Fernando Corrêa, Vice president Business Development, Latin America
Formerly, Co-founder and Managing Partner, Nusa Internet Publica, a Kiosk founded in 2004 for worldwide internet payment processing throughout Brazil that operates 2,000 public internet terminals in 14 cities. Prior to Nusa Internet Publica, Fernando was CFO of OptilGlobe do Brazil, Ltd. Optiglobe built and operated two of the largest data centers in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro with investments of $140 million dollars over three years. He was also Director for Proman Electronica Ltda., one of the largest telecom companies in Brazil. Its core business is engineering and project management for cellular and telephone companies. He has joint ventures and partnerships with major equipment makers such as Lucent, Nortel, Nokia, etc., and he is a Sr. Associate at Booz, Allen & Hamilton, New York where he helps management and technology consulting combining domain expertise in defense, intelligence, and civilian government with strong capabilities in strategy, and organization, analytics, technology and operations.
Fernando has an MBA from The Wharton School of Business at The University of Pennsylvania, an M.S. in Economics from the University of Paris, a law degree from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do RGS – Porto Alegre, RS, and a B.S. in Economics from Universidade Federal do RGS – Porto Alegre, RS.
Thomas W. Casey, Vice President, Operations
Thomas W. Casey has more than 50 years’ experience in power generation and aviation propulsion businesses, both commercial and military. Mr. Casey spent most of his career with General Electric, retiring as Vice-President and General Manager of GE’s Aircraft Engine and Aerospace Operations in Latin America based in Rio. After retiring from GE, Casey represented United Technologies’ Pratt and Whitney and International Aero Engines Divisions in Latin America, 1993-2008. He is a Graduate of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, New York, holding a BEE Degree.
Professor Kenneth Hall, Distinctive Technical Adviser
Professor Hall joined Texas A&M University at Qatar in April 2011. Texas Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) Division Director-Texas A&M University at Qatar, he presides over TEES activities in Qatar. As Associate Dean of Research and Graduate Studies, he directs the newly established graduate program and the research program including soliciting new research opportunities. Before joining Texas A&M at Qatar, Professor Hall held positions at Texas A&M University that included: Associate Vice Chancellor of Engineering. He is a Regents Professor and holds the Jack E. & Frances Brown Chair. He earned his BSc at the University of Tulsa, his MSc at the University of California (Berkeley) and his PhD at the University of Oklahoma.
Dr. Mahmoud El-Halwagi; Distinctive Technical Advisor
Dr. El-Halwagi is the McFerrin Professor of Chemical Engineering at Texas A&M University and serves as technical advisor to Byogy. He currently leads the engineering team responsible for process integration and optimization work that led to the development of Byogy’s “Direct Path” bio-refining process. He, along with Dr. Hall and Dr. Spriggs, is an inventor of this technology. Dr. El-Halwagi is recognized internationally for his pioneering contributions in the field of process integration. His main research interests include process design, operation, integration, and optimization. He has served as a consultant to a wide range of chemical, petrochemical, petroleum, pharmaceutical and metal finishing industries. He is a recipient of many awards including the National Science Foundation Nation Young Investigator Award, numerous teaching awards within the College of Engineering at TAMU, the Mortar Board Favorite Educator Award, the Birdsong Merit Teaching Award, the Fred H. Humphrey Award, and the AIChE Sustainable Engineering Forum Research Excellence Award. He has a BS and MS from Cairo University and a PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles, all in chemical engineering.
Simon Williams, Previous Director and Strategic Advisor
Mr. Williams currently serves as CEO of CyberAdapt, a ransomware technology company. Previously he was CTO and Head of Products for GroundCntrl, Inc. a Silicon Valley based startup that builds Business Intelligence Solutions for Enterprises leveraging mobile devices, cloud computing and big data analytics. Prior to this role Mr. Williams served as an executive on several Silicon Valley start-ups including Redback where he was instrumental in overall company strategy. Mr. Williams holds a BSc in Electrical Engineering from Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario Canada.
Kevin Denuccio; Previous Director and Strategic Advisor
Mr. Denuccio previously served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Violin Memory, Inc. Prior to joining Violin, Mr. DeNuccio served as a co-founder of Wild West Capital LLC, a venture and technology consulting firm he co-founded in July 2012. Prior to that, he served as Chief Executive Officer of Metaswitch Networks Ltd., a telecommunications hardware and software company, from February 2010 until June 2012, when he transitioned to a director position on the Metaswitch Networks’ board of directors. Mr. DeNuccio served as Chief Executive Officer of Redback Networks Inc., a provider of edge routers, from August 2001 until its acquisition by Ericsson in January 2007. From 1995 to 2001, he held a number of executive positions at Cisco Systems, including senior vice president of worldwide service provider operations. Prior to joining Cisco, Mr. DeNuccio was founder, president, and CEO of Bell Atlantic Network Integration, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bell Atlantic (now Verizon Communications). He has also held senior management positions at both Unisys Corporation and Wang Laboratories network integration and worldwide channel partner businesses. Mr. DeNuccio previously served on numerous public and private boards of directors including Redback, JDS Uniphase Corporation, KPMG consulting (BearingPoint), Netpliance (TippingPoint) Byogy Renewables, and Salesnet. He currently serves on the board of directors of Calix, Metaswitch Networks, and Northeastern University. He earned a master’s degree in business administration from Columbia University and a bachelor’s degree in Finance from Northeastern University.