SAN DIEGO, April 30, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Genomatica announced that it has hired Jeff Lievense, Ph.D., as Executive Vice President, Process Technology, effective May 1, 2012.
Lievense served at Amyris from December 2007 until April 2012, most recently as Executive Vice President, Process Development. From 1994 to November 2007, he was Vice President, Technology and Process Development and served in other technology management positions in the Research and Development organization of Tate & Lyle Plc, a global food and agricultural ingredients company. At Tate & Lyle, his organizations' responsibilities included the fermentation R&D program, commercializing three large-scale industrial fermentation products, and developing and scaling a production process for Bio-PDO™ (1,3-propanediol) to 100 million pounds per year at a plant in Loudon, Tennessee. From 1993 to 1994, Lievense served as Vice President, Research and Operations and President, Bio-Business Incubator of Michigan for Michigan Biotechnology Institute and from 1990 to 1993 as Director of Chemical Programs and Pathway Engineering for Genencor International. From 1982 to 1989, he held various process engineering, research scientist and product management positions at Eastman Kodak Company.
Lievense earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Purdue University and a B.S. in chemical engineering from the University of Michigan.
"Genomatica is moving toward commercialization of our process for butanediol (BDO) with our partners," said Genomatica CEO Christophe Schilling, Ph.D. "Jeff adds extensive fermentation chemical product scale-up experience with industrial-scale plants as well as a demonstrated ability to deliver in a fast-growth company. Jeff brings highly-relevant experience to our commercialization plans for BDO, butadiene and the additional processes to come."
About Genomatica
Genomatica is a technology leader for the chemical industry. It delivers new manufacturing processes that enable its partners to produce intermediate and basic chemicals from renewable feedstocks. These chemicals serve as the basis for making substantially all of the products that make modern life possible. Genomatica's processes are designed to achieve better economics with enhanced sustainability and a smaller environmental footprint than petroleum-based manufacturing processes. Genomatica is developing a pipeline of manufacturing processes for the production of these chemicals, and expects the first commercial-scale BDO plant that uses its processes to begin production in 2013.
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