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Speaker Biographies

Derek Benson
Biography coming soon.

Art Brooks
Biography coming soon.

Thomas Buchholz
Thomas graduated in 2003 from the Albert-Ludwigs University in Freiburg, Germany, in Forestry Science. He is currently about to defend his PhD thesis at the State University of New York, College of Environmental Sciences and Forestry. He is developing a tool to assess sustainability of bioenergy systems.

Thomas is generally interested in energy use in human societies. His work at SUNY-ESF focuses on developing a tool to assess bioenergy systems on their sustainability considering economic, ecological and social dimensions in both rich and poor countries. He is especially interested in bioenergy systems based on Short Rotation Coppice and works with case studies in East Africa and the US.

Phillip Castellano
Biography coming soon.

Daniel Conable
Dan Conable is an agricultural policy and business consultant based in Syracuse, New York. His background includes teaching, farming, and a twenty-year career with the Foreign Agricultural Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Washington, several Asian countries, and Mexico. He was a consultant on policy matters to the New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets for six years, concentrating on as land use policy, national farm policy issues, and applied agricultural research funding policy. His private consulting practice has involved feasibility studies, program evaluation, and change management for a wide range of public sector, private, and non-profit clients in New York and Washington, DC. He is the managing partner of Central New York Land Management, LLC, a recently-established firm that provides advisory and consulting services to investors and landowners. Dan is co-director of a biomass feedstock project recently undertaken by SUNY-ESF with funding from the New York State Energy Research and Development Agency.

Kamalesh Doshi
Kamalesh Doshi serves as BERC's program director. Before coming to BERC in 2004, he was the deputy director for the Gujarat Energy Development Agency involved in the promotion and development of renewable energy-based projects including biomass. He has more than 27 years of experience in engineering and management consultancy for various renewable energy projects.

Doshi is currently responsible for the gasifier-based small- and medium-sized combined heat and power (CHP) demonstration projects using sawmill waste and the biomass-based central boiler heating systems on university campuses. He holds a BE in Chemical Engineering from MS University of Baroda and a post-graduate diploma in Industrial Management from the Indian Institute of Science, India.

Chuck Kyle
Chuck Kyle is the proprietor of Kyle Farms, LLC, a crop farming enterprise with 6 seasonal employees and 800 acres of owned and rented cropland in Cato, NY. He markets hay to livestock owners in seven states providing full transportation and logistical services. Chuck has a BS in Agricultural Business Enterprise from SUNY Cobleskill, and an MS in Agricultural Economics. Chuck worked as a Farm Management Educator for Cornell Cooperative Extension of Onondaga County from 2005 - 2008. Chuck served as co-chair of the statewide Cornell Program Work Team on Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation from 2006 until leaving the extension service. As an extension educator he focused on farm cash flow and budget analysis, and led cropping system research projects. He is on the Board of Directors of New York FarmNet, is President of Cayuga County Farm Bureau, and participated in the LEAD New York training program for young agribusiness leaders in 2004. Chuck is also a partner in Central New York Land Management, a consulting firm devoted to assisting land owners and agricultural businesses in maximizing the potential of their land base.

Dr. Hilary Mayton
Hilary Mayton PhD, Extension Associate, Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, is the coordinator of several multidisciplinary perennial grass and legume biofuel feedstock production projects. Dr. Mayton received her B.S., M.S., and PhD degrees at Cornell University and has more than 15 years of field research experience in New York State.

Matthew McArdle
Mr. Matthew McArdle is President of Mesa Reduction Engineering and Processing, Inc. and has over 17 years of experience in developing renewable energy projects and environmental compliance programs in both the public and private sector. His expertise includes the engineering, design, and computer modeling of the entire biomass production and conversion value chain. Mr. McArdle has developed and patented size reduction and fuel blending technologies and leads a group of companies that provide turnkey material handling systems. Government and industry partners include the Department of Energy, Department of Agriculture, utility companies, combined heat and power industries, biofuel facilities, engineering companies, and universities.

Dennis Rak
Biography coming soon

Ron Rausch
Ron Rausch is a Special Assistant to the Commissioner of the New York State Department of Agricultural and Markets. As a Special Assistant Ron is responsible for renewable energy and greenhouse gas issues which intersect with agriculture. Previously Ron worked for the Department and the New York State Soil and Water Conservation Committee as an Associate Environmental Analyst where he served as the Committee contact for agricultural air quality and greenhouse gas issues. Prior to joining the Soil and Water Conservation Committee, he worked for the Greene County Soil and Water Conservation District as a liaison to the New York City watershed. Serving as the Watershed Agricultural Program Leader and then as the Watershed Assistance Program Leader his primary responsibilities were facilitating and fostering relationships as well as, resolving issues between Local, City, State and Federal interests. A graduate of the State University of New York at Cortland, Ron is a Certified Professional in Erosion and Sediment Control and a Certified Professional in Stormwater Quality.

Nathan Rudgers
Nathan L. Rudgers was named Senior Vice President for Farm Credit of Western New York in December, 2005. In his capacity as Director of Business Development, Nathan is responsible for bringing resources to Farm Credit’s clients who are planning or undergoing major business changes. He is a frequent speaker in state, national and international forums on such topics as renewable energy, food safety, international trade, agriculture policy and economic development. He also currently serves on the steering committee for 25 X 25, a group of industry leaders dedicated to fostering Agriculture and Forestry’s role in US energy independence.

Prior to joining Farm Credit, Nathan served as Commissioner of Agriculture and Markets for The State of New York. He was appointed Commissioner by Governor George E. Pataki in 1999. He began his tenure with the Department in 1995, serving as Deputy Commissioner, First Deputy Commissioner and then Acting Commissioner. Nathan also served as President of the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture in 2005.

Preceding joining the Department, Nathan worked for several agri-business firms in the Northeast. Much of his experience in the private sector has involved the dairy industry and agricultural economics.

Nathan was born and raised on a dairy and cash crop farm in Pavilion (Wyoming County), New York and is a 1982 graduate of Cornell University, receiving a bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics. Nathan currently lives in Pavilion.

Jack Santamour
Jack Santamour, CF, director of TreeSource Solutions LLC, provides leadership for the development of woody biomass chip supply from loggers, landowners, tree services, municipalities and willow plantations throughout New York State. He also represents TreeSource Solutions in professional organizations such as the Empire State Forest Products Association (ESFPA) and the North East Loggers Association.

Jack’s significant career spans more than 20 years of professional forestry, wood procurement and management, and much more for companies such as Lassiter Properties in Potsdam, NY and Champion International Corporation and Deferiet Paper in Deferiet, New York. He is a graduate of State University of New York, College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF).

Thomas Sleight
Tom Sleight began his appointment as the Executive Director of the New York Farm Viability Institute in November, 2006. He comes back to New York from his most recent position as Director of the Division of Marketing for the Virginia Department of Agriculture, where he was responsible for local, regional and international marketing of the Virginia’s diverse bounty of food, forestry and agricultural products.

Prior to Virginia, Tom served with the U.S. Grains Council in Washington, DC for sixteen years, working on export market development for U.S. corn, sorghum and barley throughout the world, including serving as Director of International Operations for Asia, and as Regional Director for Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

Tom is a native New Yorker, having grown up as the 10th generation on his family’s dairy farm in Dutchess County. Tom attended Cornell University for both graduate and undergraduate studies in Agronomy and Agricultural Economics.

Dr. Timothy Volk
Dr. Timothy Volk has over 20 years of experience working in the fields of forestry, agroforestry, short-rotation woody crops and bioenergy in the Northeastern United States and Africa. He holds degrees from the University of Guelph (Guelph, Ontario) in Natural Resources Management, Cornell University (Ithaca, NY) in Forest Science and SUNY–ESF (Syracuse, NY) in Forest and Natural Resources Management. He is currently a senior research associate at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry (SUNY-ESF). In that capacity he is responsible for a series of research projects focused on the development of willow biomass cropping systems as a feedstock for bioproducts and bioenergy and the use of willow as an alternative cover for industrial waste sites. He also actively involved in research and development of sustainability assessments of bioenergy systems, living snowfences, regional woody biomass resource supplies, and harvesting systems for short rotation woody crops. He chaired the ad hoc committee at SUNY-ESF that developed and is now implementing the curriculum for a minor in Renewable Energy and is currently teaching courses on Energy Systems and Biomass Energy.

Dr. Edwin White
Biography coming soon.

Zywia Wojnar
Ms. Wojnar is the Project Manager for a major study for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA): “The Environmental Impacts of Biofuels in New York State.” Ms. Wojnar is also leading a team for the recently awarded “Development of a Renewable Fuels Roadmap and Sustainable Biomass Feedstock Supply for New York,” for NYSERDA, NYSDEC and the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets. In both of these projects, she leads cross-functional teams of experts to prepare studies for use by State decision makers. In her current position as Program Manager at the Pace Energy and Climate Center, at the Pace University Law School in White Plains, N.Y., Ms. Wojnar manages a multi-year NYSERDA communications and outreach contract with the Environmental Monitoring, Evaluation, and Protection (EMEP) program.

Past academic and consulting experience includes conducting energy audits and environmental site assessments, and preparing NYSDEC air permits; diabetes feeding studies and bowhead whale population studies; and solid and hazardous waste investigations. Ms. Wojnar managed the technical study for New York State’s first state-funded Brownfields redevelopment project. She holds a M.S in biology from the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and an MBA from the Hult International Business School. Prior to relocating to Poland to study, Ms. Wojnar attended Swarthmore College in Swarthmore, PA.