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Board of Directors
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Fred Cannon is our President and Chief Executive Officer and a member of our Board of Directors. Mr. Cannon joined KiOR as President and Chief Operating Officer and as a director in June 2008 and was elected Chief Executive Officer in July 2010. He brings to the company strong leadership skills, technical expertise and a 30-year track record of successful international business management in the fuels and chemicals industries, with a particular focus on catalyst and fluidic catalytic cracking (FCC) technologies. Prior to KiOR, Mr. Cannon led a distinguished 30 year career at AkzoNobel, a global leader in refining catalysts and specialty chemicals manufacturing. Mr. Cannon was president of AkzoNobel Catalysts LLC from 1997 until the divestment of the business in August 2004. In his role, Mr. Cannon had full profit and loss responsibilities for the company's Americas business and managed various joint ventures around the world. In August 2004, AkzoNobel's refinery catalyst business was sold to Albemarle Corporation. Mr. Cannon served in several executive roles in transitioning the business to ensure continued smooth operations and integration across the new company until June 2008 when he joined KiOR. In all, Mr. Cannon has over 20 years in the refining catalyst business, where he has managed the development, scaling and commercialization of new catalyst technologies, including FCC and hydro-processing catalysts. Mr. Cannon holds an MBA and a B.S. in Engineering from the University of South Alabama.
Ralph Alexander has been a member of our Board of Directors since February 2011. He has been a Managing Director of Riverstone Holdings, LLC, a private equity fund focused on the energy and power sectors, since September 2007. For nearly 25 years, Mr. Alexander served in various senior management positions with subsidiaries and affiliates of BP plc, most recently as Chief Executive Officer of Innovene, BP's olefins and derivatives subsidiary, from 2004 to December 2005, as Chief Executive Officer of BP's Gas, Power and Renewables and Solar segment from 2001 to 2004, and as a Group Vice President in BP's Exploration and Production segment and BP's Refinery and Marketing segment. He also has been a director of Amyris, Inc. and Stein Mart Corporation, in each case since May 2007. He previously served on the board of Foster Wheeler from May 2006 to February 2007 and Anglo-American plc from April 2005 to October 2007. He holds a B.S. and M.S. in nuclear engineering from Brooklyn Polytech (now NYU Polytechnic) and holds an M.S. in management science from Stanford University. He is currently Chairman of the Board of NYU Polytechnic. Mr. Alexander's extensive experience with the energy industry generally and renewable fuels in particular enables him to provide important insight and guidance to our management team and Board of Directors.
Samir Kaul has been a member of our Board of Directors since November 2007. Mr. Kaul has been a General Partner at Khosla Ventures, a venture capital firm focusing on clean technologies, since February 2006. Previously, Mr. Kaul was a member of Flagship Ventures, a venture capital firm, from 2002 to May 2006. Prior to Flagship, Mr. Kaul worked at The Institute for Genomic Research. Mr. Kaul currently serves on the board of directors of Amyris, Inc. and on the boards of directors of several private companies. Mr. Kaul holds a B.S. in Biology from the University of Michigan, an M.S. in Biochemistry from the University of Maryland and an MBA from Harvard Business School. Mr. Kaul provides our Board of Directors with wide-ranging experience in clean technology companies and insight in the management of startup companies and the building of companies from early stage to commercial scale.
David J. Paterson has been a member of our Board of Directors since June 2012. Mr. Paterson currently serves as President and Chief Executive Officer of Verso Paper Corp., a North American producer of coated papers, including coated groundwood and coated freesheet, and specialty products, a position he has held since May 2012. From 2007 – 2011, Mr. Paterson served as President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of AbitibiBowater Inc. (now doing business as Resolute Forest Products), a global producer of newsprint, coated and specialty papers, market pulp and wood products. He was Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Bowater Incorporated during 2007 and President and Chief Executive Officer of Bowater Incorporated from 2006 to 2007. From 1987 to 2006, Mr. Paterson worked in various executive and sales and marketing positions for Georgia-Pacific Corporation, a global manufacturer of tissue, packaging, paper, building products and related chemicals. Mr. Paterson will bring to our Board expertise in the forestry industry and international business transactions.
Condoleezza Rice, Ph.D., has been a member of our Board of Directors since July 2011. Secretary Rice has been a professor of political economy in the Stanford Graduate School of Business at the Stanford Graduate School since September 2010. Secretary Rice has also served as a senior fellow of public policy at the Hoover Institution and a professor of political science at Stanford University since March 2009. Prior to returning to academia, from January 2005 to January 2009, she served as the 77th Secretary of State of the United States. Secretary Rice also served as Chief National Security Advisor to the President from January 2001 to January 2005. Secretary Rice is currently on the board of Makena Capital, a private endowment firm, and C3, an energy software company. She has also served on the boards of directors for the Chevron Corporation, the Charles Schwab Corporation, the Transamerica Corporation and the International Advisory Council of J.P. Morgan.
William Roach, Ph.D., has been a member of our Board of Directors since July 2010. Dr. Roach is currently the president and chief executive officer of Cavalier Energy. Prior to that, Dr. Roach served as CEO of Calera in Los Gatos, California. He was the president and CEO of UTS Energy, where he oversaw the successful identification, acquisition and development of a significant portfolio of oil sands leases interspaced with, and ultimately coveted by, a number of the active super majors in the area. UTS was sold to TOTAL E&P Canada for approximately $1.5 billion. Dr. Roach has a successful 25-year track record directing and managing the design, construction, and delivery of large, capital-intensive, national and international upstream oil and gas projects. He has worked internationally for Shell and British-Borneo, and on the east coast of Canada for Husky Energy. Dr. Roach is a professional engineer in Canada and the U.K. and holds a B.Sc. in metallurgy and a Ph.D. in physical metallurgy.
Gary L. Whitlock has been a member of our Board of Directors since December 2010. Mr. Whitlock serves as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of CenterPoint Energy, Inc., a position he has held since September 2002. He served as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of the Delivery Group of Reliant Energy, Incorporated, from July 2001 to September 2002. Prior to joining Reliant, Mr. Whitlock served as the Vice President of Finance and Chief Financial Officer of Dow AgroSciences, a subsidiary of The Dow Chemical Company, from 1998 to 2001. He began his career with Dow in 1972, where he held a number of financial leadership positions, both in the United States and globally. Mr. Whitlock is a Certified Public Accountant and received a BBA from Sam Houston State University. Mr. Whitlock brings to the Board of Directors extensive experience in public company financial management and reporting.