After a number of leadership roles in the Downstream Oil sector, including CFO of a BP business unit and Sales Director for Castrol Automotive in Northern Europe, I had the privilege of joining the newly-formed BP Biofuels business at its inception in 2006. The purpose of this new business was to make large-scale investments in new technologies and production assets to develop higher quality, more sustainable and more affordable biofuels. This led to a number of significant projects and investments, including the construction of a new ethanol plant in the UK, the acquisition of three sugarcane-to-ethanol mills in Brazil, and technology programmes for 2nd generation technologies including ligno-cellulosic ethanol, bio-butanol and heterotrophic algae.

In 2014, I was appointed to lead the BP Midstream business in the UK, which included direct accountability for compliance with the RTFO (UK renewable fuel regulation) and margin maximisation from our biofuels activities. Then between 2018 and 2020, I led the Biofuels Centre of Expertise for BP in Europe, a cross-functional team responsible for achieving maximum margin from the obligated demand generated by biofuels regulations across EU countries.

These two phases of my career have given me a unique insight into the end-to-end biofuels value chain, from early stage technology evaluation and feedstock choices to compliance fulfillment and – crucially – margin maximisation.

As the Vice President of R&D and Innovation, Dr. Jennifer Aurandt-Pilgrim leads innovation initiatives including technical and market development of investments in decarbonization including Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS), Ethanol to Jet Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF), and CO2 Utilization. Jennifer also serves on four scientific advisory boards for the US Department of Energy and is an observer in the United Nations -ICAO- Fuels Task Group (UN-ICAO-FTG). With nearly 20 years of industry experience, including protein and oil separation technology development at Trucent. As an Associate Professor at Kettering University she directed the DOE sponsored Center for Energy Excellence. Jennifer has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Bowling Green State University and a Doctor of Philosophy in Biological Chemistry from the University of Michigan.