Algae-to-Biofuel Startup GreenFuel Gets a New CEO

GreenFuel Technologies, a startup that uses recycled CO2 to grow algae, which can be turned into biofuels, has hired a new CEO…finally. Since June 2007 the company has been led by “interim CEO” (and Ethernet inventor) Bob Metcalfe; it had initially been aiming to find a permanent replacement by last December. Today GreenFuel says former Dow Chemical executive Simon Upfill-Brown will become its CEO as of July 23.

This means GreenFuel has almost completed its 7-step turnaround plan, which also included raising new funding. The company needed to “turn around” after it hit a few speed bumps over the past year that resulted in layoffs, a CEO switch and the shutting down of a greenhouse in Arizona after discovering that its algae tech was more expensive than first planned.

In May the company announced that it had raised $13.9 million of a Series B round from existing investors, and said it would announce details of a strategic Series C round “in the coming weeks.” GreenFuels also said that it will soon announce deals for scaling its algae-farming technology, so look for more news to come out of the algae-to-biofuel startup.