About San Juan Bioenergy

San Juan Bioenergy LLC (SJB) is a new company constructing a 2.5 million gallon per year (mmgy) oil extrusion and biodiesel manufacturing facility in the Four Corners area of southwest Colorado. A coalition of farmers, diesel vehicle fleet owners, and community members came together in 2005 to form SJB. With generous funding from municipalities, a school district, ski resorts, foundations, and the state of Colorado, SJB completed a comprehensive feasibility study in January of 2006.

In 2006, SJB opened an office, contracted for 3,300 acres of sunflower crops; researched and selected vendors for oil extrusion, biodiesel manufacture, and other equipment; and prepared a comprehensive business plan. Construction on the oil extrusion and biodiesel manufacturing facility began in September, 2007. By mid 2008, SJB plans to commence operations of the facility using oil seed feedstocks stored from the 2006 and 2007 harvests.

SJB plans to initiate operations mainly selling sunflower oil into food markets. SJB will slowly move into production and integration of biodiesel into fuel markets (anticipated to initially encompass 5-10% of overall vegetable oil production, possibly including canola and used fryer oil as well), permitting us to refine the quality monitoring and control capabilities so critical in ensuring the long term success of the biodiesel industry.

Management

Erich Bussian serves as our Construction Manager and will fill the role of Director of Global Business Development as we begin identifying additional opportunities. Erich grew up in Boulder, Colorado, though he has spent many years living and working abroad. He has a MSc. from the London "Thunderbird" School of Economics and an MBA from The American Graduate School of International Management. His business background encompasses a career in international business, his own real estate development companies (where he gained construction management experience) and business development in high-tech fields, such as MapQuest and AOL. Erich lives in Durango with his children, Peter and Isabella, and when not working, enjoys producing video applications to be on the TV show Survivor.

Nathan "a Btu is a Btu" Morris, our Chief Technology Officer, employs his tenacity, blind faith and what he believes is considerable talent to guide the material side of our operations. When not overseeing construction, engineering, design, R&D and spell-checking departments, (or delivering bad news to our CEO late on Friday nights), Nathan dotes on his amazing wife, Ali, and beautiful new daughter, Evie. Nathan is ridiculously excited about the future of biofuels (and food too!), and thus never stops thinking about new technologies and feedstocks to produce clean, renewable energy from sustainably harvested biomass like ag waste and algae. Mr. Morris serves as Secretary of the Board of Managers and liaison to the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels, a collaboration of industry, government, and research institutions uncovering the secrets of future biofuels production. He tries to deliver jokes to our CEO late on Saturday nights.

Kathleen Parish serves as our Biodiesel Production Manager and chemist. Kathleen has over 20 years of analytical chemistry experience serving the pharmaceutical and environmental industry, and the scientific research community. Kathleen has been training in biodiesel production for the past several months, and has helped coordinate design of the biodiesel production facility. Kathleen's duties will also encompass oil chemistry for food products, and operations of other bioenergy production. She received her BS in Chemistry from St. Michael's College in Vermont and her MS in Analytical/Environmental Chemistry from Florida International University in Miami. When not trying to keep chemicals off her hands, Kathleen cleans them off her shoes.

Greg Vlaming, our new Director of Grower Services (i.e. "DOGS"), is the most recent addition to our team. Greg brings a wealth of agricultural experience and is responsible for recruiting and maintaining working relationships with growers of oilseed and other future feedstock crops in the region. Greg is a graduate of Colorado State University, including a B.S. in Horticulture and an M.S. Soil and Crop Science, and worked for five years as the Extension Horticulturist in La Plata County for CSU Extension. Greg participated in the foundation of San Juan Bioenergy, serving as President of the Board of Directors of the prior Durango Biodiesel Cooperative during our feasibility study phase in 2005 and 2006. When not digging in the soil, Greg spends the rest of his time washing it from his hands.

Jeffrey Berman serves as Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, and is responsible for keeping all those people above working well into the night and weekend. Besides overall supervision of, well, everything, my specific duties include management of financing, identification of markets for our products, hiring staff, communicating with you (sorry its not more frequent - we're a little busy around here!), pricing and acquiring feedstocks, establishing field trials of current oil seed crops in new cropping areas, assessing financial projections for various business opportunities (such as greenhouses using waste heat, used fryer oil acquisition for biodiesel, and more), public and government relations, and coordinating all staff and operations. I also serve as Secretary of the Board of the La Plata Electric Association, helping me keep a keen eye on the future of energy trends, regulation, and markets. When not working, I enjoy skiing, hiking with my dogs, and gardening...and on Sundays I laugh at the jokes Nathan told me the night before.

 

Board of Managers

SJB is directed by a Board of Managers encompassing numerous areas of expertise needed to craft and operate the facility. The Board includes:

• Jeffrey Berman - General Manager and Chairman of the Board, Mr. Berman manages the Company’s daily operations. Mr. Berman serves on the La Plata Electric Association Board of Directors, constructed and operates a biodiesel pilot plant, and has extensive non-profit management experience. Mr. Berman worked as a manufacturing process, monitoring, and design engineer, and received his BS in Electrical Engineering, with honors, from the University of Florida in 1992. Mr. Berman resides in Durango and Dove Creek, Colo.
• Rick Carlson – Silicon Valley sales executive and founding member of the Sustainability Center of the Rockies. Mr. Carlson resides in Carbondale, Colo.
• Steve Chambers – President and CEO of Montana Specialty Mills LLC with two decades of management experience in oil seed procurement and processing. Mr. Chambers resides in Ogden, Utah.
• Dan Fernandez – CSU Dolores County extension office director, whose office has an MOU with the company to assist in coordinating the company’s oil seed production efforts with farmers in SJB’s core agricultural area. Mr. Fernandez resides in Dove Creek, Colo.
• Nathan Morris –Mr Morris serves as Secretary of our Board in addition to his role as CTO of SJB. For more information on Mr. Morris, consult the Bio above.
• Derek Van Atta – former founder and owner of a computer distribution company in Silicon Valley, currently engaged in capitalization and finance consulting. Mr. Van Atta resides in Durango, Colo.