Management Team and Board of Directors:
Mr. Bruce Dannenberg, M.S., M.B.A. – Chief Executive Officer, Director & Founder
Mr. Dannenberg’s industrial career has focused on the management of the technology commercialization process and of manufacturing high technology processes and products. He has been involved in the semiconductor industry, the biotechnology industry, and the capital markets arena. He has expertise in industrial management, strategic planning, financial management, business development, industrial biotechnology, renewable chemicals, bioenergy, synthetic biology, microbiology, limnology, genomics, and coalition & alliance building.
Mr. Dannenberg holds a Master of Science degree (Industrial Management) from Clemson University, a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Vermont, and a Bachelors degree in Zoology from the University of Vermont. He has also attended executive management programs at the M.I.T. Sloan School of Management and the Amos Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. He is a former Chairman of The Financial Management Association’s (FMA’s) Institutional Board of Directors and has been active in industry associations, such as Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO).
Mr. Michael Weedon – President and Director
Mr. Weedon has held senior finance and general management positions in the industry with over 25 years experience with large corporations including the B.F. Goodrich Company, Sherritt, Inc., and the Loewen Group, Inc. For ten years he was the Executive Director of the British Columbia Bioenergy Network (BCBN).
Mr. Weedon holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Western Ontario. More recently, as a consultant in the environment sector, he has evaluated a number of alternative energy technologies including many in the bioenergy sector
Ms. Antonina Edwards – Business Development Manager, Circular Carbon Economy and Strategic Partnerships.
Ms. Edwards is currently completing a degree with an individually designed major : “Applying Synthetic Biology to Address Global Challenges” at the University of North Carolina at Asheville. She has experience and expertise in strategic partner development, collaboration management and technology commercialization.
Technical & Engineering Team:
Dr. Peter Lindblad – Project Leader, Butanol Organism Development
Dr. Lindblad is the Director of the Angstrom Laboratory and Professor of Microbial Chemistry at Uppsala University in Sweden. He is also the Dean of Science and Technology Collaboration for Uppsala University. Dr. Lindblad’s and his senior scientific team’s research focuses on renewable solar fuel production via engineered cyanobacterial microbial cell factories. His research includes the development of liquid transportation fuels and microbial-based H2-production/hydrogenases at applied, physiological, biochemical and molecular levels – in total 180 scientific publications. At present Dr. Lindblad is leading one of the research groups in the Swedish Energy Agency program on Natural and Artificial Photosynthesis.
Dr. Patrick J. McGinn: Team Lead, Indoor Pilot Testing and Process Development. Senior Research Officer, Marine Research Station, National Research Council (NRC) of Canada, Ketch Harbour, NS, Canada.
Board of Advisors:
Phytonix’s Advisory Board provides a powerhouse of management, business and technical expertise that serves the firm well as it moves forward toward product and licensing revenue generation, pilot and demonstration scale production, and full commercialization.
Dr. Victor Der: Dr. Der is Executive Adviser for North America operations at the Global CCS Institute. Prior to this, he worked at the US Department of Energy (DOE) for over 37 years retiring as the Assistant Secretary (acting) for Fossil Energy. He has led the Office of Fossil Energy in the areas of clean coal, CCS, oil and gas R&D, and the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. He had served in various prior capacities at DOE including the Principal Deputy for Fossil Energy and Deputy Assistant Secretary for Clean Coal and CCS. Victor is also the former Chair of the Carbon Sequestration Leadership Forum Policy Group, and had also served as the Chair of the CSLF Technical Group. As the Assistant Secretary (acting), Victor managed a multi-billion dollar portfolio of clean coal technology and CCS demonstration projects in addition to a multi-million dollar research portfolio on CCS, power generation, and enhanced oil and gas recovery research. Victor’s prior experience includes research and management in advanced nuclear energy, geologic storage of high-level nuclear waste, and superconductivity for magnetic fusion energy. Victor has also worked on NASA’s Apollo 15 moon mission project and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration program on modelling the upper atmospheric density. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree, a Master of Science degree and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Maryland.
Mr. Peter Hoyle: Mr. Hoyle is Marketing Director for Quadra Chemicals, a leading North American distributor of industrial chemicals including butanol. Owner, Antler Oil & Gas Development, sales and marketing of biofuels and other renewable formulated products for the replacement of hydrocarbon-based products.
Dr. David J. Glass: Dr. Glass is the President of D. Glass Associates, Inc., is a consultant specializing in industrial biotechnology regulatory affairs, with over 30 years’ experience with government regulation of the commercial uses of modified microorganisms and plants. Dr. Glass recently served as director of regulatory affairs for Joule Unlimited Technologies, where he managed the successful submission of the first Microbial Commercial Activity Notice (MCAN) for industrial use of a genetically modified strain of cyanobacteria. Earlier in his career, Dr. Glass directed intellectual property and regulatory affairs for BioTechnica International, where he obtained government approvals for some of the earliest U.S. field tests of genetically modified microorganisms and transgenic plants. As a consultant, Dr. Glass has advised agricultural, environmental, and industrial biotechnology companies on the impact of EPA, USDA, FDA and international regulations on their activities, facilitated consultations with regulatory agencies, and he has coordinated the preparation and submission of six MCANs, a New Pathway Petition under the Renewable Fuel Standard, an AAFCO Animal Feed Ingredient Definition Application, and other regulatory applications. Dr. Glass also has 25 years experience in academic technology transfer, having held leadership positions at Massachusetts General Hospital, Joslin Diabetes Center, and the University of Massachusetts system. Dr. Glass holds a B.S. in biological sciences from Cornell University and a Ph.D. in biochemical sciences from Princeton University.
Dr. Thomas Lee: Dr. Lee is the Chairman of the Medical and Life Sciences Committee for the Orange County chapter of Tech Coast Angels (TCA-OC). He is the Tech Coast Angels’ deal lead for Phytonix, authored the due diligence report for TCA, and spearheaded TCA’s initial round of funding for Phytonix. Dr. Lee is a practicing anesthesiologist in Orange County, California with interests in neurosurgical and trauma anesthesia. He has published works in the medicinal natural products research space and is also heavily involved with the medical, pharmaceutical, and medical device startup community in Orange County. Thomas received his M.D. from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine and his M.B.A. from the George Washington University School of Business. He also holds a B.A. in Chemistry and East Asian Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.