Our Board

Mr. Ulum is the Chief Executive Officer of Agilyx Corporation. Prior to joining Agilyx, he worked for 10 years in the high tech industry for IBM (formerly Sequent Computer Systems) and Sun Microsystems. He held leadership roles in multiple functions including operations, forecasting, product management and custom systems integration. While at Sun, he concurrently managed 18 product lines representing over $2 billion in revenues. Mr. Ulum held both tactical execution responsibilities within his business unit as well as strategic new product development, with a globally distributed team and supply chain.

Mr. Ulum's career includes leadership and customer interface roles in diverse industries. He served as General Manager of a privately held wood products company, and reported to the CEO of a printing and packaging company which was the fastest growing privately held company in the state of North Carolina. He began his career as a production manager at Frito-Lay, Inc.

Mr. Ulum holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from Oregon State University and an MBA degree from the Duke University Fuqua School of Business.

Mr. DeWhitt is the Chief Technology Officer of Agilyx Corporation. Prior to founding Agilyx, he worked for 20 years in the analytical chemistry industry for a number of independent laboratories. Having worked in the field of thermolytic/pyrolytic science for the past 10 years, he has been able to leverage his education and experience to invent and further develop the (now patented) Anaerobic Thermal Reclamation (ATR) process. He has been working exclusively on perfecting the ATR process for the past four years.

Mr. DeWhitt holds two Bachelor of Science degrees in Chemistry and Physics from Oregon State University, spent an additional year studying Physics at the University of Stuttgart in Germany and returned from Germany to study Chemistry in Oregon State University's graduate degree program for one year before beginning his professional career.

Prior to co-founding Saffron Hill Ventures, Mr. Bhatia worked as Advisor to the Chairman of Loot Ltd. where he advised on e-commerce strategy and investment and in a venture capital capacity for Lord Rothschild, evaluating technology venture opportunities. While at Loot he worked closely with business partners and financiers to structure Loot's strategic and financial requirements in preparation for sale. Mr. Bhatia has had a long term interest in environmental technology and policy, and worked in the environment and energy consulting groups at Booz-Allen & Hamilton, and Dyncorp-Meridian, and as an intern in Vice President Al Gore's White House Office on Environmental Policy.

Mr. Bhatia earned an MBA from UCLA's Anderson School of Business, an MA in International Relations and Economics from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and a BA in Environmental Science from Occidental College.

Mr. Wawro joined Chrysalix at the beginning of 2008 after spending 20 years in the energy industry where he was involved in both M&A and providing advice to private clients. Mr. Wawro sourced and closed Chrysalix' investment in Brammo Motorsports, manufacturer of the Enertia electric motorcycle and serves as Vice-Chairman of Brammo’s Board of Directors. Mr. Wawro also led Chrysalix’ investment in Agilyx, an Oregon-based company that turns mixed waste plastic into synthetic crude oil and sits on Agilyx’ Board.

Prior to joining Chrysalix, Mr. Wawro provided strategic, business planning and M&A advice to a variety of private clients as Managing Director of Greystone North Management Consultants. Prior to that, he was with Duke Energy where he led Duke's Canadian M&A group following the acquisition of Vancouver-based Westcoast Energy. Mr. Wawro was a senior member of the M&A group at Westcoast Energy for several years and managed or participated in several dozen energy related M&A transactions worth approximately $10 billion in market capitalization. Prior to his time at Westcoast, he was with Enbridge Inc., a Canadian energy transportation, distribution and services company where he provided strategic and corporate finance advice to the Company's senior management team and participated in international consulting assignments in Turkey and Malaysia.

Mr. Wawro is an active adventurer having spent far too much time in tents while on mountaineering and whitewater kayaking expeditions in North and South America. He holds a degree in Computer Science from the University of Manitoba and an MBA from Saint Mary's University.

Mr. Deshpande joined KPCB in April 2008 and focuses on Greentech with special emphasis on technologies related water, waste, fuels/chemicals and sustainable agriculture.

At KPCB, Mr. Deshpande serves on the board of directors of Harvest, a company focused on next generation waste management technologies. Mr. Deshpande is also on the board of directors of the KPCB's first water investment, APTwater. Mr. Deshpande is also on the board of directors 3 other ventures all in the water or waste sectors and closely involved with KPCB investments in Siluria, Hara Software and Next Autoworks.

Prior to KPCB, Mr. Deshpande spent 3 years at Black River and Cargill Ventures, both investment oriented business units of the private agribusiness, Cargill, Inc. While at Cargill, Mr. Deshpande focused on Greentech investment throughout the energy, water and agricultural supply chain. Mr. Deshpande was directly involved with investments and initiatives in multiple Greentech verticals including solar, next generation fuels, sustainable agriculture, industrial biotech, waste/environmental sciences and carbon markets. Mr. Deshpande was also responsible for maintaining relationships with key innovative business units within Cargill and tracking innovation in Greentech both inside and outside of the organization. Prior to Cargill, Mr. Deshpande was an entrepreneur having founded an agricultural biotechnology company focused on novel germplasm in high value vegetable crops as well as companies in the water sector and educational services sector. In this, Mr. Deshpande has extensive experience in writing business plans, fundraising and guiding strategy for new enterprises at all stages of development.

Mr. Deshpande has a BS in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana/Champaign. Mr. Deshpande also has an MBA from Cornell University where he was a Park Fellow, receiving a full tuition merit based scholarship based on future leadership potential in business world.

Ross M. Patten brings over 35 years of expertise in the areas of solid waste, water, and waste-to-energy management. An accomplished executive with a proven track record in successful project development, corporate mergers, and acquisitions, he is the former Chairman and CEO of Synagro Technologies and a former senior executive for Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. and Browning, Ferris Industries. Currently, Patten is the CEO of MaxWest Environmental in Sanford, Florida and serves on the Board of Directors for several public and private environmental companies.

Bob Simpson comes to Agilyx with a strong financial background. Before retiring in late 2011, Simpson served as both Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for Waste Management. He was responsible for the Company’s accounting, strategy, business improvement, internal audit, investor relations, tax, treasury, risk management, real estate and financial analysis functions. Prior to being elected CFO in March 2004, Simpson was Waste Management’s Senior Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer.