• Acting plant manager for 136,000 sqf industrial hemp processing facility, including extraction, winterization, distillation, crystallization, and bottling• Oversees all CBD-based and other supplement products manufacturing and fulfillment of bulk and consumer finished goods orders• Brought plant uptime to >90%• Increased monthly production rate by 40% in less than six months• Responsible for Supply Chain, Maintenance, Formulations and IT departments• Continuously identifying and implementing cost-saving measures in all departments• Reduced staff turnover by 50%• Manage two direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands for topicals and ingestible products• Provide technical evaluation for M&A

As Senior Director of Operations: • Oversees all CBD based products manufacturing and fulfillment of bulk and CPG orders• Leads the design and construction of a new over 100,000 sq. ft. manufacturing facility• Is responsible for all new technologies and equipment vetting, acquisition, commissioning, and implementation in production• Is a member of the Food Safety Group and the Executive Representative for BRCGS Ethical Trade & Responsible Sourcing (ETRS)• Manages several departments including: Hemp Biomass Material Handling, Extraction, Refinement, Formulations, Maintinance, Shipping and Receiving, and Security

As Director of GenCanna's Research and Development Department directed activities to maintain the organization's competitive position and profitability while achieving exponential growth.

As Principal Owner, launched a biotech consulting business to perform and execute lean solutions and technology advancements for processes scale-up and commercial implementation for biotech companies. Clients include international publicly-traded companies and startups.

OMEGA, “Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae,” began as a NASA Advanced Life Support research project to grow algae for biofuels and evolved into an ecosystem of technologies that generate sustainable energy, turn wastewater into drinking water, and provide food without using land.

As Algae Technical Manager, directed all efforts related to application research projects for implementation in commercial manufacturing, including identifying alternative antioxidants, process improvements of algae, yeast and bacteria fermentation-based products, and chemical and enzymatic hydrolyzation for new substrates.Manage Risk, Maximize Productivity and Implement Initiatives to Increase ALLTECH’s Technologies and Development Strategies• Updated and enforced the Alltech Quality System (AQS) documentation and practices in the pilot plant and production.• Contributed to the FDA petition for feed and companion animals’ food additive and sponsor’s quality assurance representative for target animal safety trials. • Established a dashboard and data mining system that produced real-time data access; implemented and promoted the extended use of a computerized maintenance management system.Innovate New Technologies and Implement Process Changes• Bolster transparency by providing technical input regarding M&A due diligence, as well as strategic advice to Marketing, Legal/IP, Regulatory and the Innovation Divisions.• Coordinated Alltech Winchester’s production facility Distribution Control System upgrade and related improvements.• Led and coordinated projects that optimized existing manufacturing infrastructure and processes.• Successfully doubled yields of the active ingredient in proprietary strain, scaled up to production.• Served as a high impact Alltech Social Media Ambassador.

• Successfully completed and published the results of academic research listed in publication section below. • Served as a reviewer for academic research proposals for universities, federal agencies and scientific journals.

• Managed and supervised a scientific and technical staff consisting of 20 researchers who supported research and development (R&D) for the NASA OMEGA project. • Contributed to algae culturing system infrastructures while monitoring and controlling systems design specifications. • Oversaw R&D and manufacturing for several OMEGA system components including floating PBR, Gas Exchange Colum and Instruction and Control systems. • Developed and implemented an innovative short and long-term research schedule and project plans.• Provided effective optimization strategies for the OMEGA system which increased algae productivity and led research to characterize algae physiology for enhanced biofuel production and wastewater advanced treatment. • Studied environmental factors that affected OMEGA productivity including PBR materials, flue gas and biofouling. - Created and implemented operational protocols using best practices for system procedures and experimental testing and implemented training programs and metrics that increased the group’s productivity.

• Served as a lecturer for “Our Changing Planet”, an introduction to an earth systems course for undergraduates with an emphasis on climate change and renewable energy solutions for 90 students and 2 teaching assistants.

• Fully supported research and development trough design, prototyping and testing for new chemostat technology and implanting Photosynthetic Response Incubation and Manipulation Systems (PRIMaS).

Led multimillion-dollar projects, including developed a strain validation lab and global test sites, and led the construction and commissioning of a $7M demonstration algae production facility in Harlingen, TX. Increased Scalable Growth• Facilitate communication between the executive team, design and field engineers, construction team, vendors, contractors, and local and state entities. • Developed and implemented the highly effective AA Quality system for the sites.• Successfully met all aggressive construction and productivity-related milestones on time and within a budget of $7M.

Established and led two facilities that field-tested AA open pond design and field strain productivity in Geraldton Australia and Port Lavaca, TX.Managed Productivity and Development• Supported and coordinated site development and decommissioning in compliance with strict Australian laws and regulations.• Facilitated and coordinated all communication between Aurora Algae and the hosting Durack Institute of Technology.• Managed all aspects related to the facility, and met all construction and productivity milestones within a budget of $1M.• Established and led the facility that field-tested AA algae open pond design and field strain productivity in Port Lavaca, TX. • Assembled and developed a team of five operations-related direct reports; supported and coordinated the Port Lavaca, TX site development and decommissioning.

Established and led a Strain Validation pipeline, hired and managed lab operations team, and completed feasibility study for indoor raceway pond facility; supported R&D team at a demo facility in Karratha, Australia.Project Management and Coordination• Supported and managed AA Biofuel program projects related to biology, engineering, and operations.• Supported and coordinated all research activities completed by the Strain Validation team and supported engineering department in scale-up and transfer of technology to Reliance Industries Limited (RIL).• Coordinated the development of bioinformatics tools that collected, reduced and reported field and laboratory data.

Led the organization’s NASA Offshore Membrane Enclosures for Growing Algae (OMEGA) project system’s data reduction, analysis and results reporting.

• Successfully researched the effects of ocean acidification on phytoplankton photosynthesis and supported research and development efforts for both FRRF and new chemostat technologies.• Participated in several oceanographic cruises for data collection and analysis in addition to investigating the spectral characterization of algae growth relative to lipid content.