Lucigen, Virent to present at Focal Point 2012

(3BL Media) May 30, 2012 - Jeff Williams, president of the biotech company Lucigen, and Andrew Held, senior director of feedstock development for Virent, Inc., are slated to address Focal Point 2012: Capitalizing on Sustainable Technology, Oct. 10 in Stevens Point, WI. The conference will demonstrate how some of the leading companies in Wisconsin and the region are developing and adopting new sustainable technologies that contribute to their bottom line and competitiveness.

Other companies already scheduled to present include Veolia Environmental Services, ERCO Worldwide, and Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc.

Lucigen’s Williams has more than 20 years of senior management experience in leading life science and diagnostic companies, including Roche Diagnostics, Ambion and Promega. Most recently, he was president and CEO at Platypus Technologies, a nanotechnology company located in Fitchburg, WI. 

Held joined Virent in 2007 as the director of process engineering. In early 2010 Held started to lead Virent's feedstock development efforts and now focuses on that full-time. His current role combines commercial and technology aspects for feedstock development across the supply chain. Held’s prior work includes 10 years of operations and R&D experience at Cargill, an international provider of food, agricultural and risk management products and services.

Representing Veolia at Focal Point will be Kelly Rooney, director of recycling. Rooney plays a key role in executing the company’s overall recycling strategy, focused on expanding and improving the organization’s existing recycling processes and capabilities. She joined Veolia in 2007 as an area manager in Central Wisconsin and brings over 20 years of experience in the waste and recycling industry.

Kevin Hansen, an engineer at ERCO Worldwide’s Port Edwards plant, will discuss how his company is incorporating sustainable technology. ERCO Worldwide focuses largely on the production and supply of inorganic products along with the technology for the production of chlorine dioxide.

Ocean Spray is a $2 billion consumer packaged goods company and best-in-class agricultural cooperative owned by more than 700 growers.  Kristine Young, the company’s manager of sustainability, will discuss how the company integrates sustainable environmental practices into all parts of Ocean Spray’s business of making world-class cranberry and citrus products.  The cooperative’s efforts to improve environmental practices focus in five key areas: agriculture, water stewardship, climate & energy, packaging and waste reduction.  

Focal Point 2012 is hosted by the Wisconsin Institute for Sustainable Technology and the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in the university’s Dreyfus Center. It will feature sessions on renewable energy and biofuels; innovative use of renewable raw materials, resource efficiency; and biocatalysis operations.  

More information about the conference is at www.uwsp.edu/wist/Pages/FocalPoint/Index.aspx.