Sapphire CEO Clarifies Departure
April 24, 2012
AlgaeIndustryMagazine.com
mid the speculation of why Jason Pyle left Sapphire Energy, seemingly just before their major launch into pre-commercial operations, Bruce Bigelow’s interview with the former CEO in Xconomy explains why this transition was well planned, and may be a good thing for all concerned.
Bigelow describes Pyle as a technology developer and entrepreneur who is focused primarily on transferring breakthroughs in academic research to industry, specializing in such things that are critical to companies in the startup phase—research management, technical project planning, organizational development, intellectual property development, and R&D timeline and resource planning.
Before leaving, Pyle said he wanted to make sure the company was “essentially on track for strategic purposes” and to complete the final tranche of a $144 million Series C round of investment funding, which Sapphire disclosed earlier this month. The ultimate goal, Pyle says, “is to produce green crude at volumes that are consistent with reducing the nation’s need for imported oil. That’s an enormous goal that really is a 10-year endeavor.”
Much of his effort at Sapphire as been to “make sure that everyone—Republicans and Democrats—understand that energy is a national interest and that new forms of energy [like biofuels] are absolutely critical for a country that is dependent on foreign oil. It is the responsibility of our government to support, nurture, and create new forms of energy that we can use,” Pyle said.
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