business
BRIEFS Ely Energy names new CEO Joe Ragosta has been named CEO of Tulsa-Okla.-based Ely Energy. He assumes overall management, strategic and operational responsibility for Ely Energy. Most recently, Ragosta was president of Oseco, a Halma Co., U.K., a manufacturer of products for the pressure relief markets. Prior Ragosta to Oseco, Ragosta was general manager and senior vice president of Graver Technologies, Glasgow, Del., a manufacturer of water, chemical, pharmaceutical and food product purification equipment. BIO
CleanTech Biofuels announces new board members CleanTech Biofuels Inc. announced that its stockholders have elected David Bransby and Jackson Nickerson to its board of directors. Bransby is a professor of energy crops and bioenergy in the department of agronomy and soils at Auburn University, where he has taught and conducted research since 1987. He has more than 30 years of experience in agronomic research, and has spent 22 years specializing in energy crop production and processing, a subject in which he is considered a preeminent international expert. Nickerson’s award-winning research spans a variety of topics in organization and strategy. He is internationally recognized as an expert on innovation and the effect of organizational structure on business performance, including the performance implications of outsourcing, centralization versus decentralization and the use of teams. Currently, Nickerson is Frahm Family Professor of Organization and Strategy at Washington University’s Olin Business School in St. Louis. BIO
Thomasson joins CHS team CHS Renewable Fuels Marketing has hired Maxwell Thomasson as marketing manager. Thomasson will focus on connecting ethanol producers and blenders for the renewable fuels marketing division of CHS Inc, a leading energy, grains and foods company. His career has included 15 years Thomasson with BP as a trader in gasoline and derivatives working in London, Chicago and Cleveland, and four years as a senior energy trader for Cargill Inc., where he directed proprietary trading of ethanol, gasoline and naphtha. BIO
Consense launches into the biomass sector Consense has entered the biomass renewable energy sector, announcing Energy Power Resources Ltd. as its first client. U.K.-based Consense, a division of marketing agency 2Cs, specializes in community engagement and online consultation. Its expansion will help businesses developing biomass plants to involve more of the community in their proposals, with the team at Consense supporting them throughout the planning process, managing community, political and media relations. The team will use their in-depth knowledge of renewable energy communications to support biomass plant developers by running inclusive and auditable stakeholder and public consultation campaigns. BIO
Cusick joins Dickstein Shapiro law firm Dickstein Shapiro welcomed Michael Cusick as a partner in the firm’s energy practice. Cusick’s extensive transactional experience includes advising issuers and underwriters on public and private U.S. and international offerings of securities, particularly in the public utility industry; counseling on restructuring and acquisition-related matters for regulated and competitive companies; and complex purchase and sale transactions with regard to energy infrastructure facilities. His background will complement the firm’s energy practice and its team of 30-plus transactional attorneys who counsel on matters including the acquisition, sale, financing, and structuring of energy companies and energy assets, among others. BIO
Nexterra appoints Wilkinson to management team Jonathan Wilkinson has joined Nexterra’s management team as senior vice president, business development. Wilkinson will be responsible for developing new markets and commercializing new applications of Nexterra’s technologies. He joins Nexterra from Wilkinson Vancouver-based QuestAir Technologies, where he was president and CEO. During his tenure, the company grew revenues almost 100-fold, established strategic relationships with Exxon Mobil Corp. and Shell Hydrogen and successfully executed an initial public offering. He previously held roles at QuestAir as chief operating officer and as vice president business development. Prior to joining QuestAir, Wilkinson was a manager at Bain and Co., and has experience in the public sector as a constitutional negotiator, a federal-provincial relations specialist, and a special advisor to the Premier of Saskatchewan. BIO 11|2009 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 13