Wednesday October 21st
3:00pm NEXT Feedstocks Leadership Summit
Everyone says there isn’t enough feedstock. Is that really the problem? Developers across the bioeconomy cite feedstock scarcity as a primary obstacle to growth. Yet successful projects continue securing supply. The challenge is increasingly not resource availability, but aggregation, logistics, preprocessing, contracting, and regional integration. This session explores where feedstocks are actually being found and how companies are securing them.
Wendy Owens, CEO, Hexas Biomass
Naveen Sikka, CEO, TerViva
Fred Petok, Constellation Energy Advisors
John Benemann, CEO, MicroBio Engineering
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
4:05pm NEXT Maritime Fuels & SAF Leadership Summit
If SAF and maritime fuels are such large opportunities, why do so many projects still struggle to move forward? Fuel demand is not the issue. Economics, feedstock competition, infrastructure readiness, offtake structures, and deployment timing often are. This session examines how developers, refiners, airlines, shipping companies, and investors are addressing the barriers that stand between opportunity and deployment.
Mary Kate O’Brien, CEO, SAFFIRE
Christopher Efird, CEO, NXT Fuels
Mike McCurdy, Managing Director Fuels & Power, ICF
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
5:00pm The Bioeconomy and First of a Kind (FOAK) Fragility
Why do projects with strong technology, experienced teams, supportive policies, and apparent market demand still fail? FOAK projects rarely fail because of a single technical flaw. More often, they break down when technology, capital, permitting, operations, markets, and timing fall out of synchronization. This session explores how as deployment becomes more complex, understanding fragility may be as important as understanding technology itself.
Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
Tad Dritz, Bioconversion & Hydrogen Lead, Ariel Green
Henna Poikolainen, Director of Renewable Fuels & Chemicals, AFRY
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
6:00pm STATE OF THE INDUSTRY ADDRESS and NETWORKING LIKE CRAZY
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
ABLC’s signature networking session returns with structured introductions designed to accelerate meaningful connections across the bioeconomy ecosystem. Investors, developers, technology providers, policymakers, engineers, strategic partners, and founders introduce themselves and their priorities for the week ahead. And Networking self-introductions by all attendees
Thursday October 22nd
7:00am REGISTRATION OPEN
7:30-8:00am COFFEE & PASTRIES
8:00am The West Coast Bioeconomy Policy & Programs Forum: The Cascadia Sustainable Aviation Accelerator
Why do some regions attract projects while others struggle to move beyond announcements? Policy alone rarely creates deployment. Successful regions increasingly coordinate feedstocks, infrastructure, utilities, workforce, ports, financing, and permitting into integrated industrial ecosystems. This session explores how western states are reducing deployment friction and accelerating investment.
Chris Cassidy, National Business Renewable Fuels Advisor, US Department of Agriculture
Chris Cooper CEO, XCF Global
Liat Carlyle, Policy Advisor, Cascadia and Consultant, Earth Finance
Jonathan Male, Director of Energy Systems and Research Support, Washington State University
Moderator: Tim Zenk, Managing Director, Earth Finance
9:00am Industry Horizons Forum
How do companies survive when markets, policies, incentives, and customer demand keep changing? The strongest bioeconomy businesses are not necessarily those with the best technology. They are often the ones that adapt most effectively to changing conditions. This session examines how leaders are building resilient businesses capable of surviving uncertainty while continuing to grow.
Jennifer Holmgren, CEO, LanzaTech
John Shaw, CEO, Itaconix
Paul Schubert, CEO, Strategic Biofuels
Adam Blaziak, COO, Amyris
Brian Foody, CEO, Iogen
Chris Cooper, CEO, XCF Global
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
10:45am Coffee Break & Industry Networking
11:15am ABLC KEYNOTES
Senior leaders offer strategic perspectives on industrial deployment, commercialization, infrastructure integration, biomanufacturing, and the next phase of the advanced bioeconomy.
Tim Cesarek, Chairman, Bioveritas; partner, ARA Partners
Hardik Shah, Sr. Licensing Manager, Topsoe
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
11:55am The Finance & Investment Summit
Where is the money? Capital continues to flow into bioeconomy projects, but not equally and not indiscriminately. Investors, lenders, insurers, and public finance institutions are becoming increasingly selective. This session explores what projects are doing to attract capital, reduce risk, and become financeable in today’s market.
Moderators: John Kirkwood, Partner, Faegre Drinker and Mark Riedy, Partner, Womble Bond Dickinson
George Schulz, CEO, New Energy Risk
Allison Larr, Director, Public Finance Department, Barclays Capital
Ken Hill, Managing Director, BioCarbon Strategies
Mark Glotfelty, Managing Director, RBC Capital Markets
1:00pm Lunch & Industry Networking
2:00pm TRACK A — The ABLC Next Technologies Summit: The Science of Bioeconomy
Why do technologies that work in the lab often struggle outside it? Laboratory success does not automatically translate into industrial success. Scale introduces new variables, new failures, and new realities. This session examines what changes when technologies leave controlled environments and begin interacting with the real world.
Marilyn Bruno, CEO, Aequor
Lynn Wendt, Director, Biomass Feedstock, Idaho National Laboratory
Rui Chen, Carbon Intensity Lead, ICF
Moderator: Henna Poikolainen, Director of Renewable Fuels & Chemicals, AFRY
2:00pm TRACK B — Commercial Scale Summit: The Business of Bioeconomy
Why do some commercial projects succeed while others never reach durable profitability? Commercial deployment depends on more than producing molecules. Feedstocks, logistics, certification, customers, infrastructure, carbon intensity, and market positioning all influence outcomes. This session explores how successful projects align these factors into sustainable businesses.
Frederyk Ngantung, Head of BD, Resource Chemical Corp.
Pareen Shah, CEO, recraFFted
Knud Balslev, Board Member, Chair of Mobile Special Interest Group, Mercurius Biorefining
Mario De La Ossa, General Manager, ACDC
Moderator: Steve Weiss, Co-Founder and CEO, Grey Heron
3:00pm TRACK A The ABLC Next Technologies Summit: Making Pilot Scale Work
Why do pilot facilities often reveal more problems than solutions? Pilot plants are designed to expose reality. Variability, reliability issues, instrumentation challenges, and operational surprises emerge quickly. This session examines how developers transform pilot-scale learning into commercial advantage.
David Dodds, President, Dodds & Associates
Mohammed Uzair Shah, Research Assistant, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
James Gardner, Program Manager Advanced BioProcess Development Unit, BioCircular Valley, Agile BioFoundry
Moderator: Michael Long, Principal, Thermochemical Engineer, Long Thermochemical
3:00pm TRACK B Commercial Scale Summit: Making Commercial-Scale Finance Work
Why can raising project capital be harder than developing the technology itself? Commercial projects must satisfy lenders, investors, insurers, regulators, and customers simultaneously. This session explores how successful developers structure projects that can survive uncertainty and attract deployment capital.
Steve Weiss, CEO, Grey Heron
Cynthia Thyfault, CEO, QuantaVision
Brentan Alexander, CTO, Roebling
Moderator: Poornima Sharma, President, GreenBridge LLC
3:50pm Coffee Break & Industry Networking
4:20pm TRACK A The ABLC Next Technologies Summit: Risk Mitigation for Early-Stage Projects
How do you reduce risk when nearly everything still feels uncertain? Early-stage developers face technical, commercial, organizational, and financing risks simultaneously. This session examines practical approaches to reducing uncertainty and building confidence among partners, customers, and investors.
Omar Hamid, Group Manager, Low Carbon Fuels, Worley Consulting
Jim Stonecipher, CEO, EDYMAC
Thomas Treynor, CEO, R2DIO
Moderator: David Dodds, President, Dodds & Associates
4:20pm TRACK B The Commercial Scale Summit: Mastering the Risks
Why do seemingly strong projects collapse late in development? Many failures occur not because of technology, but because execution, timing, finance, policy, and operations fail to stay synchronized. This session explores how developers identify and manage complex deployment risks.
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
Rob van der Meij, Partner, Capricorn Partners
Eduard Lindner, Poten & Partners
Derek Winkel, President, Oberon Fuels
Moderator: Henna Poikolainen, Director of Renewable Fuels & Chemicals, AFRY
5:10pm TRACK A The ABLC Next Technologies Summit: Demo to Commercial Scale, the Perils, the Promise, the Pitfalls
Why is demonstration scale where so many projects stumble? Demonstration facilities introduce new levels of integration, staffing, permitting, logistics, financing, and operational complexity. This session examines how successful teams navigate the transition.
Bin Yang, Professor, Washington State University
Michael Long, Principal, Thermochemical Engineer, Long Thermochemical
Peep Pitk, Chief Strategic Business Development Officer, Fibenol
Moderator: Michele Rubino, Principal, 3Peaks Consulting
5:10pm TRACK B Commercial Scale Summit: Synchronizing and Sequencing the Whole Thing
Why do projects with money, technology, feedstock, and customers still fail? Success increasingly depends on synchronizing multiple systems at the same time. Feedstocks, infrastructure, software, workforce, permitting, financing, and operations must all move together. This session explores how developers build coordination into deployment.
Christopher Bush, Founder, Symbiosis Centre for Biomass Processing
David Henstrom, CEO, Unibio
Poornima Sharma, President, GreenBridge LLC
Moderator: Dave Collings, Group Manager, Worley Consulting
6:00pm Bioeconomy 500 Honoree Party
Friday October 23rd
7:15am REGISTRATION OPEN
7:45-8:15am COFFEE & PASTRIES
8:15am Sustainable Futures Summit
How do companies remain durable when everything around them keeps changing? Long-term success depends on resilience as much as innovation. This session explores how leaders navigate policy shifts, commodity cycles, customer evolution, and market uncertainty while continuing to grow.
Eric McAfee, CEO, Aemetis
Dave Rubenstein, CEO, California Ethanol + Power
Ben Taylor, Director – Renewable Energy, Suburban Propane
Rebecca Boudreaux, CEO, Oberon Fuels
Steve Eckhoff, Licensing Manager, TOPSOE
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
10:00am Coffee Break & Industry Networking
10:45am ABLC Next-Gen Companies Summit
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
What are the next generation of founders seeing that established players may be missing? Emerging companies often identify opportunities before they become obvious. This session showcases founders and innovators developing the technologies, business models, and industrial platforms that could define the next decade.
Cem Oszuer, CEO, Synpet Technologies
Michelle Ruiz, CEO, Hyfe
Aaninedeeta Banerjee, CEO, Resource Chemcials
Jayant Khambekar, Sr. Consultant, Jenike & Johanson
Hamed Heidari, CEO, C+UP
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
12:00pm Lunch & Industry Networking
1:00pm National Laboratory & BRC Innovation Summit
Where will the next generation of commercial technologies come from? National laboratories and research centers increasingly provide the tools, infrastructure, and discoveries that enable future deployment. This session examines emerging capabilities and their pathways to industrial impact.
Kevin Schwartz, Strategic Advisor, Rhea’s Factory
Yasmeen Alfaraj, CEO, NextSet Materials
Roxanna Delima, CEO, Rushnu
Luis Valencia, CEO, Alkali Labs
Moderator: Todd Pray, Chief Strategic Partnerships Officer, Lawrence Berkeley National Lab
2:30pm The Due Diligence Wolfpack
How do you know what’s real? The bioeconomy generates no shortage of claims, projections, and promises. The Wolfpack applies practical experience to evaluate technologies, projects, and market opportunities through the lenses of engineering, finance, operations, and commercialization
The Wolfpack:
David Dodds, President, Dodds & Associates
Henna Poikolainen, Director of Renewable Fuels & Chemicals, AFRY
Steve Weiss, Co-Founder and CEO, Grey Heron
Dave Collings, Group Manager, Worley Consulting
Michele Rubino, Principal, 3Peaks Consulting
Moderator: Jim Lane, Editor & Publisher, The Daily Digest
4:00pm ABLC Closing Remarks