Wednesday, June 4, 2008

SunEthanol brings DuPont exec Frey in as CEO

By Mass High Tech Staff

University of Massachusetts Amherst spinout SunEthanol Inc. has named former DuPont Applied BioSciences leader William Frey as the cellulosic ethanol developer’s new CEO.

Frey, a 28-year veteran of DuPont, replaces previous SunEthanol CEO Jef Sharp, who led the company since its founding in 2006. Sharp will take the role of chief marketing officer, as well as remain a member of the company’s board.

Prior to joining Amherst-based SunEthanol, Frey led DuPont’s bio-based materials unit, which eventually became DuPont Applied BioSciences, developing renewable products including biofuels, biomaterials and biomedical products.

Frey will be responsible for both the scientific and commercial efforts of SunEthanol, which is working on a way to use its proprietary microbe, called Q Microbe, to make ethanol from a variety of non-food based feedstocks, including corn fiber, switchgrass, corn stover and sorghum.

Founded by a team of entrepreneurs and Q Microbe creator Susan Leschine, a UMass Amherst microbiology professor, SunEthanol is backed by an undisclosed amount of funding from Waltham’s Battery Ventures, Hadley’s Long River Ventures and South Dakota’s VeraSun Energy.

The firm was also included in the U.S. Department of Energy’s $114 million investment in four small-scale biorefineries across the country, which was announced in February.