Rounds out seasoned executive team with decades of experience in high-tech, coal, coal gasification, and gas-to-liquids industries
Palo Alto, CA and Broomfield, CO - March 7, 2007 - Range Fuels, a cellulosic ethanol company, announced today that Michael Cate has joined the company as Vice President of Procurement and Fabrication. Cate brings over 30 years of diverse experience in industries ranging from oil, gas, and chemical process plants to industrial, manufacturing, and pharmaceutical plants. He is also on the executive committee for the Construction Industry Institute.
"I am thrilled to join Range Fuels and partner with such a talented and widely experienced leadership team," said Michael Cate, Vice President of Procurement and Fabrication for Range Fuels. "Making cellulosic ethanol a reality will have dramatic implications in our ability to reduce greenhouse gases and to lesson our dependence on fossil fuels. I look forward to helping Range Fuels play a critical role in the development of green energy solutions in cost effective ways that can quickly become commercially viable."
Most recently, Cate was Corporate Functional Leader of Global Procurement for Washington Group International, a $4 billion engineering and construction company. Cate supervised more than 800 employees and was responsible for all materials purchasing, fabricated capital equipment, and subcontracted services as well as materials management, including transportation and logistics. He also earned the Center for Public Resources Institute's Outstanding Achievement Award for excellence and innovation in the application of alternative dispute resolution, dispute prevention, and litigation management techniques. Cate received his BS summa cum laude in electrical engineering from the University of Tennessee.
"I'm excited the Mike joined our team", said Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels. "Mike brings a tremendous amount of knowledge and experience to our company and his can do spirit and drive will move us forward quickly.”
Cate joins a leadership team that melds experience from the software and hardware high-tech
world and the coal, coal gasification, and gas-to-liquids industries. Range Fuels' executive team has demonstrated leadership across a wide spectrum.
Arie Geertsema, Senior Vice President of Technology, is a leading voice in the fields of gasification and coal to liquids. He was Managing Director of Corporate Research and Development and managed a team of over 400 R&D staff at Sasol, the largest and most successful gasification company specializing in coal gasification and gas-to-liquids production. Geertsema has a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, Germany, an MS in industrial chemistry, and an MBA from Potchefstroom University in South Africa.
Bud Klepper, Senior Technology Advisor and Inventor, brings many years of process equipment design and fabrication experience to the team. His experience ranges from the design of heat exchangers, pressure vessels, and reactors to complete process plants in the oil and gas production, chemical, pharmaceutical, and petrochemical process industries. Klepper has a technical degree in mechanical systems design from the National Engineering Institute, and continued his education in mathematics at Metropolitan State College. He has also earned education credits in oil hydraulics system design and natural gas processing from the Colorado School of Mines.
Larry L. Robinson, Vice President of Operations, brings over 35 years of experience as a division manager and owner of engineering, construction, manufacturing, and contracting firms. Most recently, he participated in the design and delivery of a 6.6 megawatt refuse-derived fuel (RDF) gasifier and related power equipment for a power plant in northern Italy. Robinson earned his BS summa cum laude in electrical engineering from the University of Missouri at Rolla, is now Curator Emeritus at the University of Missouri, and is a licensed Professional Engineer.
Bill Schafer, Senior Vice President of Business Development, brings a wide range of energy industry experience to Range Fuels. He most recently managed a start-up that developed a high-tech coal mining system designed to address environmental and operational shortcomings of existing Appalachian coal mining methods. Schafer received his BS in mining engineering from the Colorado School of Mines and is a licensed Professional Engineer.
Range Fuels has been at the forefront of the nationwide effort to increase use of alternate fuels. Last week, the company was awarded a grant up to $76 million from the U.S. Department of Energy in support of its plans to build Georgia's first wood-based cellulosic ethanol plant.
"We are on a mission to create a future that breaks our nation's dependence on fossil fuels," said Range Fuels' CEO, Mitch Mandich. "Our goal is to be first to reach commercial scale, and I am energized and honored to have such a strong team to keep us moving in the right direction."
About Range Fuels, Inc.
Range Fuels, Inc., is focused on green energy and the production of cellulosic ethanol. The company does not use food products like corn, but rather uses waste materials and turns them into valuable products. The company's innovative technology uses wood chips, municipal waste, paper pulp, olive pits, and more and converts those materials to ethanol. The company's system, named K2, uses a two step thermo-chemical conversion process. The first step converts the biomass to synthesis gas and the second step converts the gas to ethanol. The company's business model is to design, build, own and operate its plants. The company is privately held and funded by Khosla Ventures, LLC, arguably the top venture firm in the U.S. focusing on alternative, clean (green) energy systems. The leadership team melds experience from Silicon Valley's fast-paced, high-tech world, and the technologically intense coal, coal gasification, and gas-to-liquids industries. Range Fuels' vision is to introduce the world to a fuel that's renewable, sustainable, and eco-friendly in its production.
Media contact:
Tim Turpin
OutCast Communications
(415) 392-8282