Symbios Technologies

company bios

Justin Bzdek – Founder and President & CEO
Justin Bzdek, a pioneer in the Colorado cleantech community, founded Symbios Technologies in January 2008 and has been involved in the founding of many biofuels and solar energy-related companies. Since 2003, Mr. Bzdek has had senior involvement in more than $50 million in federal and state government grants and contract awards from DOE, USDA, DOD, and state agencies, including for advanced cellulosic biofuels plants, algae-to-jet fuel R&D, energy crop R&D, biodiesel plants and process technologies, and waste-to-energy project feasibility studies. In 2008, Mr. Bzdek conceived of an integrated renewable ag-energy industrial park concept in collaboration with a major municipality, and in 2009 obtained funding for and directed its phase I engineering and business feasibility analysis evaluating centralized anaerobic digestion of disparate food processing and municipal wastes as well as solar power generation. He leads project development teams focused on water treatment and greenhouse gas-mitigating conversion of industrial and agricultural waste streams to clean energy, organic fertilizer, and clean water. Examples of his team’s recent work include development of proprietary engineering/technology and financial modeling software as well as geospatial database decision-making tools for distributed generation bioenergy projects, a patent-pending innovative low-energy water treatment technology, engineering design and process modeling for a patent-pending supercritical fluid oil extraction and biofuel process technology, and a proprietary engineering model for a patent-pending biogas/solar thermal hybrid electric power generation system. He has authored or co-authored numerous technical articles, essays, patent applications, and other works, and holds a patent for a biofuels purification technology. Mr. Bzdek served as Chairman of the Board of The Atmosphere Conservancy , a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that develops, finances, and builds community solar energy renovations for affordable housing and non-profit facilities. He is a member of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) and past board member of the Colorado Center for Biorefining and Biofuels (C2B2) and the Southwestern Biofuels Association (SWBA), and from 2001 to 2008 was co-founder, board member, and vice president of Blue Sun Energy, Inc. and its subsidiaries including Blue Sun Biodiesel LLC, the first major biofuels company in the Rocky Mountain region. Previously, he was Research Associate and Assistant Department Manager for the Department of Atmospheric Science at Colorado State University. Mr. Bzdek holds a B.S. in Chemistry from Colorado State University.

Brooks M. Hybertson, MBA, Ph.D. – Vice President, Research & Development
Brooks M. Hybertson, MBA, Ph.D. is Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and President of Salina Solutions, LLC. He is also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for Lifevantage, Inc. Dr. Hybertson has an extensive background in scientific research and development, is an author on more than 40 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters, is an inventor on 6 issued patents, and has been a principal investigator for over fifteen years on research projects pertaining to green technologies, supercritical fluids, oxidative stress, and biotechnology. In addition, he has served as a reviewer for both Federal and private granting agencies and for several scientific journals. His professional background includes experience in laboratory research, product development, and customer support. He has been on the University of Colorado School of Medicine faculty for over 15 years, and has held senior technical management positions at two startup companies. Dr. Hybertson earned his Ph.D. in Analytical Chemistry from the University of Colorado at Boulder, received postgraduate training at the Webb-Waring Institute for Biomedical Research in Denver, where he was awarded the Oxygen Society Young Investigator Award, and earned his M.B.A. from the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Buzz Walker, MBA – Vice President, Marketing & Business Development
Buzz Walker has more than 25 years’ experience in systems, software, and technology ventures. Mr. Walker and his team are currently responsible for leading business development and marketing strategy and execution for all of Symbios Technologies’ platforms. This includes go-to-market strategies, market analysis, market segmentation, product positioning, messaging, target market, pricing, distribution/channel planning and partnerships, and sales. Prior to joining Symbios, Mr. Walker was VP of Marketing and Channels for ProStor Systems in Boulder, Colorado, maker of energy efficient data storage systems. Prior to joining ProStor, Mr. Walker was Vice President of Marketing and Business Development leading all marketing, product management, marcom, branding, strategy and alliance activities at Arkivio, Inc., a leader in delivering Data Management software solutions for enterprise file system management. Mr. Walker also has held leadership positions at Hewlett-Packard, focused on sales, marketing, and strategy in Storage, OpenView software, and Office Automation businesses. In his most recent position with HP, he was Director of Business Ventures, responsible for mergers, acquisitions investments and technology alliances in the Storage Industry. Before that, he was the Business Unit Manager for branded Enterprise and Commercial Data Protection Solutions. Prior to joining HP, Mr. Walker was a research and development manager for Procter & Gamble in Cincinnati, Ohio. He is a founding senior member of Symbios’ Management Advisory Board. He received his B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Notre Dame and his MBA from the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Edward C. Giordano, M.S.– Director of Engineering & Manufacturing
Ed Giordano brings to Symbios Technologies 30 years’ experience as an engineer, technical director, and consultant, primarily in fluid treatment. As a chief engineer, Ed’s design work has influenced industrial, commercial, and consumer product brands including 3M-Cuno-AquaPure, Water Pik, Watts, Pentair, Ecolab, Culligan, and Whirlpool. Mr. Giordano is a former partner of Hydro Systems International, a supplier of OEM and private-label systems and components to filter device manufacturers. Prior to joining Symbios Technologies, Mr. Giordano served as Director of Engineering and Manufacturing for Ice Energy, Inc., manufacturer of the Ice Bear®, a utility-scale, distributed thermal energy storage system. The Ice Bear has won numerous cleantech industry awards for innovation and has 20+ U.S. patents issued or pending. Before joining Ice Energy, Mr. Giordano was Chief Product Engineer for Teledyne Water Pik, and previously was Group Leader, Product Engineering - Consumer & Industrial Products for 3M-Cuno, Inc., a leader in water filtration technologies. With his technical leadership positions in market-leading fluid treatment companies, and as a consultant, Mr. Giordano brings a valuable breadth and depth of skills and experiences in product development, regulatory compliance, manufacturing/quality management, and global sourcing. He holds 27 U.S. patents and has served as a member of the NSF Joint Committee for Drinking Water Treatment units and on the Water Quality Association’s Science Advisory Board. Mr. Giordano received his B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Northeastern University and his M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Kenneth Ogan, Ph.D. – Senior Consultant
Dr. Kenneth Ogan is an R&D manager with 30+ years’ experience in the development of analytical instruments and methods in pharmaceutical, environmental, and biotechnology fields. He has held senior technical management positions in 3 major companies and in 4 start-up companies, with responsibility for new technology assessment and directing new product development. He has a proven record of building motivated teams. Dr. Ogan’s experience includes 9 years as CTO and VP of Technology for Hach/Danaher in instruments and chemistries for water quality monitoring, and subsequently 5 years working with start-up companies in a variety of water quality monitoring and water treatment technologies. His earlier experience at Perkin-Elmer Corp. included work on a novel GC detector based on argon and helium plasmas. His technical experience covers a wide range of analytical methods, including chromatography, UV/Vis and fluorescence spectroscopy, electrophoresis, NMR, and mass spectrometry, from which he has generated 25 peer-reviewed publications, and 5 patents.

Derek Johnson, Ph.D. – Symbios Plasma Reactor Inventor
Dr. Derek Johnson was part of the first-generation plasma reactor research team with Colorado State University, the University of Wisconsin, and the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory. During this time he earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Colorado State University with a focus on aqueous plasma reactors for nanoparticle synthesis and water remediation. Dr. Johnson has since completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Dr. Amy Prieto’s research group working on nanoscale synthesis of inorganic materials. His Ph.D. and postdoctoral research as well as his role as Symbios’ senior scientist and engineer have led to nine peer-reviewed publications and three provisional patents in a number of multi-disciplinary subjects. Dr. Johnson has extensive experience in determining and predicting oxidation mechanisms of organic pollutants as well as analyzing reaction kinetics. He also has demonstrated a proficiency in the design and fabrication of plasma and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors, which will help expedite the construction of the prototype bench-scale Symbios Plasma Reactor. His knowledge of CVD systems and thin-film deposition are critical to the patent-pending nanotechnology advancements associated with the plasma reactor. In addition, Dr. Johnson serves as an expert reviewer for Environmental Science & Technology, Water Research, Plasma Chemistry and Plasma Processing, and the Water Quality Research Journal of Canada, scientific journals that publish scholarly work focused on plasma and water treatment processes.

Mandar Sunthankar, M.S. – Senior Principal Engineer
Mandar Sunthankar has over 30 years’ experience in R&D and manufacturing of high technology solid-state products, and has developed plasma technologies for chemical applications. Mr. Sunthankar founded IonEdge Corporation to develop novel green coating technologies to eliminate hazardous chemical plating. These technologies were developed using government R&D funding over 15 years. Later he commercialized the products to automotive, aerospace and electronics markets, generating sales. Eventually he sold the technology to an automotive coating company. Prior to this, he worked for 15 years in microchip fabrication to the level of Process Engineering Manager. Since 2009, Mr. Sunthankar has sourced more than $8 million in grants for startup technology companies. He holds an M.S. in Electrical Engineering from the University of Connecticut and has received two patents as well as publishing numerous papers in scientific journals.

Greg Fuhrman, CPA– Chief Financial Officer
Greg Fuhrman joined Symbios in 2009 as the Company’s Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining the Company, Mr. Fuhrman served as the Manager of Commercial Real Estate Lending for Fort Collins and Loveland for Guaranty Bank and Trust Company. Mr. Fuhrman also spent six years with Ernst & Young in Los Angeles, with significant experience in the mergers and acquisitions and real estate audit practices, with a diverse client base ranging from joint venture partnerships to publicly traded companies, including several IPOs. Mr. Fuhrman spent five years as Chief Accounting Officer at a private real estate investment company, specializing in debt and equity investments and closing on nearly $1 billion in annual transactions. As CAO, Mr. Fuhrman gained significant experience in real estate and joint venture finance, tax structuring and planning, selection and implementation of a new accounting system and management of nearly 50 different joint venture partners, as well as interacting with large pension funds, banks and other institutional investors in traditional equity fund structures. Mr. Fuhrman’s experience as an independent business consultant includes management of the IPO process for a real estate operating company in Los Angeles and raising capital for start-up companies with unique and commercially appealing technologies. Mr. Fuhrman graduated from California State University at Northridge in 1995 with a B.S. in Business Administration with an Option in Accounting Theory and Practice.

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