Board of Directors

In addition to Mr. Hennessey, the Board of Directors includes:

Jose Bared, Sr. Mr. Bared has over 40 years of experience having served as the President, Chairman, and/or Director of a number of public and private companies including oil refineries and waste to energy facilities.   He began his career as an engineer and in 1968 founded The Bared Company.  Under his tenure as President, the Bared Company grew to be one of the Top 20 Mechanical, Electrical, Engineering and Design companies in the United States as reported by engineering New Record magazine.   Mr. Bared was also a member of the founding group that purchased Republic National Bank of Miami in 1971.  Mr. Bared served as a director of the bank from 1971 until its sale in 1998.   Currently Mr. Bared serves on the Board of Directors of Jackson – United Petroleum, a natural gas producer operating in Kentucky and Pennsylvania.  Mr. Bared is also deeply involved in a variety of philanthropic endeavors. He has served on the Board of Trustees for the University of Miami for the past 30 years. He also has served on the Board of Governors of the Sylvester Cancer Center for the past 15 years and is a life member of the center. Mr. Bared holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Miami.

Dr. David Bransby Dr. Bransby is a Professor of Energy Crops and Bioenergy in the Department of Agronomy and Soils at Auburn University where he has taught and conducted research since 1987. He has more than 30 years of experience in agronomic research, and has spent 22 years specializing in the production and processing of energy crops, a subject in which he is widely considered a preeminent international expert. He has authored over 300 technical publications, serves on the editorial boards of two international bioenergy journals, and consults for several private bioenergy companies. In February 2007 he was invited to the White House to advise President Bush, Secretary of Energy, Sam Bodman, and senior White House officials on the feasibility of large-scale cellulosic biofuel production in the United States. He has also advised Alabama Governor Bob Riley on the status of the emerging biofuels industry.

Dr. Jackson Nickerson Nickerson's award-winning research spans a variety of topics in organization and strategy. He is internationally recognized as an expert on innovation and the effect of organizational structure on business performance, including the performance implications of outsourcing, centralization versus decentralization, and the use of teams. Currently, Dr. Nickerson is Frahm Family Professor of Organization and Strategy at Washington University's Olin Business School in St. Louis. He received a B.S. in mechanical engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute and a Master's of Science in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley. He went on to work for Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory before earning an MBA and then a Ph.D. in Business and Public Policy from Berkeley. Nickerson is also a director of nformd.net, a privately held new media company.

Paul Simon, Jr. Mr. Simon is a practicing attorney and partner in the law firm of Sauerwein, Simon and Blanchard, which he joined in 2006. Prior to that, he was a partner in the firm Helfrey, Simon and Jones, P.C. He received his J.D. from the St. Louis University School of Law. Mr. Simon serves as outside legal counsel for numerous corporations and concentrates his practice in the areas of real estate and corporate transactions, construction and business litigation and governmental law and relations.