Steven C. Davis is Executive Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer, Cetna Energy and BCS Energy. Mr. Davis a Navy veteran with extensive experience in all things power generation, operations, manufacturing, and construction.  Steve spent 8 years in the US Navy’s Nuclear Propulsion Program serving on the USS Nimitz (CVN-68) and the USS South Carolina (CGN-37) and going through extensive schooling and training in; mechanical engineering, nuclear propulsion, heat transfer and fluid flow, pump theory, turbine theory, power (electricity) generation and distribution, steam and boiler mechanics, operations and distribution, high heat applications, maintenance, repair and process improvements.  During his career in the Navy, Mr. Davis was directly responsible for 100s of trainees, machinists, mechanics, operators, and others.

 Since the Navy, Mr. Davis acquired direct experience in numerous areas related to mechanical engineering and applicable to thermochemical conversions technologies focusing on power generation, fluid mechanics, heat transfer, and high heat applications.  Steve has worked for Miller Brewing Company, Dayton Power and Light Company, Enthalpy Energy Services and Georgia Pacific.  With these companies, Mr. Davis held roles ranging from Production Manager to Plant Manager.  Mr. Davis’s career has spans from 1993 to the present.

 It would be too much to list Mr. Davis’s experience and education here as the list is too extensive, but Mr. Davis has an Engineering License and a bachelor's degree in Business Management and Accounting as well dozens of certifications in; safety, maintenance, engineering, nuclear power, QA/QC, DOT, HAZMAT, OSHA, etc.

Douglas C. Gagnon is the Chief Operating Officer of Cetna Energy. Mr. Gagnon has held management positions in the chemical processing, oil and gas and utility industries for the past 34 years, and was in charge of a full business unit at Nalco generating over $750 million in revenue per year. Mr. Gagnon is considered an industry expert in this space and continues to consult for many companies in the coal, chemicals, pollution control, and power industries. Mr. Gagnon is a graduate of the State University of New York, Buffalo and has had first-hand experience bringing the products of cutting-edge R & D projects to production.

Mr. Gagnon was recently on the Board of the American Coal Council and worked as a fuels consultant to several of the largest utilities in the United States for Fuel Tech, Inc. In this role, Mr. Gagnon has reviewed and assessed in deep detail hundreds of conversion technologies. Also in this role Mr. Gagnon has been retained by dozens of manufacturing facilities to provide process improvement and technology assessment services. He is intimately familiar with the state of the art in the conversion technology industry.

Mr. Gagnon is also the author of a private advisory letter written for Utility and Industrial Fuel Buyers with a focus on the domestic markets. Doug also served on the Board of Directors of AQ Dynamics (formerly Anceco Corp); a company that licenses patented technology related to heavy metals and cellulosic fuels.

P. Matt Wright is the Chief Financial Officer of Cetna Energy as well as a founding member of Cetna Energy.

Mr. Wright has over 15 years experience in capital markets, management team advisory, and business intelligence.  During his career, he has been involved a sizeable number of transactions ranging from a few thousand dollars into the millions including M&A transactions which resulted in spin-offs, turnarounds, or strategic acquisitions.  Matt has extensive experience in operational finance, company operations, business law, deal structuring, along with business intelligence and accounting software development and deployment.

In 2012, Mr. Wright became a founding member of a venture capital partnership, which invests in early stage innovative technologies.  He holds active management positions including the CEO, CFO and /or board appointments within each of the portfolio companies.  His main role within each company is to assist with strategy, capital raising, operations, policies and procedures, and business intelligence. 

In 2008, Mr. Wright founded NuVault Financial, a consultancy focused on small to medium sized companies.  Through NuVault he works with companies on capital raises, M&A transaction advisory, and efficient deployment of funds.  Additionally, he has led management consulting projects focused on operational efficiencies, policies & procedures, inventory control, software development & deployment, accounting processes, corporate structure, succession planning, cost cutting measures, etc. 

Prior to founding NuVault Financial, Mr. Wright worked at two regional investment banks conducting research, managing institutional sales trading, and raising growth capital for private companies.  He was also co-manager & head trader for a value-based hedge fund with assets under management around $100 million.     

Mr. Wright holds a Masters of Business Administration, with a concentration in finance, from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.  While attending Goizueta he worked with Emory University’s Center for Alternative Investments, Emory’s Office of Tech Transfer, and Usher’s New Look Foundation.  Additionally, he also holds a Bachelor of Science in financial management from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. 

Mr. Wright sits on a number of corporate and civic boards.  In his free time, he is a volunteer youth soccer coach as well as a volunteer for the Community Furniture Bank of Alabama. 

Chip Burkes is the President of Burkes Mechanical, and is a founding partner in BCS Energy.  Mr. Burkes, through Burkes Mechanical will be handling all proprietary equipment fabrication as well as fabricating and installing other reactors, heat exchangers and all piping.  Burkes Mechanical has a state of the art fabrication facility that they will be expanding to match the build out for BCS.  Burkes Mechanical will also serve in the role of construction manager for each project having extensive experience in this arena.  Mr. Burkes has built Burkes Mechanical into a company of over 700 employees and two locations in Alabama, one in Arkansas, and two in Florida with clients all over the Southeast in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.  Mr. Burkes, along with the Stephens brothers (see below) will be providing real world experience and expertise to the BCS Partnership in the practical methodologies of building up companies from small operations to very large ones and sustaining them through times of abundance and scarcity.

Mr. Burkes will be contributing his real world experience in company building with the BCS team as well as all the fabrication and construction management experience compiled over decades.  Burkes will also be handling all electrical and instrumentation engineering and installation. 

Mr. Burkes is involved with numerous charitable and philanthropic organizations and has received many awards and commendations, though he prefers to keep his bio understated.  We invite our readers to explore the Burkes Mechanical website at www.burkesmechanical.com.

Kermit, Kenneth, and Walter Stephens are brothers and partners in BCS Energy, and together operate Cahaba Timber as well as several other companies related to the timber and recycling industries.  These brothers have quietly built in the rural stretch of Alabama the largest treated pole mill in the world producing poles for electric, telephone and internet service as well as ties for the rail industry.  They have produced and distributed literally millions upon millions of poles and ties not just in the US and North America, but around the globe.  The Stephens brothers have successfully built and grown their companies to several hundred employees and over 50 continuous years of service throughout the good times and the lean times in the industry.

 The Stephens brothers will not only be contributing actual feedstock from their mills, but they will be handling and negotiating all feedstock acquisition for all sites using their extensive experience to ensure steady supply and the best possible prices.  Further, along with Mr. Burkes, they will be contributing real world experience in taking a small operation and building it into something very large and substantial and keeping it sustained through all market conditions.  It cannot be emphasized enough the value that Mr. Burkes and the Stephens brothers bring in real world experience that cannot be acquired through retaining a C-Suite collection of executives coming from high ranking positions in Fortune 50 companies or Wall Street.  They have built from small to large in the real world and through the toughest of times.

 Like Mr. Burkes, the Stephens brothers are also very active in philanthropic and charitable organizations, but also like Mr. Burkes, they prefer their bio to be understated. We invite our readers to explore the Cahaba Timber website at www.cahabatimber.com

Austin Terry’s (“Terry”) career spans over 20 years as both an executive and project management professional within the oil and gas infrastructure sector.

 With a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Economics from Texas A&M University, Terry specializes in onshore projects, across a wide spectrum of midstream transmission, compression, gathering, rail, power, terminal, and processing facilities. Terry’s skills include developing and managing project teams, back-office and upper management; with discipline-specific and interdisciplinary roles, tasks, and execution strategies. Further, Terry has demonstrated proficiency in strategic planning for business development, market penetration, and staffing.

 Most recently Terry founded Source Project Group. Source is a project development company primarily focused on the design and implementation of infrastructure assets. Terry’s numerous professional partnerships and extensive relationships with private equity, infrastructure funds and other capital providers within the energy construction and maintenance sector allow the Source team to supply Client’s necessary support during the full project lifecycle; in order to execute at the highest caliber while delivering a quality project.

 Through Source, Terry has assembled a group of near-term energy infrastructure projects in various stages of development. Terry has raised over $200M in equity for project development and acquisitions in the last three years. The current market environment has created an opportunity for many discussions on funding decisions resulting in best-case outcomes for the developments. Currently, Terry has aggregated over $20 billion in greenfield energy infrastructure projects including natural gas, oil, power, renewables, energy transition, and logistics. Terry is involved in providing funding solutions that will benefit those projects and fit their specific requirements.

 In 2017, Terry co-founded Oso Development Partners to provide midstream project development services. Terry’s first project provided owners representation services to the Permico Midstream Project. an NGL system consisting of 650 miles of 24” mainline pipeline and associated laterals from the Permian and Eagle Ford basins to a fractionator in Robstown Texas. The total capex for the project exceeded $3B.

 Terry also originated and led the Oso team in providing EPCM services to Pin Oak Terminals for three, 3,100-foot, directionally drilled, deep water crossings, of the Corpus Christi Ship Channel. Terry sold Oso at the end of 2020 to his partners, thus allowing Terry to pursue the growth and expansion of his EPCM capabilities.

 Prior to co-founding Oso Development Partners, Terry founded T&R Pipeline, serving as the President of construction and integrity. Terry grew T&R to $50M annually in revenue by relentless business development, stressing positive customer relationships and successful execution of client projects. In 13 years with T&R, Terry executed 90 master service agreements (MSA), and personally reviewed and estimated all proposals, including 5,000 proposed projects spanning 20 states. Terry managed and executed 1,600 infrastructure projects, each adding $5,000 to $10 MM in gross revenue. Terry provided executive leadership to three regional offices, managing 250 employees along the Gulf Coast, in Texas, and in New Mexico. In addition, Austin was a founding member of Lone Star Mat.

Mr. Johnson began his career in structural engineering with a focus on computer modeling of structures.  He spent several months working for the Department of Defense writing code for a structural analysis software program.  He traveled to Albania and Romania to evaluate the US Embassy buildings for seismic capacity.

 He then worked for a general contractor and spent several years building large microelectronic manufacturing facilities for Intel and Hyundai Electronics.  He continued his career working for one of the nation’s largest general contractors.

 In 2003, he cofounded a general contracting firm in the San Francisco Bay Area.  He set up the operational and financial processes for the company and has managed the firm’s finances and operations from initial startup to a current annual volume in excess of $100 million.  He has been personally involved in the contract negotiations, cost estimating and management of the firm’s highest profile projects, including the headquarters for Cisco, Uber, GoPro, Dropbox, Nokia and Dodge & Cox.  His company was recently selected as the number one place to work in the Bay Area in the 50 to100 employees category.

 His other ventures include owning a commercial office building in downtown San Francisco and a vacation rental property in Hawaii.

 Mr. Johnson holds a BS in Civil Engineering from the University of California, Davis, and an MS in Structural Engineering from the University of California, Berkley.  He also is a Registered Professional Engineer and a Licensed General Contractor, both in the state of California. 

 Mr. Johnson also enjoys giving back to the community.  He campaigned for and won the election for a local school board position.  During his tenure as the president of the school board, he successfully helped the district reopen a school and reset attendance boundaries despite some public opposition.  He is also an active coach in youth sports.

Stacy Kenworthy is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of OptiGlobal Group, a private technology development firm with its headquarters in Atlanta and offices and affiliates in San Diego, London, Jeddah, and Minsk. OptiGlobal focuses on early-stage technology opportunities that leverage global access to research and development resources and developing product markets.

 A veteran of more than 20 years in the finance and technology fields, Mr. Kenworthy manages the key business and daily operations of the OptiGlobal Group. Prior to founding OptiGlobal, he was president and CEO of Fourth Quadrant Solutions, an international software development company. Earlier in his career, Stacy held senior-level management positions at various companies in the Finance, Risk Management, Technology, and Investment Banking fields.

 A frequent speaker at technology events worldwide, he participates in the Yale CEO Leadership Institute, The Forbes Global CEO Forum, the Horasis Global Visions Community, the National Committee on US-China Relations Young Leaders Forum and is a past participant of the Saudi Arabia International Dialog.

 A Certified Public Accountant (CPA), Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA) Certified Information Technology Professional, (CITP) Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU), Personal Financial Specialist (PFS), and Chartered Financial Consultant (ChFC), Mr. Kenworthy also holds an MBA from Emory University, USA and an undergraduate degree in accounting from Georgia State University, USA.

Lieutenant General Roy E. Beauchamp, is retired after 37 years of exemplary active military service in the United States Army.  General Beauchamp concluded his illustrious career as the Deputy Commanding General, U.S. Army Materiel Command from May 2001 to October 2002, and is retired as the senior Ordnance officer in the Army. During this period, General Beauchamp also served as the Army's Executive Director for Conventional Ammunition, Single Manager for Conventional Ammunition.

General Beauchamp has been at the forefront of the AMC Strategic Plan, integrating technology, acquisition, and logistics to ensure the readiness and capability of today's U.S. Army. He is the strategic and operational developer of the Army's Logistics Modernization Program and a significant contributor to Single Stock Fund implementation throughout the Army.

General Beauchamp is a world-class logistician with an unprecedented understanding of logistics at every level--tactical, operational, and strategic--and was the Army's most experienced and knowledgeable wholesale logistics expert. He has served our nation brilliantly and selflessly in numerous logistics assignments throughout his career. From September 1999 to November 2000, he served as the Director of Logistics and Security Assistance, J-4/J-7 at the United States Central Command, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. He was the Commanding General of the U.S. Army Tank-Automotive and Armaments Command, Warren, Michigan from June 1997 to September 1999.

Other assignments included: Special Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics, the Commander of the Defense Industrial Supply Center, Philadelphia, and the Commander of the 2nd Support Battalion, 3rd Infantry Division, and Germany. During Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm, General Beauchamp was the Commander of the 101st Corps Support Group, 101st Airborne Division. During this tour of duty, his actions in combat were exemplary, ensuring the deep penetration of ground and air elements of the 101st Air Assault Division in leading General Schwarzkopf's famed "Left Hook'' strategic envelopment of Iraqi forces. General Beauchamp's prior assignments include three tours with the United States Army Europe and one tour with the United States Forces Korea.

General Beauchamp is a native of Florida and a graduate of the University of Nebraska at Omaha. In 1965, General Beauchamp enlisted in the U.S. Army and later was commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in 1967. He earned a Master of Business Administration from the University of Dayton and a Master of Arts Degree in Public Administration from Central Michigan University. General Beauchamp is also a graduate of the Industrial College of the Armed Force

General Beauchamp's military decorations include: the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the Distinguished Service Medal, the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Legion of Merit with 4 Oak Leaf Clusters, the Bronze Star Medal, and the Meritorious Service Medal with 5 Oak Leaf Clusters.

Tony Petelos is widely known in the alternative energy space for his pioneering efforts in utilizing biodiesel and ethanol while the Mayor of Hoover, AL.  Mr. Petelos graduated from The University of Alabama at Birmingham in 1981 where he studied political science.  After multiple terms in the Alabama House of Representatives, he ran for and won the Mayor’s race for the City of Hoover in 2004 and served through 2011.  At that time, he was awarded the newly-created position of Jefferson County Manager for Jefferson County, Alabama and had guided the state’s largest county through the process of economic recovery.

While Mayor for the City of Hoover, Mr. Petelos converted the City’s fleet over to alternative fuels such as biodiesel and ethanol.  He installed a small biodiesel “plant” in the City utilities building where grease collected from restaurants was converted to biodiesel and run in City trucks.  Further, he purchased corn ethanol to run the fleet of E-85 police vehicles.  Mr. Petelos received numerous commendations for this ground-breaking work on alternative energy, culminating in a Presidential commendation and a visit from President Bush in September of 2006.  

Mr. Petelos was the Executive Director for Jefferson County (including the city of Birmingham), Alabama and overseen the County's economic recovery from teetering on bankruptcy.  Mr. Petelos' expertise and guidance has been the driving factor that has allowed the County to not only recover, but to flourish.  He

Dr. Syed Ali Gardezi, is an accomplished chemical engineer and inventor in the field of Catalysis and Reaction engineering. He is a 21, year chemical industry veteran, and is a widely recognized authority in the field of alternative fuels via thermochemical Fischer-Tropsch synthesis. His wide array of industrial experience includes process commissioning of ammonia production facility, using Haber Bosch process, producing alternative fuel routes using thermochemical processes and photocatalytic process for electrification of hydrogen production by steam methane reformer, gasification and state of the art Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and catalyst development.

Dr. Gardezi has a long-standing record of successful commissioning and startup of processes, both locally (within the continental US) and abroad.  He has been recognized by the US department of energy, Oakridge National Laboratory and US government that conferred upon him O-1 visa in 2015 (alien of extraordinary ability – Dr. Gardezi is now a US citizen). Additionally based on his renowned research on Fischer-Tropsch Synthesis (FTS), he was declared as outstanding doctoral student by the University of South Florida.

 Dr. Gardezi specializes in applying his expertise and chemical engineering knowledge to the integration of heterogenous reactors with existing chemical processes. His major areas of interest are endothermic steam methane reformation, including external fired reformer and autothermal reformers, plug flow type Fischer Tropsch reactors. Currently with BCS Energy, he is developing and deploying a new Fischer-Tropsch egg-shell catalyst and his new state-of-the-art F-T reactor design using naphtha atomization for thermal stabilization. In addition to being a member of AIChE , he has strong links with ACS and (American Chemical Society), US-DOE. Dr. Gardezi graduated from the University of South Florida with Doctoral Degree in chemical engineering, and he did his post-Doctoral research with University of Houston and Shell Technology Center.

Stanley R. Pearson is a distinguished chemical engineer, inventor, and patent holder.  Mr. Pearson worked for over 30 years for Dow Chemical Company where he had extensive experience in high level positions in manufacturing and R&D.  This experience culminated in his being promoted to the level of “Consultant” of which only seven were so designated in all of Dow at the time. 

His responsibilities at Dow gradually moved in the direction of gasification and power generation and culminated in being assigned responsibility to build a large (20 ton per hour) coal gasification plant using an outside partner firm’s prominent design.  When the design didn’t work, Mr. Pearson was directly responsible in the design improvements which resulted in multiple patent applications.  In total, Mr. Pearson was directly responsible for at least 10 patent applications while at Dow.

Subsequently, Mr. Pearson took early retirement, formed Pearson BioEnergy/Pearson Technology, and since 1990 has focused all of his energy and efforts into the development of an extremely efficient biomass gasification to liquid fuels process.  He has trialed dozens of feedstocks and multiple output products and has made notable strides in advancing energy and heat efficiency to levels making the technology economically viable on a commercial scale. 

Mr. Pearson formed GT Energies to provide licensing for his proprietary GFT process.  Cetna Energy holds a global, conditionally exclusive license on this technology.

Mr. Pearson has been recognized by several government and academic organizations for his achievements to date.  He is active in church organizations and philanthropic work overseas.  Mr. Pearson graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in Chemical Engineering in 1951 and was a member of   the Alpha Chi Sigma fraternity.

Primoris Services Corporation was founded in 1960 and headquartered in Dallas Texas.   They provide a wide range of construction, maintenance, and engineering services for power generation, oil and gas, chemical, renewable energy, pipeline, utilities and distribution, and civil infrastructure clients.

Primoris has extensive experience in the engineering and design of oil and gas processing facilities, including renewable natural gas and renewable fuels projects. Their project experience includes traditional refining and clean fuels projects, hydrogen production units, carbon capture facilities, and renewable gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel from renewable feedstocks. Their renewable fuels experience also includes using the gasification with Fischer-Tropsch (GFT) and Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) process to convert renewable natural gas or renewable syngas to renewable fuel.

Primoris is technology-neutral and routinely helps their clients in the development phase to find the lowest cost solution that guarantees performance.  They are providing process engineering and Balance of Plant design as well as serving as the EPC for Cetna. For more information, please visit the Primoris website. https://www.prim.com/

Yates is a multiple award-winning family-owned business started in 1964 by William G. Yates, Jr.  The company has grown in leaps and bounds and started its engineering division about 10 years ago winning numerous awards since.  Yates has extensive experience in pulp and paper, energy, and power.  The process engineering group has specific experience in thermochemical conversion plants which makes it a great fit for us.  Further, Yates has an ongoing relationship with Burkes Mechanical – a BCS partner.  For more information, please visit the Yates website. https://www.wgyates.com/

Mr. Jim Bortz is a professional engineer with over 20 years of experience including working with; Dow Chemicals, Pearson Technologies, Inc., International Paper, TRONOX, Range Fuels, The Harris Group, and ENGlobal. 

 Mr. Bortz was the process engineer that did all of the engineering for Mr. Pearson (innovator) for the pilot and demonstration plants.  He has irreplaceable experience in the space of thermochemical conversion and in particular gasification and Fischer-Tropsch, having worked for both Pearson Technologies and Range Fuels.  Like few others, he knows exactly what works and what doesn’t work and he will be in charge of all process engineering for our Cetna plants.  He has designed all sizes and capacities of plants and was instrumental in developing the smaller unit modular approach with middle distillates. 

 Aside from being a registered PE, Mr. Bortz has superior expertise in: ASPEN HYSIS advanced process modeling; thermochemical conversion application, development and troubleshooting; maintenance engineering and application; production optimization and de-bottlenecking, and construction management.  

Prado and Associates of Tampa Florida is a second generation engineering firm previously directly involved with the Sasol expansions in the 1970s. Sasol has been producing liquid transportation fuels using gasification/F-T since the 1960s and today produces over 7 billion gallons per year. Since its inception, Prado and Associates has been heavily involved in synthetic fuels development as well as the conversion of biomass, natural gas, coal, and other waste materials into liquid transportation fuels via Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) synthesis.

 The Prado team has been extensively involved and experienced in F-T reactor design and optimizing design and heat transfer specific to F-T catalysts while also providing expertise and design input at The University of South Florida under their Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) eggshell catalyst program that has so successfully and substantially improved F-T catalyst performance compared to old iron/carbon based catalysts. 

 Finally, the principals at Prado have been involved with Pearson gasification and F-T designs for over 15 years and are very familiar with the design fundamentals and operating conditions.