Management Team

Bobby Bringi

President & CEO

Bobby joined MBI International in late 2006 as President and CEO. Bobby brings to MBI broad expertise in bio-based technology development; scale-up and commercialization; strategic partnerships; licensing and intellectual property management; and entrepreneurial start-ups.

Bobby is a proven technology innovator and entrepreneur. He previously co-founded and built Phyton, Inc., a biotechnology company that pioneered and commercialized a breakthrough plant cell fermentation technology to produce the anti-cancer drug, paclitaxel. Following successful commercialization with partner Bristol Myers Squibb, he completed a successful merger with a private pharmaceutical company.

Bobby received his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from Cornell University in 1991, with training in plant and biochemical sciences.

Dave Jones

Senior Vice President, Business Development and Commercialization

Dave joined MBI in 2009 to lead the company's business development and commercialization operations. Dave has significant experience in taking early-stage technologies and transitioning them into the chemical market, with specific expertise in marketing, sales, licensing and corporate alliances.

Prior to MBI, Dave was Director of Bio-Products at Ashland Inc., where he and his team formulated and implemented Ashland's corporate strategy for bio-based technology initiatives. His industry experience spans 26 years at Ashland, BASF and BP, with roles of increasing responsibility spanning research chemist, technical service representative, product manager, sales representative and eventually Global Business Director managing all operations for several specialty chemical product lines.

Dave holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry both from Purdue University. He also completed the Executive Management and Leadership program at the Kelley School of Business at Indiana University.

David Senyk

VP, Engineering

David is a senior manager with 20+ years expertise in nearly all facets of biotech processing including process and project engineering, operations, process development and trouble shooting, facility maintenance, and quality control. As Vice President of Engineering at MBI, he is responsible for process definition, process validation, scale-up/scale-down processing, total plant optimization, production scheduling, new product/process introductions, new process equipment design and selection, and transition with engineering design.

Previously, David was the Director of Engineering and Manufacturing at Diversa Corporation where he was responsible for all manufacturing, capital projects, process transfers, and cost reduction efforts at the company's 380,000-L capacity manufacturing plant. David has also led cross-functional teams in all aspects of the commercial manufacture of a human vaccine. As a Senior Manufacturing Manager at Bioport Corporation, he dramatically increased manufacturing capacity through process de-bottlenecking, improvements in manufacturing success rate, and the development of an empirical model to predict fermenter performance.

David holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering (Biochemical focus) from The University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Bernie Steele

Director, Operations

Bernie is a senior manager with a background in microbial physiology and over 25 years of experience in biotechnology. He is currently responsible for MBI operations including external partnerships, compliance, quality assurance and laboratory safety and serves as Biosafety Officer of MBI.

Before joining MBI, Bernie held faculty positions at Auburn University, where he was responsible for the Fermentation and Bioprocessing Laboratory, and the University of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Laboratory. As a Senior Research Scientist at Boeing Defense and Space Group he was involved in the early development of the Environmental Control and Life Support Systems for the International Space Station. Bernie has spent much of his career leading research aimed at the discovery and development of microbial products, such as enzymes and specialty chemicals, as well as strain development and the use of microorganisms for remediation of environmental contaminants. He has conducted research programs throughout the world including the United States, Mexico, Honduras, Peru, Bolivia, Thailand, Nepal and Belarus.

Bernie received his PhD in Biological Sciences from Columbia Pacific University and a BS and MS in Microbiology from Auburn University.

Jim Wynn

Director, Process Development and Integration

Jim joined MBI in May 2009 to become Director of Process Development and Integration, responsible for the "in house" and collaborative process development.

Jim has a background in microbial physiology, molecular biology and fermentation development. He has 19 years experience working on the production of commercially important metabolites by a host of microbial systems (bacterial, fungal and algal). His work has encompassed production of plant hormones, insecticides, mycotoxins, fatty acids and therapeutic proteins.

Before joining MBI, Jim worked for Martek Biosciences where he was a Principal Scientist and Project Leader, responsible for a number of projects including the process development for ARA (a nutritional oil product, included in > 90% of infant formula in the USA) and the production of therapeutic proteins by an algal platform. Jim's project leadership experience includes managing diverse multidisciplinary projects and collaborations with external academic and industrial partners.

Jim received his Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Biology from the University of Wales, and his PhD in Biological Sciences from the University of Hull.

Darold F. McCalla

Senior Advisor/Corporate Development

Darold is a seasoned executive in operations, marketing and finance with domestic and international experience. He has worked at MBI for over 7 years in project management and corporate development. Most of his work has been in ethanol biorefinery development and modeling, improved uses for distiller's grains and pilot plant development for pretreatment of Cellulosic biomass.

Prior to MBI, Darold worked in management and animal health for various livestock companies with US and International interests. He holds a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from Michigan State University.

Susanne Kleff

Senior Scientist

Susanne is a Senior Scientist at MBI International with expertise in molecular biology, microbiology, and metabolic engineering. She specializes in bacterial expression systems and currently plays an integral role in microbial strain and bioprocess development. Her most recent work involves strain engineering to enhance succinic acid production in A. succinogenes and development of a bacterial expression system for protein delivery. She is also participating in the determination of how biomass derived sugar streams can be efficiently utilized in a fermentation.

Susanne has a long track record of success. She has developed vector systems and strong promoters in many different organisms. She designed an expression system for the development of an oral vaccine by manipulating the expression of proteins on a spore coat. She also performed contract research work to solubilize a certain protein that was otherwise insoluble, and she generated transgenic canola plants to improve their stress tolerance.

Susanne received her Ph.D. from the University of Cologne, Germany, in collaboration with the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

Farzaneh Teymouri

Senior Scientist

Farzaneh is a Senior Scientist with 8+ years leadership experience in bioconversion of cellulosics biomass to value added products such as fuels, specialty chemicals and materials. As project leader in biomass processing, she has developed broad and deep expertise in both scientific and engineering aspects of biomass pretreatment, enzyme processing and downstream fermentation steps. She is actively involved in developing and scaling up the biomass pretreatment processes.

Previously, Farzaneh was a Postdoctoral Research Associate with Prof. Bruce Dale at Michigan State University (MSU) focusing on numerous scientific factors underpinning the development of AFEX process for treatment of biomass.

Farzaneh received her Ph.D in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University. Her PhD work was part of the Consortium for Applied Fundamentals and Innovation (CAFI)'s biomass utilization study.

Robert J. Hanchar

Senior Scientist

Bob is a Senior Scientist at MBI International with broad experience in the synthesis, purification, and analysis of organic compounds. As lead chemist in process and product development, he develops scaleable and economic synthetic methods for polymers, and for the conversion of fermentation-derived chemicals into higher value products. He also develops innovative methods to recover "green" products from fermentation broth or biomass. Bob also provides general and analytical chemistry support for all projects.

With over 15 years of industry experience, Bob has acquired extensive knowledge in developing innovative synthetic processes and transferring the technology from pilot to large-scale manufacturing. Prior to MBI, he developed commercially-viable processes to produce several 4-carbon chiral intermediates by overcoming challenges such as isolating key intermediates, achieving chiral purity, and overcoming scalability concerns. His efforts led to a successful technology transfer to cGMP contract manufacturers.

Bob received his Bachelor of Science and Doctoral degrees from Michigan State University while concurrently working for the MSU Synthesis Laboratory.

Michael V. Guettler

Scientist

Mike has over 20 years of applied microbiology experience in addition to nine years of experience in agri-business. He has been with MBI for 17 years. He has extensive expertise in new strain isolation and characterization methods, strain improvement, and bench scale fermentation process development. Mike isolated and characterized a new bacterial species for succinic acid production and developed improved strains for organic acid production. Mike's prior experience at the University of Minnesota includes the isolation of new species of bacteria and improved strains for amino acid production. He has authored over ten patents for microbial processes.

Mike received his Bachelor of Arts degree in Biology from Saint Thomas University and has done graduate studies in Medical and Applied Microbiology.

Sachin Jadhav

Fermentation Scientist

Sachin joined MBI in 2009 as a Scientist, responsible for fermentation process development and optimization.

Sachin has expertise in fermentation and downstream processing of biomolecules, functional characterization of proteins, biocatalysis, and biosensor development. During his PhD research at MSU, he developed novel biomimetic interfaces to characterize the gating mechanisms of ion channel membrane proteins. He integrated biointerfaces with a high-throughput screening platform to develop cost-effective tools for functional proteomics research. Sachin also has broad experience in enzyme immobilization and kinetic modeling of enzymatic biotransformations.

Sachin received his PhD in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University, and his MS in Bioprocess Technology from the University of Mumbai.

Tonya Tiedje

Engineer

Tonya is an Engineer with over fourteen years experience at MBI International. Her responsibilities have included project management, pilot plant management, development and scale-up of bioprocesses, and engineering support.

Tonya has a broad background of experience in biotechnology, from the laboratory to the pilot plant. She began her career in the conversion of lignocellulosic biomasses to monomer sugars, where she contributed to the evaluation of biomass pretreatments, analytical analysis, equipment and process design, as well as process modeling for economic evaluation. Tonya has managed several projects in the pilot plant where she has successfully developed, scaled-up, demonstrated, and validated bioprocess technologies. She has implemented procedure and process improvements to increase fermentation success rates and reduce yield variability.

Tonya received her Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from Michigan State University.

Timothy J. Campbell

Process Development Engineer

Tim has more than fifteen years of research and development experience in both private- and public-sector research organizations. His areas of expertise include chemical process modeling and analysis, analytical chemistry, and design of experiments as applied to alternative fuel and energy processes, as well as environmental monitoring and remediation technologies.

Tim's recent projects have included development of a method for production of hydrogen from JP-8 for fuel cell electric power generation, a novel device for in situ determination of groundwater contaminant fluxes, and a Sterile Water for Injection generator. His work has led to three U.S. patents and more than fifteen research publications, including Environmental Science & Technology's 2006 Technology Paper of the Year.

Tim received his Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from Northern Michigan University, and his Master of Engineering in Chemical Engineering from the University of Florida.

Kevin Fitzgerald

VP, Finance & Administration

Kevin is a senior manager with over 15 years experience in financial management. He currently oversees the accounting and administration functions which include government grants and contracts, human resources, accounting and budgeting, and internal controls.

Before joining MBI, he was Chief Financial Officer for the Association of Child Development, a large nonprofit multi-state organization, with an operating budget of $25 million annually and 5,000 members.

Kevin holds a Masters degree in Business Administration from Regis University in Denver, Colorado.

Cathy Johnson

Divisional Administrator/Contracts and Grants

Cathy has over 25 years of experience in contract and grant administration, securities compliance, and office administration. As Division Administrator for Contracts and Grants, Cathy coordinates contract and grant administration and compliance, and acts as key liaison to senior management on intellectual property matters.

Before joining MBI in 1998, she held positions as Marketing Director for a national marketing/buying group in Southwest Florida and Securities/Compliance Coordinator for a million+ dollar financial planning firm in Western New York.

Phil Hegge

Facilities Director

With over 25 years of experience in biotechnology laboratory, pilot plant and greenhouse management, Phil was responsible for the start up and construction of MBI's research and development facility. As Facilities Director at MBI International, he oversees all aspects of building operations including computer systems and general safety of the facility. With respect to the pilot plant operations, Phil is heavily involved in control programming, data acquisition, and equipment design to support all Research and Development projects.

Prior to MBI, Phil was at Cetus Corporation, where he was responsible for the start up of the company's Madison area facilities, including the construction of over 60,000 square feet of laboratories, greenhouses, and a plant growth facility. He also worked for several years as an anaerobic microbiologist at the University of Wisconsin.

Phil received his Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.