World Class Leadership

Nick Andrews leads and delivers the performance of USA BioEnergy. Prior to founding USABE, he spent nearly 25 years as a senior executive in commercial real estate including 22 years as a project developer and founder/owner of a brokerage firm in Scottsdale, AZ. His experience in managing corporate growth, implementing complex multi-tiered financial strategies, both for his own organization and others, has enabled USABE to achieve an enviable record in the industry. Nick is a Certified Commercial Investment Member (CCIM) which combined with his entrepreneurial acumen and creative instinct has been invaluable to the company’s ambitious growth trajectory.

As co-founder of USABE, David has provided strategic direction and corporate oversight during its growth. He is directly involved with investor relations and project funding. He has 30 years of executive leadership experience including more than 20 years in engineering processes and the development of high impact technology ventures. David helped found one of the country’s first intrastate crowdfunding portals through which he has raised capital for new ventures in the expanding renewable energy space. He has a background in law, science and technology and a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Arizona State University. Prior to his involvement with USABE David held leadership roles at Chevrolet, TRW Safety Systems, and Goodyear Tire.

Suzanne is responsible for investor relations, communications with strategic partners, suppliers, as well as local, state and national government, and oversees public relations, digital presence and IT Operations. In collaboration with team members, Ms. McCain provides oversight and creation of investor disclosure documents, including the company’s business plan, management presentation decks, private placement memorandum and other materials necessary for a successful capital raise. She has more than 35 years of experience in real estate construction and development, operations, management, technology, digital marketing, and startup operations. Suzanne studied Design at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington.

As Chief Operating Officer for USABE, Tony is responsible for overseeing engineering and construction of new facilities as well as our ongoing plant performance. He brings 28 years of experience from a diversified background in power, transmission/distribution, chemicals, forest industries, food/beverage and renewables. During his tenure in the industry, he established a track record of building extraordinary executive teams. Prior to joining USABE he worked for Wood (including Amec and Amec Foster Wheeler) for over 20 years as an operations leader for North and South America, managing a team responsible for over $3 Billion in EPC and EPCM project volume. Tony has a BS in Mechanical Engineering from North Dakota State University and an Advanced Certificate in Project Management from Penn State University.

Chérie Harbaugh has over 25 years of experience in the real estate and financial services sectors with particular strength in areas of real estate acquisition and development. Chérie is responsible for new site identification and market analysis and provides administrative support to the C-suite.

Prior to joining USA BioEnergy, Ms. Harbaugh worked as an executive, manager and entrepreneur. Ms. Harbaugh was Director of Sales and Acquisitions in asset management. In addition to being a Regional Manager at Equis Financial, Area Manager for Wells Fargo and owned her own Mortgage Brokerage. Ms. Harbaugh holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.

Tim provides general counsel on all USABE’s governmental affairs, regulatory issues, licensing, procurement and land use. In Arizona, he served as General Counsel for the Arizona Corporation Commission, Deputy Maricopa County attorney, and was Chief of Staff for the mayor of Scottsdale. and has also represented governors and members of congress.  Most recently he has managed his own firm specializing in government practice, including lobbying, election law, regulatory, administrative and licensing law, land use, and specialized litigation involving governmental entities. Tim has argued successfully in front of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, the Arizona Supreme Court, and the Arizona Court of Appeals.  He has also handled numerous matters at the Superior Court level. Tim is a graduate of the University of Colorado with a BS in finance and Arizona State University College of Law.

Ms. Keller has over 15 years of experience in the energy industry. She has deep experience in  offtake origination, debt and equity placement, asset management and optimization,  project diligence, and market risk mitigation.

Previous positions include running origination and structuring for Able Grid Energy, acting as Director of the Power & Infrastructure unit at Sumitomo Corporation, leading LNG commercial development at Engie, managing GDF Suez’s Canadian, Mexican, and U.S. wind/solar/hydro/cogen/biomass portfolio, serving as Board member for the Atlantic  Centre for Energy, supervising the market and risk consultancy at Pace Global, and being a power trader at Fulcrum Power.

Casey graduated Phi Beta Kappa from the University of Texas at Austin with degrees in International Business Honors Program, Finance, and Plan II Liberal Arts.

Advisory Board Member for USABE.
The Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) goal is promote the development and commercialization of sustainable aviation fuel. Chris helps to manage the coalition of CAAFI stakeholders and provide leadership and strategic guidance to CAAFI’s State and Regional programs, Federal government initiatives, airport authorities, and international initiatives. He is an advisor on biofuels to the State of Queensland (AU), and is on the board of Advanced Biofuels USA. As a Navy officer he was director of operational energy developing programs to launch he advanced biofuels industry. He helped oversee the Great Green Fleet deployment in which the navy used 77 million gallons of F-76 alternative fuel blends in their ships. He was peer-selected as one of the top 100 people in the bio-economy by Biofuels Digest. He is a graduate of the US Naval Academy with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.

Heinrich or Hein has a wide area of expertise in the Gas-to-Liquids (GTL) industry spanning 30 years and several continents and cultures. He had leadership roles at Sasol and other FT technology developing companies ranging from R&D, plant optimization, technical services, product applications, fuel formulations, logistics management, contract negotiations, sales and marketing and new business development. Hein specifically led teams to develop the sales, marketing, and product applications strategies for the Sasol GTL projects in Uzbekistan, Canada, and the USA. Hein has several international publications and advises all the areas mentioned, as well as on product registration and more.

Over fifty three years of experience in chemical engineering related to process design, engineering management, and consulting services.  Areas of expertise include syn-gas production facilities and other related processes in refinery and chemical plants.

Dr. Stephen C. LeViness, PhD, MS, BS Chemical Engineering. Steve’s broad area of expertise over 30 years is in FT technologies synthesizing liquid fuels, at laboratory and commercial scales. He advises on plant engineering, economic optimization, business development, and intellectual property & patents. His areas of expertise include catalysis, reaction engineering, reaction kinetics, reactor modeling, Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, methanol synthesis, conventional and compact multi-tubular fixed bed reactors, slurry bubble column reactors, microchannel reactors, FT catalysts, slurry reactor and trickle bed reactor hydrodynamics, synthesis gas generation and clean-up, small/modular GTL, process economics, FT product and upgrading, short path distillation, and batch hydrogenation. Steve has worked for Greyrock, SCGE, Velocys, Schlumberger, Syntroleum, Mobil and Exxon. He has a PhD from Rice University, and his MS and BS from Worcester Polytechnic Institue, all in chemical engineering. His name appears on over 2 dozen patents and 30+ publications and presentations.

Over 31 years’ experience in the energy field and recognized as a leading expert in energy project development and power generation applications. Work applications have focused on combustion technology involving renewable energy sources such as waste biomass feedstocks. Primary technical responsibility has been as a Principal Engineer, specializing in utility renewable energy, cogeneration, biomass energy development, and other consulting projects. Work experience runs the gamete from the design of large biomass and other solid fueled boiler systems, to the specification and purchasing of entire new site biomass and multi-fuel power production projects.

David Busse has over 40 years of experience in Investment banking, corporate finance, and commercial real estate finance and investments. Specific assignments included M&A work on Wall Street, land acquisition for residential and commercial development, financing and purchase of net leased properties, and complex sale leasebacks for an NYSE listed corporation. Mr. Busse has degrees in chemistry and real estate finance from Harvard College and the Harvard Business School.

Tim has over 20 years’ experience in leadership and executive positions in publicly traded companies, privately held companies and non-profit organizations over a 40-year career. He loves to build projects and organizations, and complex puzzle-solving. Tim has acquired, sold, managed, planned, entitled, designed, built, and operated over $9B in projects and real estate assets. He was also an Officer, Director and Shareholder in 2 multi-discipline consulting companies, where he was instrumental in 15-fold acquisition and organic growth. He is a consultant for real estate development, water supply, and renewable energy projects (solar, wind, geothermal, pump storage, biomass). He has held professional licenses in engineering, construction, and real estate. After growing up on a diversified farm in the Red River Valley, he earned university undergraduate and graduate degrees in engineering and business at the University of Oklahoma and Tulsa University. He had been a guest lecturer at several universities and has acted as an expert on several legal cases.