James S. Lamoureaux
Executive Chairman
Over 30 years as an entrepreneur and alcohol fuel patent holder. Invented and commercialized new products and technologies in the chemicals and building products industries. Mr. Lamoureaux is an international thought leader and conference speaker that forecast the coming market disruption due to demand growth in methanol being used for thermal power and as a biodegradable marine fuel, and presented the compelling case for Green and Ultra Low Carbon (ULC) Methanol.
Joel “Monty” Pemberton
Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Pemberton is the former CEO and Founder of DeNovo Energy Ltd, the first Trinidadian company to become an offshore gas producing company under contract with Proman, one of the largest methanol and ammonia companies in the world. Formerly, Monty was the CEO of Trinity Exploration and Production. He was instrumental in the closing of IGP’s off-take agreements with Mitsubishi and the National Gas Company of Trinidad in his capacity as the founder and Chairman of Resverba Holdings LLC, an independent company. He has over 20 years of experience in automation and operational management of complex energy projects involved with the methanol industry.
Randall Harris
Chief Science Officer
Mr. Harris held a wide variety of roles during his tenure at the United States Department of Energy including: Regional Manager of the Office of Advanced Fuels, Senior Engineer/Advisor to the Director of the National Energy Technology Laboratory, and a Project Manager of the Los Alamos and the Oak Ridge National Laboratories. Following his 18 years working with various governmental agencies, he worked on a number of initiatives on coal conversion into chemicals, liquid fuels and electricity, partnering with many of the world’s largest technology and engineering firms.
Alicia Yuan
President, IGP China
Having received a double major in Applied Chemistry and International Trade & Economics from Beijing Chemical University, Ms. Yuan has led the company’s business development and relationship management efforts in China over the past 7 years, after positions with international firms Randstad and Novo Nordisk. In this capacity she has developed key connections to senior management of China Top 100 chemical industry group. Ms. Yuan was the key leader to complete a national level joint venture company registration with one of the largest methanol and coal mining groups in China, and directly communicated with the National Development and Reform Committee.
Keith N. Vidalin
EVP Projects
Mr. Vidalin is one of the most experienced methanol plant developers and construction project managers, having spent the majority of his 32 years building, commissioning, staffing and operating some of the world’s largest methanol plants for Methanex, the largest methanol producer in the world. He has served as Project Director, Project Manager or Construction and Completions Manager for the following projects: the 1.1 MM TPA Geismar plant in southern Louisiana ($750 million), the 1.3 MM TPA Damietta plant in Egypt ($ 1 billion), the 1.8 MM TPA Atlas plant in Trinidad ($700 million), the 2.2 MM TPA Karratha plant in Australia, and the 0.65 MM TPA conversion of an existing ammonia plant into a methanol plant in Louisiana ($150 million). Mr. Vidalin also served as the Maintenance Manager for Methanex’s methanol and ammonia plants at Kitimat, Canada, and as Special Projects Manager for a 700 employee, 7 unit petrochemical facility in Louisiana.
Scott Benson
VP, Marketing & Communications
Mr. Benson has a broad range of experience in creating and maintaining corporate identities and fostering clear and concise company communications to both customers and stakeholders. Over his long career, he has provided branding, marketing, and internal and external communications for national and multinational companies such as 3M Company, Target Corp, Fuji, Ecolab, Porsche, Tennant, Polaris, NRG, Blue Cross, Medtronic, Carmichael Lynch, and dozens more, as well as serving as a DoD contractor with Classified Security Clearance for the U.S. Navy.
Lawrence J. Winter Jr.
Director of Construction
Mr. Winter is a highly experienced Senior Construction Manager, having spent the majority of his 40+ years staffing, building and commissioning several methanol plants in North and South America. He has served as Construction Operations Manager and Senior Construction Manager for the following Methanol projects: the .65MM TPA Waggaman Plant, 1.1 MM TPA Geismar plant and 1.8 MM TPA Saint James plant located in southern Louisiana. He also served as Construction Director and Senior Construction Manager executing major capital projects in the oil, gas and chemical industry representing Shell, Motiva, Orion, Huntsman, ExxonMobil and Dow.
Rene Divina
Director of Engineering
Rene is a professional engineer with an executive MBA from Texas A&M Mays Business School Class 2014, and with over twenty-nine (29) years combined experience in EPC covering project delivery, engineering management and construction management for various reimbursable and LSTK contracts, working for the owner or contractor. He also manages engineering workshare activities with various High Value Engineering Centers (HVECs) and had multiple international experiences in at least three continents – Asia, Europe and North America that broadens his understanding of the business, different cultures, regulations, and practices that are important in order to successfully execute projects.
Having a solid background in multi-racial and multi-discipline engineering and construction management environment has significant advantages and has been proven in many successful completed projects for major clients such as: ExxonMobil, BP North America Delayed Coking Units, Cameron LNG, Sempra LNG, South Louisiana Methanol Pre-FID/FEED, YCI Methanol FEED, Saudi Aramco Onshore/Offshore Facilities, Schering Plough and Novartis Pharma Facilities & Valero Delayed Coking Units, Enterprise Products Ltd., Various Saudi Aramco Cross-Country Pipelines, Fabrications & others.
Jeroen Lancel
Director of Global Trading
Mr Lancel has been in the shipping and trading industry since 1992. For one of the largest Greek shipowners he has fulfilled management positions in various countries such as Greece, Singapore, The Netherlands and Switzerland. In the year 2000 he took a position as a commodity broker where he realized a petrochemical book with the main product being methanol. He created a spot market where major producers, end users and traders alike were able to trade the methanol in a complete new and transparent market. Subsequently Mr. Lancel moved to Portugal to set up a trading desk specialized in methanol and other petrochemicals. In 2009 he accepted the challenge to build an international trading desk for a Dutch oil company in their Monaco office. Not long after the business expanded, he opened a Singapore office since the majority of the products were shipped to Asia. Meanwhile the company merged with the largest European independent oil company Argos Oil and under is management the international trading desk realized a turnover of USD 1 billion in 2014. From 2015 onwards Mr.Lancel continued as a consultant to various oil and gas companies for which he set up trading books, trade finance and advised boards of directors. The experience in trading, business development, long term contract negotiations with major oil companies and producers in various parts of the world combined with his large network in the international trading community make him a valuable asset to IGP Methanol.
Board of Directors
Peter Georgiopoulos
Mr. Peter C. Georgiopoulos is the Co-founder of Low Emission Maritime Partners and serves as its Chairman. The former Chief Executive Officer at Gener8 Maritime, Inc. Mr. Georgiopoulos founded General Maritime Corp. and served as its Chief Executive Officer and its President since 2003. Peter was the Founder of Maritime Equity Management and served as a Principal. Previously he served as an Investment Banker at Drexel Burnham Lambert. He had extensive experience in the sale, purchase and chartering of vessels while working for shipowners in New York and Piraeus, Greece.
Leo J Vrondissis
Leo J Vrondissis is a seasoned finance professional with 20 years of experience in shipping with a focus on shipping finance. Mr Vrondissis is currently a partner at PC Georgiopoulos & Co. an early stage venture capital firm. Prior to that he was CFO of the NYSE-listed Gener8 Maritime where he successfully completed close to $9 billion in transactions comprised of public and private equity, traditional bank financing, and high yield bonds. Leo was instrumental in facilitating over $7 billion in M&A. He was instrumental in the privatization and financing of Top Glory shipping in 2004 the largest cross border M&A deal out of China at the time, as well as the founding and subsequent IPO of Genco Shipping and Trading. Leo also was a founding partner of Maritime Equity Partners a dry bulk sponsor back vehicle.
Board Advisors
Dr. Theo Fleisch
During his 30 year career with Amoco and BP, Dr. Fleisch became an internationally recognized expert in natural gas utilization, including gas conversion to liquid fuels and chemicals. He held numerous management and executive positions in energy technologies, clean fuels and renewables. He was the founder and director of BP’s Methane Conversion Consortium, a 20+ year partnership with universities in China and the US aimed at the development of gas to products technologies. He is well known for his recognition of methanol and DME as multi-source, multi-purpose clean fuels and chemical feedstocks. He also led the development of the then largest methanol park in the world, the Titan and Atlas plants in Trinidad. He was the CTO of the World GTL project in Trinidad and is now a consultant to the World Bank for the elimination of global gas flaring by 2030, especially through the application of mini-GTL technologies.
W. Marston (Marty) Becker
Marty is the Chairman of QBE Insurance Group of Sydney Australia. Marty previously served as President and CEO of Alterra Capital Holdings Limited from 2006 to 2013 and is on the Board of Governors of West Virginia University. Marty has over 37 years’ experience in general insurance, reinsurance, investment banking and private equity. Marty’s past leadership roles with insurers and reinsurers also include serving as chair of Hales & Company (2000–2005); vice chair and director of Royal & SunAlliance USA (1999–2000); and chair and CEO of Orion Capital Corporation (1996–1999).
F. Thomas Graff, Jr.
Tom is the former Managing Partner of Bowles Rice in the areas of business, commercial, and banking law practice, as well as natural resources. Tom has represented sole proprietorships, corporations, partnerships, limited liability companies and banking institutions, and extensive experience in acquisitions and sales of businesses and assets. Tom has served on the board or MRC Global and a trustee and board member of many other businesses and trusts during his distinguished career.
Project Advisors
Dr. Zach Chen
Dr. Chen has +30 years of experience in international technology and in the commercialization of new markets in China for international companies in a variety of market segments, including Petrochemical and Telecom. He has created new business models and markets, and his extensive high-level connections, strategy, analysis, planning, follow-up, relationships and network throughout China have formed the foundation of IGP’s activities in China.
Scott Chen
Mr. Chen is a Partner at TPG Capital Asia, where he is the head of TPG’s Beijing office, and co-leads investment opportunities for TPG in greater China. In this position, he was the lead on TPG’s acquisition and subsequent successful exit of Lenovo. Prior to joining TGP in 2011, Mr. Chen worked on the mergers and acquisitions team at Lehman Brothers in New York. He currently serves as Co-Chairman of the board of United Family Healthcare and has served or currently serves on the board of Li Ning, HCP, UTAC, and Taishin Bank.
Advisor for Sustainability & Environment
Wendy Diamond
Internationally Renowned Social Entrepreneur, Humanitarian, Best Selling Author – Wendy Diamond is CEO and Founder of Women’s Entrepreneurship Day Organization (WEDO)/ #ChooseWOMEN, a non-governmental philanthropic volunteer organization with chapters in 144 countries and 112 Universities/Colleges on a global mission to empower women in business to alleviate poverty.
She is an Investor/Advisor in social impact disruptive technologies and women led businesses in Life/Health Sciences, Renewable Energy, Blockchain, Robotics, FinTech, Real Estate, Artificial Intelligence and Virtual/Augmented Reality.
