THE TEAM
Adam Daniel Barnard – Strategy, opportunity origination and business model development/activation and implementation
Niel, has over 29 years of leadership experience in the global forestry including a number of executive and non-executive board positions in businesses operating in the forest products and related sectors in Southern Africa, UK, Benelux & Denmark as well as corporate finance and strategic advisory companies.
He is currently CEO and majority shareholder of Ceres BIO Ventures Limited and is also co - founder of Grenadier Capital a PE Fund management and corporate advisory business and has had extensive transactional and investment experience in the forest products and bio energy space.
Ben (Benjamin A) Thorp, III – Bio Refineries, Bio energy and forestry technology options
Ben is an acknowledged leader in renewable energy, a former leader in pulp and paper associations, and retired director pulp & paper engineering, Georgia-Pacific Corp. and until recently, President of Flambeau River BioRefinery. In addition Ben was an officer with Chesapeake Corp. James River Corp., BE&K, Poyry-BEK and Huyck Corp.
Ben graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park, MD with a bachelors degree in physics. He completed advanced studies in Mechanical Engineering, Management, and Marketing. He is currently serving on 3 company and 3 non profit boards. He is a past board member of several organizations.
Honours awarded to Ben include being named a TAPPI Fellow in 1986, being awarded the TAPPI Paper & Board Division Leadership Award in 1994, receiving the PIMA Glen T. Renegar Award in 1999 and the 2002 PIMA-CPBIS Management Excellence award. Thorp is the holder of six U.S. Patents with others pending submission.
Willem Olivier - Forestry and supply chain operations
Brings expertise in management of plantations as well as providing advisory services to plantation owners and banks on plantation management and valuations. Working knowledge of forestry in USA, Brazil, Chile, UK, Portugal, Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Uganda, Ethiopia and the Congo Republic.
Member of advisory boards of the University of Stellenbosch and Pretoria Technikon; Past President and council member of the Southern African Institute of Forestry.
Steven J Mueller - Bioenergy and infrastructure
For the past 27 years, Mr. Mueller has held senior founding roles with businesses in the Renewable and cogeneration sector, based in the US, in Australia and in Europe.
Mr Mueller is the President and CEO of Wood Fuels a metered pellet based heating business operating in New England with it HQ in San Diego but with operational office in Portland, Maine with full time engineering and sales/marketing staff.
Mr. Mueller currently serves as a board member or advisor to several public and private Renewable energy companies including ReEnergy Group plc (London), Wodonga Energy Pty (Sydney, Australia), ZBB Energy (US listed battery storage technology company), and Ocean Power Technologies, Inc. (Technical Advisor to the Board)
Simon Baillieu – Carbon credit creation and Product Trading
Simon has been active in various timber processing and trading ventures throughout Africa for the past 20 years. He is especially well connected throughout Southern and East Africa where his company Baltraco has been one of the largest timber product traders in the region.
Simon is a partner in EITG. Since its inception in 1995, EITG has developed international expertise in the area of Kyoto and other emission regulatory regimes with strategic partners in the USA, Europe, South Africa and Australia. Currently EITG represents several hundred thousand hectares of forests and is closely involved with governments and regulatory bodies developing a workable scheme for trading offsets.
The organisation is currently expanding into certifying and trading other GHG notably methane using its existing structures and relationships. EITG is an active participant with executive trader status on the PWC C02e emissions trading market.
In addition, Simon is currently a member of various credit committees of Rand Merchant Bank.
John Swaan – Wood pellets and fibre supply chain
Currently, Executive Director – Wood Pellet Association of Canada and Director of Canbio. John is internationally acclaimed as one of the thought leaders in the global wood pellet business. He founded Pacific BioEnergy Corporation, formerly PFI Pellet-Flame Inc, located in Prince George, British Columbia in 1994 building one of the first modern day large scale pellet plants in B.C. He also pioneered wood pellet export industry in Canada being responsible for the first exports of wood pellets from B.C. to Europe in 1998. Since then he has worked toward advancing production technology, transport and logistics in this sector.
Phillip Heaseman BCom LLB – Fundraising, transactions and investment process management
Co Founder of Grenadier capital a Private Equity Fund manager and Corporate advisory firm has had extensive transactional and investment experience in the forest space leading a team of advisors in a number of plantation forestry privatization projects (NZ and RSA).
His career path is founded in investment banking, banking and stock broking spanning a 20 year period in the UK, a director of Samuel Montagu & Co and HSBC Investment Bank plc focusing on corporate finance and advisory services.
Transactional expertise in mergers and acquisitions, divestments, equity underwritings, private placements and capital restructurings.
