2018 Alumni Awardee
Mark E. Warner (BS, Chemical Engineering, 1986)
Founder, Warner Advisors, LLC
of Sacramento, CA
Mark is the Founder of Warner Advisors, LLC, which offers consulting services in biotechnology, renewable energy commercialization, chemical and food manufacturing, technology development, business unit management and startup fundraising. He has worked four companies who have held the #1 spot in biofuels digest’s top company list, combined with nearly 10 years and over 500 million dollars spent commercializing emerging biotechnology processes. He is a registered professional engineer with 25 years of broad-ranging business, technical, and management experience in renewable energy projects and chemical plant operations.
Prior to starting his own consulting firm, Mr. Warner was the Chief Engineering Officer for Impossible Foods, Inc., a startup company focused on providing the experience of eating meat and dairy foods based on vegetable product, the Senior Vice President of Engineering for Solazyme, Inc., which is focused on using microalgae as the foundation for personal care and food products.
Prior to joining Solazyme, Mark served as Senior Vice President of Engineering for Harris Group. His responsibilities encompassed full management and technical responsibility for billions of dollars of industry leading renewable energy commercialization projects including cellulosic ethanol production plants, micro-algae, macro-algae, biomass power, carbon sequestration and biomass gasification. Clients included many of the top biofuel and biochemical companies, the US Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Renewable Energy Lab (NREL).
From 2006–08, Mr. Warner served as Vice President of Engineering for Imperium Renewables, where he oversaw the largest biodiesel production facility constructed in the United States. He has actively led site selection, regulatory compliance, permitting, engineering, and project funding efforts for facilities at both U.S. and international sites.
Mark has been an advocate for the Voiland School with the companies he has worked at. He has made a personal commitment to the Thomson Fund. He has also returned to campus to present in the Voiland School Seminar class. He finds returning to speak to the students very enjoyable and is looking forward to his next visit.