Richard Bailey is currently consulting with several companies in the Industrial Biotechnology sector following a successful career spanning 34 years. During this career, he participated in, or managed the development, scale-up, and subsequent commercialization of multiple fermentation processes for both specialty and commodity chemicals. He was most recently the CEO of Microbia, Inc., a subsidiary of Ironwood Pharmaceutical, a company that had brought novel cost-advantaged technology for the production a class of specialty chemicals to the brink of commercialization. Prior to joining Microbia in 2002, he held senior management positions for several divisions of Monsanto with responsibilities for programs in both fermentation process development and agricultural biotechnology. Prior to joining Monsanto, he was VP of R&D for ZeaGen, a start-up biotechnology company based on Colorado.

Dr. Michael Cockrem has 25 years experience in process development for commercialization of bio-based chemicals, including lactic acid and 1,3-propanediol, with specific expertise in product isolation and purification, and process and economic modeling. Dr. Cockrem completed his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison, after coming to the USA from New Zealand as a Fulbright Scholar. He is an inventor for 9 issued US patents and 3 US patent applications.

Leo Manzer is the President of Catalytic Insights LLC, which he founded to provide consulting expertise in problems related to catalysis and process development. Before founding Catalytic Insights LLC, Dr. Manzer had a long and illustrious career at DuPont, where he founded and directed the company's Corporate Catalysis Center. In this position, he oversaw research programs in homogeneous, heterogeneous, and enzyme catalysis. During his tenure at DuPont, he led the R&D effort to develop replacements for ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons. He was very active in the field of catalytic conversion of biomass to fuels and chemicals. He achieved DuPont’s highest level of professional recognition for scientists and was named a DuPont Fellow. He is the author of over 90 publications and the holder of over 120 U.S. patents. He has also received numerous awards, including the Eugene J. Houdry Award in applied catalysis and three National Awards from the American Chemical Society. He also participated in the 2002 Presidential National Medal of Technology Award to DuPont, where he was one of three scientists recognized for the development of CFC alternatives. Dr. Manzer lectures extensively in the field of biomass to renewable fuels and chemicals.

Jim White has more than 45 years of diverse industrial catalyst R&D, technical service and manufacturing experience. He recently retired from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory where he served for 7 ½ years in the field of biomass and renewable conversion catalysis. Prior to PNNL, Dr. White was with Engelhard Corporation's Chemical Catalyst Division and previously worked in various R&D and management capacities at PPG Industries, Sohio (now BP) and Air Products. His industrial experience included catalyst discovery, catalyst synthesis and development, catalyst scale-up, characterization and manufacturing, process development, technical service, quality control, and transitioning new discoveries from lab to a manufacturing environment. His personal accomplishments include helping to design, develop and bring to commercial reality nearly 65 different catalysts and catalytic processes. He is a named author on over 100 USA and foreign patents, has been an invited speaker at catalyst conferences, and is a co-author of over one dozen peer reviewed publications. He is now founder and president of 3RiversCatalysis, LLC where he acts as a technical consultant in catalysis and biomass conversions.