The Anellotech Management Team
David Sudolsky, who co-founded Anellotech with George Huber, secured the initial angel funding for the company, recruited the management team and scientific advisory board, and is leading the expansion of the company. Prior to joining Anellotech, he was a business officer or CEO of five biotechnology, specialty pharmaceutical and bioprocessing start-ups, one of which (Dura Pharmaceuticals) was sold for $1.8 billion. David has hands-on chemical engineering experience in process design and refinery plant startups with Union Carbide, and work at Booz, Allen & Hamilton. He and his wife, Marcia, are firm believers in environmental education and led a successful five-year effort ending in 2011 to build a multi-faceted Eco Center on the roof of P.S. 6 in New York City. David attended Columbia University and earned an MBA in Marketing and Finance from the University’s Business School and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering.
Leslaw Mleczko
Chief Scientific Officer
Chief Scientific Officer
From 1996 to 2012 Prof. Dr. Leslaw Mleczko worked as a senior scientist and then research manager for Bayer AG Central Research, as well as Corporate Engineering and Technology. For more than decade he headed the Competence Center “Reaction Engineering and Catalysis” and led development of several catalytic processes with special focus on sustainability, e.g. by using biomass or CO2 as feedstock for chemical conversions. From 2012, until his retirement in 2020 he was a V.P. for Process Technology and a Distinguished Fellow. Leslaw supported and steered international projects and programs aiming at development of novel technologies, often in collaboration with start-up companies. He began his professional career as a research engineer in the Institute for Fuel Energy where he participated in the development of the multistage fluidized-bed technology for coal gasification. After obtaining his PhD from the Silesian Technical University (Poland) and completing a post-doc in fluidization and applied catalysis at the Institute of Technical Chemistry (University of Hannover), Leslaw lead research on catalytic conversion of natural gas at the Catalytic Reaction Engineering Group in the Chair of Technical Chemistry of the Ruhr-University Bochum where he became a faculty member. Prof. Dr. Mleczko has coauthored more than 100 patents and 100 peer reviewed publications.
Anatoly Garelik
Chief Financial Officer
Chief Financial Officer
Anatoly Garelik has been with Anellotech since 2010. He has played a major role in securing financing for the company’s technology development program including participating in negotiation of Anellotech’s major partnerships and investments and overseeing investor due diligence. Anatoly is also responsible for strategic financial planning. Prior to Anellotech, he was a Vice President at Citigroup managing IT infrastructure for the Alternative Investments business. Anatoly earned an MBA with distinction from NYU Stern School of Business and an M.S. in Information Systems.
Board of Directors
Thomas Erickson
Board of Directors
Board of Directors
Tom is Co-President and Director of First Green Partners, a venture capital firm focused on early stage investments in technologies related to energy, chemicals, advanced materials, and agriculture. Tom has spent the past 20 years working with venture backed start-ups as a venture capitalist and a research analyst. He currently serves as a board member for First Green portfolio companies Monolith Materials, Rivertop Renewables, Digital H2O, and Trelys. In 2000, as co-founder and general partner of BlueStream Ventures, Tom helped raise $280 million in capital from institutional and individual investors. BlueStream focused on investments in the communications, enterprise and infrastructure software, storage, and wireless markets. Tom holds a B.A. in math from St. Olaf College and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.
Prof. George W. Huber
Board of Directors
Board of Directors
George Huber is the Harvey Spangler Professor of Chemical Engineering at University of Wisconsin-Madison. He and David Sudolsky were co-founders of Anellotech. His research focus is on developing new catalytic processes for the production of renewable liquid fuels and chemicals. In 2015 Thomson Reuters listed George as a “highly cited researcher” which indicates that he is “one of the “world’s most influential scientific minds” who rank in the top 1%. He has been named one of the top 100 people in bioenergy by Biofuels Digest for the past 3 years. Prior to joining Wisconsin he was a faculty member in the Chemical Engineering department at UMass-Amherst.
In addition to actively heading Anellotech, David is also a Board Member (see management bio).
Barry Penney
Board of Directors
Board of Directors
Barry Penney leverages his 30 years of industry experience as part of the SK investing and operational team. He supports the SK managed businesses in a variety of operational and supply chain areas such as project management, raw material optimization, process configuration, etc. Additionally, he assesses the operational and supply chain capabilities / opportunities for potential acquisitions as part of the investment diligence process. SK capital is a specialist PE firm focused on the chemical section with 8 directly managed portfolio companies (including Ascend, Addivant, and Archroma) totaling over $8B/yr of revenue.
Advisory Board
Dr. Steven Lerner
Advisor-R&D
Advisor-R&D
Dr. Steven Lerner is a partner with Princeton Growth Partners LLC. Prior to joining PGP, Steve served as Chief Technology Officer of Praxair Inc., a $10 billion annual revenue multinational company providing industrial gases, chemicals, and coatings, with responsibilities for R&D, global market development, and licensing. Prior to Praxair, Steve held management positions in Research and Development, operations and commercial development with The BOC Group Inc. and Atlantic Richfield Corp. Steve has a Ph.D. in Engineering from Princeton University.
Dr. Dennis McCullough
Advisor
Advisor
Dr. Dennis McCullough is an independent consultant in the field of strategic management of technology-based businesses. Dennis helps clients focus on the strategic use of IP assets in complex business transactions including technology acquisitions, technology alliances and joint ventures, technology licensing, and technology commercialization. Dennis advises Anellotech in the area of strategic business development. He has been associated with The Shaw Group, ABB Lummus Global, Bechtel, Litwin E&C, and Eastman Chemical and currently serves on the Board of Directors for Membrane Technology & Research Inc., a leading membrane technology company. Dennis earned a BS degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Houston and Masters and Doctorate degrees in Chemical Engineering from Texas A&M University. He is a member of the AIChE, the Licensing Executives Society, the Association of Strategic Alliance Professionals, and the Institute of Management Consultants. Dennis also is a Registered Professional Engineer in Texas, a Registered U.S. Patent Agent, and a Certified Licensing Professional.
Dr. Frederick Pesa
Advisor
Advisor
Dr. Frederick Pesa obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati in Chemistry in 1975 and subsequently joined The Standard Oil Company in R&D as a Research Chemist. During his career he held positions of increasing responsibility reaching to the top leadership levels within the BP group. He has been involved with the invention and development of technologies for commercial application in the fields of petrochemicals, polymers, catalysts, minerals, advanced materials, membrane separations and synthetic fuels technology. Responsibilities also included strategic business-technology planning and international research coordination for BP Research UK- London. His team helped commercialize several technologies including the most advanced state-of-the-art catalysts and processes for the production of three important industrial chemicals: acrylonitrile, vinyl acetate and 1, 4- butanediol, assuring world leadership in these areas for years. Recently he has been an advisor and consultant for several Venture firms and startup companies. Dr. Pesa is the author of over 90 papers and patents and served on the Board of Directors and Advisors of several different companies and organizations.
Dr. Andrew B. Swanson
Advisor-Markets
Advisor-Markets
Andrew has had more than fifty years of experience in the global chemical industry. He was a research engineer, Catalyst Division of Nalco Chemical, Chicago. He then worked for twenty years with ICI Australia and ICI UK in various roles in research, production, and corporate planning. He was ICI Australis’s General Manager Soda Products and, after that business was divested, General Manager Olefins. In 1992, he left for the chemical consulting industry, meeting client needs at Chem Systems, IBM, Nexant, CMAI, and IHS. He retired from IHS as Vice President, Chemical Consulting. Andrew holds B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from Melbourne University and a D.Phil from Oxford University.
Charles Sorensen
Dr. Charles Sorensen served at Chief Technology Officer from 2013 until his retirement in 2019. He has over 30 years of research, development and engineering (RDE&E) experience with Corning Incorporated and Mobil Oil leading innovation teams in the safe development, scale-up, and commercialization of new products and processes. His broad experience spans RD&E management, new product and process introduction, zeolite-based catalytic process development, process engineering and design, plant operations, manufacturing planning, and safety. Chuck has a proven track record of moving new technology to commercialization, with multiple successes across diverse and unrelated business sectors. Examples include oil refining, chemical, and alternative fuel processing, new air pollution control products for gasoline and diesel engine emissions, and advanced glass technologies. An inventor on 24 patents and author of a dozen publications, Chuck has a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Delaware, a B.S. in Chemistry, and is a Licensed Professional Engineer.