“It is great recognition of where Leaf has got to in the bioeconomy in a very short space of time. It is also recognition of our compelling technology.” Ken Richards, CEO of Leaf Resources, who has been voted by our readers as the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016, talks to Il Bioeconomista.
In this interview Richards talks about the achievements of its company, its team and the Australian bioeconomy.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
Our readers have voted: the most innovative bioeconomy CEO 2016 is Ken Richards, CEO of Leaf Resources, the Australian company focused on making sustainable products from plant biomass.
We heartily congratulate him on this important recognition and sincerely thank our readers for the great participation in the survey. Our blog has seen a boom of visits in these two days. The bioeconomy revolution is a reality thanks to visionary managers like Ken Richards, the other nine selected along with Richards in the list of the 10 most innovative bioeconomy CEOs and to all those who in different roles contribute to research, develop and commercialize new bio-based products.
The bioeconomy is innovation, the result of the skills and passion of researchers and managers able to create value and new high-qualified jobs. At the end of 2014 Il Bioeconomista launched a new initiative: The 10 Most Innovative Bioeconomy CEOs.
We have asked a panel of world bioeconomy experts to tell us the Chief Executive Officers that have stood out as the most innovative during the last year. This year we want to engage our readers, asking you to choose the most innovative CEO responding to our survey.
This is the result in 2016 (in alphabetical order)
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Perstorp, a world leading specialty chemicals group headquartered in Sweden, has initiated a campaign called “Time to act” where they are launching “The Challenge”, a quiz with the aim to spread knowledge. For each person joining, Perstorp will make a donation to preserve our planet. The initiative is in line with Perstorp’s focus on sustainability and its aim to offer sustainable solutions. The motto is: No-one can do everything but everyone can do something!
Yesterday, at COP22, in Marrakech (Morocco), a coalition of leading countries in the clean energy and the bioeconomy fields announced the launching of the Biofuture Platform, a new collective effort to accelerate development and scale up deployment of modern sustainable low-carbon alternatives to fossil based solutions in transport fuels, industrial processes, chemicals, plastics and other sectors.
Danish biotech giant Novozymes last week broke ground for its new innovation campus in Lyngby, close to the Technical University of Denmark and seven kilometers from Novozymes’ headquarters in Bagsværd.
Finally Italy has its own strategy on bioeconomy. This was announced by Paolo Bonaretti, representative of the Ministry of Economic Development, last week in Rimini, Emilia Romagna Region, during an event on the bioeconomy in the Mediterranean organized within the Ecomondo Fair, with the presence, among others, of John Bell, Director for BioEconomy, DG Research & Innovation EU Commission, and Philippe Mengal, executive director of the Bio-based Industries Joint Undertaking. Good news, then, for the bioeconomy in Italy. The new strategy will be published on the web site www.agenziacoesione.gov.it starting from 20th November for an open public consultation, which will last a month.
Biossance™, the consumer beauty brand from Amyris, Inc., the US integrated renewable products company, announced its planned launch in Sephora’s retail stores where the brand’s expansive line of high-performance skin care products will be available to consumers. The rollout to initial participating stores will begin in February 2017 and coincide with launching on Sephora online. Additional in-store and online marketing activities with Sephora to highlight the Biossance brand shortly following launch are planned.
“Scotland has under 10% of the UK population and over 30% of the land mass giving it considerably more capacity for growing biomass as feedstock for the bioeconomy. Scotland has great research capabilities, a strong base of SMEs looking to develop its bio-capabilities and the joined up support of the government with all its agencies in developing this opportunity”. Roger Kilburn, CEO IBioIC (Industrial Biotechnology Innovation Centre) Scotland, talks to Il Bioeconomista. In this long, exclusive interview, he talks about UK and Scottish bioeconomy, the role of industrial biotechnology and Brexit. “The fundamental reasons for developing the bioeconomy – he says – are the positive impact it has on sustainability, the environment and the ability to produce new and improved materials. None of these fundamentals are affected by Brexit”.
Interview by Mario Bonaccorso
