Pacific Pyrolysis was formed recently by a group of founders. The
company combines the former management and technical development team
from BEST Energies Australia Pty Ltd and the advisory team from
Meridian Corporate Advisory Limited. This combination of the
former BEST Energies Australia and Meridian teams marries a deep set of
technical skills and subject matter expertise (embodied in the team who
developed the technology) with a commercial, corporate and project
finance capability (embodied in the the team from Meridian).
John Glen – Director and CEO
John has 25 years
experience in the investment banking and advisory sectors. After a 13 year career with Bankers Trust in
a variety of corporate, structured and tax based finance roles, John co-founded
Prime Corporate Finance (now PCF Capital) in Perth in 1999. John formed Meridian Corporate Advisory in
2005 - an independent corporate advisory in Sydney dealing with both public and
private markets, after selling his interest in PCF. Meridian undertakes a broad range of
corporate finance and advisory work, acquisition and divestment, wholesale
capital raising and project work for clients.
John’s clients have included a wide variety of ASX
listed companies, government enterprises, offshore listed and private companies
in Australia such as Riversdale Mining Limited, Angus Knight Group, Intrepid
Mines, Corriente Resources, Olympus Pacific, Allegiance Mining, Tenke Mining,
Lundin Mining, Western Power and Lucara Diamonds.
Robert Downie –
Director of Operations
Robert
is the General Manager of the Somersby Advanced Engineering Facility
owned by Ignite Energy Resources Engineering and was the Managing
Director of BEST Energies Australia. He has commercial and engineering experience
working across various renewable energy and low carbon technologies
such as biomass gasification and pyrolysis, biomass hydrolysis, and
direct coal liquefaction. Robert has developed an intimate
understanding of the the pyrolysis technology through the
direct management over the past five years of its international
development. He has also been elected to sit on
the management committee board of the Bioenegy Australia association
which is a
government-industry forum to foster and facilitate
the development of
biomass for energy, liquid fuels, and other value added bio-based
products.
Robert is a Chartered Professional Engineer, a member of the
Australian Institute of Engineers, and a Graduate of the Australian
Institute of Company Directors. He holds a Master of Business and
Technology from the University of New South Wales along with both a
Bachelor of International Business Management and a Bachelor of
Chemical Engineering with Honours from the University of
Queensland. Prior to moving into the field of renewable energy
and low carbon technologies, Robert worked on technology development in
the industrial filtration industry.
Peter Klatt – Engineering Manager
Peter Klatt is one of the foremost experts on pyrolysis and
gasification in Australia with over 22 years experience in the design,
construction, commissioning and operation of large scale
biomass gasifiers and fluid bed combustors. His
involvement in winning an engineering excellence award from The
Institution of Engineers Australia, for construction of a gasifier in
1985, is testament to how long Peter’s expertise in the area of
pyrolysis and gasification has been recognised by the industry.
In addition to this Peter has spent over 17 years in the steel industry
developing and implementing process efficiency improvements to large
scale industrial thermal processes at the Port Kembla and Whyalla
Steelworks.
Over his career Peter has had various roles ranging from leading
research and development programs to the oversight of construction,
commissioning, and operation of several commercial plants.
Most recently as the Engineering Manager for BEA, Peter has been an
integral part of the development of the BEST Energies pyrolysis process
for over eight years. Peter has issued one U.S. patent and two
Australian patents and is the author of numerous technical
papers. He holds a Diploma in Business and a Certificate in
Metallurgy from Southern Cross University and the University of
Wollongong, respectively, and is fluent in the German language.
Adriana Downie – Chief Technology
Officer
Adriana is a leading figure in the promotion and development of
biochar and was recently selected as one of the Next 100 Emerging
Leaders by The Australian for her work in this area. She has over
eight years of industry experience in the commercial development of new
technology and has managed several large scale research programs.
Adriana has been developing pyrolysis technology for PacPyro and BEST
Energies for over 6 years and holds the role of Chief Technology
Officer. Adriana holds bachelor degrees in both Chemical
Engineering and Science from the University of Queensland. She
has completed her Ph.D. program at the University of New South Wales on
the pyrolysis of biomass for biochar and bioenergy for which she was
selected as a finalist for a Eureka science prize. Adriana has
co-authored several scientific papers, presented numerous conference
papers and authored a chapter in the Earthscan published book ‘Biochar
for Environmental Management’
Adriana held a position on the board of the International Biochar
Initiative for twelve months and currently holds a position on the
committee of the Australian and New Zealand Biochar Researchers
Network. She has been critical in raising the profile of biochar
globally and her work has been well documented by the media with her
personally featuring in numerous print articles along with
documentaries produced by ABC, Discovery Channel, and CNN.
Adriana also played a significant personal role in assisting BEA to win
first prize at the United Nations Association of Australia’s 2007 World
Environment Day Awards for ‘meeting the greenhouse challenge’.
Adam Townley – Company Secretary
& CFO
Adam is a chartered accountant who spent the five years up to 1995
working for large accounting firms in insolvency and corporate
restructuring. Between 1995 and 2003 he worked in London as an
independent advisor to a number of global investment banks in
operational performance improvement and strategic investment
programmes. He was also involved in raising capital and investing
in new ventures in the technology and environmental space. On
returning to Australia in 2003, he was appointed as CFO to a mid-sized
property development company and led transactions in land
subdivision, medical centres, retail property and retirement
villages. In 2005, he was retained by Westpac to review strategic
enterprise investments both internal and external to the bank.
Adam has written two books on insolvency law both of which were on
reading lists for university law courses and the Institute of Chartered
Accountants.
Neil Young – Director
Neil is founding director of Best Energies Inc. Prior to his
involvement with BEI, Neil was Chairman and CEO of Grubb & Ellis, a
NYSE listed company, from 1996 to 2000, capping a 16-year career at the
company. While CEO, Neil directed and executed a strategic
realignment resulting in sales growth from $194 million to $413 million
and an increase in net income from $2.1 million to $16.3 million.
Neil held a variety of positions with Grubb & Ellis prior to
becoming CEO, including: President of Commercial Brokerage Operations,
President of the Eastern Region, President and Senior Vice President of
the Midwest/Texas Region, and Executive Vice President, Regional
Manager, District Manager and Sales Manager of the commercial brokerage
division in the Midwest Region.
David Lau –
Project Engineer
David Lau has been
employed by Pacific Pyrolysis as a project development engineer to
provide technical engineering and project management expertise for the
development of commercial Pyrolysis plants.
He has been integrally
involved in the development of project
feasibility studies into the
economic and engineering potential for the BEST Pyrolysis system at
various site locations. David has a
Bachelor of Chemical and Process Engineering with Honours from the
University of Canterbury and a Master of Science and Technology with
Honours from Massey University, New Zealand. David has demonstrated
ability in the project management of EPCM style projects. He has
spent seven years in a variety of process improvement and project
management roles gaining valuable experience in the design,
construction, and commissioning of plant and equipment. David has
experience living and teaching in China and is fluent in Chinese
Mandarin.
Jessica O'Brien – Process Engineer
Jessica O'Brien is
a process engineer who provides expertise for the development of project
process models and technical expertise for process integration and optimisation. Jessica holds a bachelors degree in chemical
engineering which she obtained from the University of Newcastle in 2007,
graduating with first class honours along with a PhD also from University of Newcastle. Jessica
was previously employed by CSIRO Energy Technology as part of the solar
research team where she undertook a joint project with the University of
Newcastle with studies leading to the submission of a PhD (chemistry) in April
2011. Her PhD thesis related to the
large scale production of hydrogen using solar thermochemical technology and
she has several peer reviewed publications in this field.
Top of Page
The
technology has garnered significant media attention and has been the
subject of numerous media articles and television documentaries
including: