About Our Company
R3 Biofuels is based in Renton, Washington. The company's original business
plan was conceived by Morghan Laswell and received the prestigious University
of Washington Herbert B. Jones Foundation award for "Best Sustainable
Business." Morghan's concept was to bring cutting edge technology to meat and
poultry processors, allowing them to boost margins by producing biodiesel at a
cost competitive with petroleum.
Morghan teamed up with Marc Goyette, a successful businessman with COO and CEO
level experience in a number of successful companies, and together they refined
the plan into one that could significantly improve the profitability of meat
packing operations.
The R3 team brings over 60 years of combined expertise in sales, technology,
management and finance. Our technology partners have a total of 115 years in
business.
A New Direction
meat packing and poultry processing industries:
Renewable Responsible Revenue
Management Team
Marc Goyette – Chairman and CEO
Marc has a broadly based general management background that led to his decision to become CEO of R3 Biofuels in 2008. Over the past 30 years, he has built a diverse executive career that includes leadership roles as a CEO and a COO, as well as founding his own successful retained executive search firm.
In 1988, Marc joined Phoenix Network, a national long distance company, as its Chief Operating Officer and was later promoted to President. Phoenix Network was recognized in the 1992 issue of INC 100 as the ninth fastest growing public company in America. He was later recruited to become COO of Midcom Communications, a Seattle telecommunications company. From 1993 to 2008, he was President of ROI International, a retained executive search firm that placed officer and chief officer level candidates at companies ranging from start-ups to multinational firms such as Verizon, AT&T Wireless, and Sprint. ROI was consistently recognized in the top 1% of executive search firms in the United States. Marc holds a B.S. degree in Business Management and an MBA in Finance from San Diego State University. He has served as both a speaker and a moderator at various industry conferences.
Marc lives on Mercer Island, near Seattle, Washington with his wife and three children. His hobbies include soccer, cycling, hiking and cross country skiing.
Board of Directors
Marc Goyette – Chairman and CEO
Morghan Laswell - Founder
Morghan has spent the last four years becoming an expert on the biodiesel industry and developing the initial concept for what has become the R3 Biofuels business model. He served in the U.S. Army as an Airborne Ranger from 1992 to 1995. His tenure in the elite 75th Ranger Regiment took him around the world where he earned accolades from units such as the British SAS, Egyptian and Thai Paratroopers, as well as the French Foreign Legion. Morghan has a technical computer background having worked as an applications programmer and an IT consultant.
Morghan received his B.A. in Business Administration from the University of Washington’s Foster School of Business where he revived and served two years as the President of the Undergraduate Entrepreneurship Club. He has served on the Board of Advisors for the UW's Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Morghan is also a regular guest lecturer and panelist at the Foster School of Business.
When he isn’t working, Morghan enjoys mountaineering, rock climbing, sailing, snowboarding, cycling and playing fetch with his beautiful Flat-Coated Retriever, Darby.
William Gibson – former CEO, Network General
Bill is a seasoned executive with more than 33 years experience in business intelligence software, computing, and telecommunications. He was most recently CEO of Network General, a global leader in enterprise application and network performance analysis. Over a period of two years, Bill grew Network General revenues from $117 million to $171 million. Prior to that, he served as Chief Operating Officer of Crystal Decisions where he secured major alliances with SAP, IBM and PeopleSoft, and drove worldwide agreements with the major system integrators and more than 700 OEM partners. After three years of industry leading growth ($132 million to $350 million), Crystal Decisions was purchased by Business Objects for $1.2 billion.
Prior to Crystal Decisions, Bill served as President, Western Region of Rogers Cantel, Canada's largest wireless provider. He has also held positions at Sprint PCS, Ameritech and NEC Technologies. He holds a B.S. in Economics from Auburn University and an MBA from Georgia State University.
Kevin Nater – former President and CEO, Dell Financial Services
Kevin has 23 years of business experience as an operational and financial executive in the technology and banking industries. He recently served as CFO of Network General, a private equity owned company that was sold to NetScout Systems in 2007.
Prior to Network General, Kevin worked at Dell, Inc in various leadership roles over 10 years. These roles included being President and CEO of Dell Financial Services, Vice President-Treasurer and Vice President-Contoller of various business segments.
Kevin served as Vice President-Senior Banker in the Technology Industry Group at Citigroup, managing primary banking relationships with several major technology companies. He was at Citigroup for 12 years, 10 years of which were in the Technology Group.
Kevin holds a master's and a bachelor's degree from UC Berkeley. He has served as a board member for a variety of charitable organizations in the Austin area, including United Way Capital Area, Thoughtful House Center for Children, and the Dell Foundation.
Board of Advisors
Mike LoCascio - Business Development
Since 2008, Mike has served as a self-employed consultant acting as Chief Technical Officer and Project Manager overseeing the development of waste vegetable oil biodiesel plants for Renewable Energy Resources. He is also leading the development of a new technology to convert scrap tires to natural gas and diesel fuel.
From 2005 to 2007 Mike served as the Chief Technical Officer and Principal of Core Ventures Renewable Fuels (CVRF) which lead the development and active management of a 30 mm gpy continuous flow biodiesel plant. Prior to that, Mike served as the head of ethanol project design and sales for US Water Services, the largest supplier of water processing equipment, chemicals and services to the dry mill ethanol industry. During his tenure here from 2000 to 2005, Mike was involved with numerous industry firsts including the use of reverse osmosis water purification equipment to manage plant discharge, the design, implementation and operation of the first zero liquid discharge ethanol plant in the country and the first sales person to gross 1 million in new business in a single year. As a self-employed consultant from 1999 to 2000, Mike set up ERP and MRP systems for industrial processing facilities. From 1998 to 1999 he served as a business integration and engineering supervisor for Kaydon Fluid Power Corporation in the company’s effort to buy and integrate five separate hydraulic cylinder manufacturing firms. Prior to that, he was a sales engineer for Nalco Chemical from 1994 to 1998.
Mike served in the United States Marine Corp as a pilot, heavy equipment company commander, air support control officer from 1989 to 1993. He is a 1989 graduate of Iowa State University with a BS in Nuclear Engineering.
Jeff Muchow, Meat Industry Consultant
Jeff is a veteran of food and agricultural processing industries. His current work involves senior management involvement in business startups, mergers and turnaround situations for food processing enterprises.
In his prior employment with IBP, Inc., Dakota Dunes, Jeff was President of IBP’s China Joint Venture. He has also worked on projects in Russia, Bulgaria, Poland and Brazil during the past 15 years. He was previously COO of Townsend Poultry in Millsboro, DE and Partner in Food System Associates in Washington, DC. He received his bachelor’s degree in agricultural economics from SDSU in 1968, a master’s degree in agricultural economics from the University of Missouri in 1970, and an MBA from the University of Northern Colorado in 1976.
Jeff was former Chairman of the South Dakota State University Foundation, and now a member of the SDSU Council of Trustees. He is currently a member of Universal Capital Management Board of Directors, Foundation Board of Church of the Resurrection, Leawood, KS, and Foundation for FarmHouse Fraternity International.
Jeff was a fighter instructor pilot and flight commander in the U.S. Air Force before pursuing a career in the food and agri-business industries. He and his wife Mary Jane have a son Austin and live in Overland Park, Kansas.
Dan Parker – Co-Founder, E3 Energy Partners
In 1991, Dan formed Parker, Messana & Associates to develop energy projects, and he has recently formed a new venture, E3 Energy Partners, to specifically focus on biofuels process development and plant construction. E3 Energy Partners is focused on technology scale-up from laboratory to pilot plant to full-scale production levels.
Dan has designed eight biorefineries, including the largest operational refinery in North America. Current projects include cellulosic ethanol biorefineries, biodiesel, biogas, hydrogen storage, and biomass cogeneration.
Dan received a B.S. in chemistry from the University of Illinois and a B.S. in electrical engineering from the University of Wisconsin. He has over thirty years experience as a consulting engineer for the design and construction of biomass derived fuel and energy production facilities. He has over 50 professional publications and 3 patents. He was appointed by Governor Locke in 2004 to the Washington State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers and Land Surveyors.
James Stephens – Co-Founder and CSO, Blue Marble Energy
James is co-founder, Vice President and Chief Science Officer of Blue Marble Energy. Prior to this, he worked extensively in the field of Industrial Microbiology with a focus on pathogen detection and control technologies, alternative energy generation through fermentable resources, and bioremediation projects. As Director of Microbiology and New Product Development at an international medical diagnostic company, James managed the international research, development, production, and commercialization of an extensive pipeline of novel and pioneering diagnostic assays for the medical field.
James has engaged in extensive R&D, product development, and commercialization in a variety of traditional and genetic based assays for pathogenic organisms for both the industrial and medical diagnostic industries. Additionally, James's strong interest in alternative energy and bio-remediation have lead him to perform extensive independent research on the use of microorganisms to generate alternative energy, which included the development of a system that utilizes waste materials in the process of methanogenisis for fuel and energy production.
James studied chemical engineering at South Dakota School of Mines and Technology. After deciding that biotechnology was the wave of the future, he changed paths to study Microbiology and Medical Technology with an emphasis on Industrial Microbiology and its applications. James graduated with honors with a B.S. in Microbiology and Medical Technology from the University of Montana, Missoula.
Jack Downing – Managing Partner, WorldBridge Partners
Jack is a founding member of the executive search firm, WorldBridge Partners, and a nationally recognized expert in the technology industry. He leads the technology practice group for WorldBridge Partners and has successfully completed over 500 searches worldwide. Jack began his executive search career in 1992, and in 1997 opened the Chicago office. Since 1997 he has grown the Chicago office to eight search consultants and they have received numerous national awards for being one of the fastest growing search firms. In addition to his work at WorldBridge Partners, Jack started the RPO (Recruitment Process Outsourcing) Division WorldConcert.
Jack earned his BA from Loras College and his MBA from Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. He is a founding member of the Illinois Venture Capital Association, serves on the Board of Directors of the Staffing Management Association of Greater Chicago, as well as the Board of Directors of Kline Capital Clean Technology Hedge Fund. Jack is also on the Board of Directors of Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago where he was matched as a Big Brother for over eight years.