Friday, August 8, 2008

The Mover

Turnaround guy turning waste into clean energy

By Vanessa Williams, Mass High Tech intern

George McMillan won fame in an industry that was on the down side of a wave of activity, as the CEO who turned around CMGI Inc. Now he is getting the chance to be on an upswell, having been named as chief operating officer and chief financial officer of Ze-gen Inc., a Boston-based waste-gasification technology developer.

McMillan, who has been on the board of directors for Ze-gen since 2004, was recruited as COO and CFO by founder Bill Davis, a long time friend, and the company’s president and CEO. 

Ze-gen develops and integrates waste gasification technology, which converts construction, demolition and other wastes into high-quality synthetic gas.

Though he is a California native and Stanford University graduate, McMillan says he loves New England and was born to be a Bostonian.

“In California you’re known by your subdivision, but here it’s all about building small-town communities,” he said.

After earning an MBA and law degree at Harvard University in 1980, McMillan worked as an entry-level consultant at Boston Consulting Group. After only four years at BCG, he moved into the executive suite as chief operating officer at Bronner Slosberg Humphrey Associates, an advertising and marketing firm now known as Digitas.

McMillan stayed on the executive track at Michigan Bulb Co., a horticultural direct marketing company in Grand Rapids, Mich., and New York-based music media conglomerate BMG Direct Inc.

In 2001, McMillan joined CMGI, then a financially-distressed Internet holding company in Boston, as CEO. He repositioned the company into a billion-dollar player in supply-chain management software and services. 

“During the first nine months there were always 20 different things that could have gone the wrong way. It was a scary time but I put all my efforts into the chance that things would fall together in just the right way,” says McMillan.

In the fall of 2004, McMillan co-founded professional services firm Palladium Group Inc., a merger of Balanced Scorecard Collaborative Inc. in Lincoln, Painted Word Inc. in Boston and ThinkFast Consulting Inc. in Chicago.

Though McMillan strongly believes that companies like Ze-gen are a step in the right direction, he also realizes that a combination of innovative technology and well-conceived business models will solve large problems a piece at a time.

“There is no silver bullet here,” says McMillan. 

With that same realism, McMillan calls his family his number one hobby. As a true lover of the East Coast, he married a Connecticut woman, with whom he has two sons, ages 19 and 21.