.floatimg-left-hort { float:left; } .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 12px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 12px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;}
Tell me about your background.

I came out of the (Navy) and became a welder. I was doing things with solar power and I built a digester to turn manure into methane gas. I wasn’t successful at doing it, but I’d go to Iowa State to talk to the professors about what needed to be done. And I thought “I’m going to have to get an engineering degree to really understand all of this.” So that’s what I did.

Describe your role with Ball Industrial.

I was brought in to lead the industrial group that was just being started. We are a team of project developers, project managers and engineers with intense backgrounds in oil, seed and grain processing, and disaster recovery … handling all aspects of engineering procurement and construction for industrial projects. We’re doing several things related to biofuels, both ethanol plants and biodiesel plants. (Ball Industrial has) a client who is in the process of purchasing an idled, bankrupt Iowa biodiesel plant and converting it.

What were you doing before that?

I worked for 17 years for Enron Corp. and Northern Natural Gas and I led their development in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union. I absolutely saw the writing on the wall in early 1998. I left (Enron) in mid-1998, liquidated my stock, exercised my options and told the broker, “Don’t put anybody you care about in Enron; they’re in serious trouble.” … Most of my career was spent on the Gulf Coast and internationally.

What is the No. 1 challenge facing the biodiesel industry?

One is an economical viable feedstock and the other is a solid market for the product. There’s another thing that’s extremely important: continued governmental support of the industry. There was a dollar-a-gallon “blender’s credit” (a federal tax credit for companies that blend biodiesel) that was allowed to lapse at the end of last year. Everybody has been assured in both parties that the credit will come back on a retroactive basis. But it hasn’t. We have clients with serious challenges that have biodiesel plants or have money that they want to invest in biodiesel. You could give somebody a plant that couldn’t make money on converting refined soybean oil into biodiesel. So a serious disparity exists.

Why were you asked to speak in Munich?

By being involved in leading-edge technologies with broad applicability to the biodiesel industry. We solve problems through the tools and the contacts and the resources that we have. Having worked in a big organization like Enron, I kind of compartmentalize things; whatever we need to do to solve the problem. They found out about the work we had done and the technology we developed, and they thought it was worthy of the rest of the world finding out.

What did you learn there?

There are many countries that are far more serious about biofuels production than America is. … I think Iowa and the upper Midwest really rank quite high. I would think that Iowa is pretty internationally respected and a recognized leader in biofuels.

What do you do for fun?

My fun is my wife, my kids, my family. We live on an acreage outside of town and have two dogs, two cats, two horses, seven birds, four fish and two grandkids, with one on the way. We’re active in Valley Evangelical Free Church in West Des Moines, and I teach Sunday school class there.