co-inventor of the patented SEDCUT dredging technology for the removal of nutrient rich sediments and the patent pending Hypernucleation Flotation System (HFS) for the removal of wild and harmful algae. Dan served as the Project Director for the Florida Governor’s 2018 emergency response toxic algae mitigation program, the 2019 New York Governor’s innovative HAB research pilot test and the award winning USACE Harmful Algal Bloom Interception, Treatment and Transformation (HABITATS) research program.
Dan is also the recipient of; 2018 National Western Dredging Association (WEDA) Environmental Excellence Award, 2018 FDEP Southeast District Superior Excellence Distinction Award for outstanding environmental practices, and 2019 Environmental Business Journal (EBJ) Award for Social Contribution for development of an innovative Algae Harvesting program.
Greg Mitchell – Research Biologist, Scripps Institute of Oceanography UC San Diego
Greg Mitchell’s research on microalgae photosynthesis, plankton ecology, ocean optics and satellite remote sensing has been sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, NSF, NASA and the NOAA. His laboratory work focuses on growth and photo physiology of microalgae. He is currently active in coordinating research and commercial demonstration of algae mass culture for biofuel, animal feed and abatement of waste CO2 and nutrients. The focus of his research on algae commercial applications is optimization of yields of bioenergy and animal feed molecules in the light-temperature-nutrient matrix that regulates algae growth. He has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific articles in prominent international journals. He was a founding member of the Board of the Algae Biomass Organization and served four consecutive 2-year terms. He was a founding member of the Board of the Algae Foundation, and he continues to serve on that Board as Vice-Char. Greg received his Bachelor of Science degree with honors in Aquatic Biology from the University of Texas at Austin, and in 1987 he received his Ph.D. in Biological Oceanography from the University of Southern California. He has been a Research Biologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego since 1988.
Kevin McGraw – Co-Founder, Clearas Solutions; Vice Chairperson, ABO
Kevin blends his military background and industry expertise with over 20 years of leadership and entrepreneurial experience to lead the operations team for Clearas. His skills in solving complex problems and finding innovative solutions at the intersection of technological and biological systems performance are at the heart of Clearas Solutions Operations.
Prior to co-founding Clearas Solutions, Kevin built a successful residential land development business in California which he later expanded into Montana. Earlier in his career, he studied navigation, graduating from the California Maritime Academy and spent eight years sailing as a Navigational Officer for Master Mates and Pilots. Kevin served four years as a United States Marine and completed his obligation with an honorable discharge.