Copyright © 2010 Solander Science Park
January 27, 09
Richard J. LeBlanc has been appointed as chief executive officer of leading biorefinery company Chemrec AB of Stockholm. Mr. LeBlanc has been a senior executive with Siemens AG in the USA, where he was head of the HVAC Products division and president of Building Automation division of Siemens Building Technologies. He has extensive general management experience with a proven track record of growing high-tech companies, commercialization of innovative technologies and building world-class management teams. During his distinguished career at Siemens, Mr. LeBlanc directed product development, manufacturing and distribution of the company’s broad range of building control products for the North American, Asian Pacific and Latin American markets. His accomplishments include direct management of Siemens energy and environmental services business and the construction of large renewable energy projects. Prior to his global career at Siemens, Mr. LeBlanc was the co-founder and president of a venture capital backed telecom services business where he successfully drove rapid growth of the enterprise. Rick has an MBA from Northwestern University and bachelors in Electrical Engineering from the University of Toronto. He is a Professional Engineer in both Canada and the USA and holds a LEED AP certification from US Green Building Council. Rick and his wife Diane live in the Chicago area. Rick will be dividing his time between the Chemrec Stockholm office and Chicago, concentrating on developing the American and Asia-Pacific markets with the objective of accelerating the implementation of the Chemrec business plan, supported by the recently completed $20 million C-round financing. Bernie Bulkin, Chairman of Chemrec Board of Directors commented, “We are very pleased to have Rick aboard as CEO of Chemrec. This will make a strong team even stronger. Rick’s experience and background will be valuable in helping Chemrec meet its business objectives and put the company on a path of strong and sustainable growth.” Chemrec also announced that Jonas Rudberg, long-standing leader of Chemrec, has been appointed chief operating officer. In the new organization Mr. Rudberg will focus his attention on overseeing the execution of feasibility studies, pre-project and implementation projects. He will also continue developing relations with European customers and other stakeholders. For more information, please contact Patrik Löwnertz, VP Marketing and Sales, +46 8 440 40 67 or _________________________________________________________________________________ About Chemrec Chemrec AB is a Swedish company providing technology for black liquor gasification which integrated in pulp mills provides the opportunity to produce large quantities of renewable motor fuels or electricity from biomass. The technology has potential to globally provide motor fuels equivalent to over 45 billion litres/year of gasoline (12 billion gallons/year). Chemrec owners are VantagePoint Venture Partners, Volvo Technology Transfer, Environmental Technologies Fund and Nykomb Synergetics. For more information, see http://www.chemrec.se.