SGB, Inc. (SG Biofuels), an energy crop company delivering high performance bioenergy solutions for the renewable fuel, biomass and chemical markets, has named Eric L. Hakmiller and Andrew Leitch to its board of advisors.
Hakmiller most recently served as a vice president and general manager of Bunge Biofuels, a division of Bunge North America. He also previously served as vice chairman of Southwest Iowa Renewable Energy, a director at Bunge Ergon Vicksburg and as director of Renewable Energy Group, Inc. He received a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Maine and a graduate degree from Loyola Marymount University.
Leitch has 28 years of experience in public accounting, including 20 years as a partner at Deloitte & Touche. Leitch currently serves on the board of directors for three publicly listed companies, including chairman of the board for Blackbaud, Inc. and as chairman of the audit committee for both Cardium Therapeutics and STR Holdings, Inc. With Deloitte, he was deeply involved in international business, serving as Asian regional partner, managing partner of several offices in Asia, and various other management roles having resided in Tokyo, Singapore and Hong Kong. He has served and continues to serve as an independent director of various privately owned companies as well as portfolio companies of well-known private equity groups, several of which operate in the clean energy sector.
Through its global network of trials and commercial projects, SGB continues to advance its Jatropha hybrids as a low cost and sustainable source of plant oil and biomass for renewable fuels and bioproducts. The company recently announced agreements with Embrapa (Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation), the country's leading agricultural research institution, and with Fiagril, one of the Brazil's leading biodiesel refiners, to develop Jatropha as a next generation energy crop in Brazil.