General Investment Partners

Sr. Renato Freitas, President and Chief Executive Officer and Director, Age 38
Sr. Renato Freitas is a native Brazilian from São Paulo. He holds Agriculture, and Biology Degree from the University of São Paulo State, a B.S. in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Mato Grosso do Sul, an MBA from Boston University, and an Administration and Management degree from Harvard University.
He has lived and worked all over the country including the city in which the biodiesel plant will be located, Luis Eduardo Magalhães. He has a background in Sales, Conflict Resolution, Team building, Coaching and Training, Executive Management, Marketing, PR and Governmental Relations (Brazil). He has 12 years of international experience working with family owned, start ups, and Fortune 500 businesses in Agronomy and Professional Management roles in Australia, England, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, U.S.A, and several Latin American countries. He is fluent in Brazilian Portuguese, English, Spanish, and has a working knowledge of Italian.

Mr. Elia Tasca, Vice President and Director, Age 52
Mr. Tasca has a B.S. in Business Administration from Texas A&M University, and a Masters Degree in Business Administration from IMD, a Swiss business school. He is fluent in French, Portuguese and Italian, and has a working knowledge of German. He has worked in Rome, Italy as a Marketing Manager for the Daily American, in Rome and Washington D.C. as a private investor and advisor, and in Washington, D.C. and Brazil as a Principal at Overseas Telecom Plc, which introduced discount long distance service in Brazil. In that last capacity, he opened markets and established offices for Overseas Telecom in the Netherlands and the Czech Republic. Mr. Tasca has most recently been the managing director of a telecommunications company, for which he has successfully negotiated consortium partnerships in Brazilian private satellite ventures, and worked as manager and partner in a company providing short term capital to small and medium sized businesses in Rio de Janeiro and developing a proprietary software system to evaluate credit risk and manage back office operations. Mr. Tasca owns farmland in Bahia and is also one of the largest.

Mr. Art Hall, Secretary and Director, Age 35
Mr. Hall is the sole shareholder of artah Holdings, Inc., a Texas-based investment company, and co-owner of Global Ag Investments, L.L.C. He is an investment banker and attorney currently serving as Vice President of Popular Securities, Inc., an investment banking firm. He is a former member of the City Council of San Antonio, Texas, the Chairman of the San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund and a Trustee of the San Antonio Fire & Police Health Pre-fund. Mr. Hall is a graduate of Harvard University (BA in Government, 1993), Texas Tech Law and Business Schools (JD/MBA, 1996), and the University of Wales (LLM in International Business Law, 2000, United Kingdom). His expertise is finance and corporate law. Awards he has received include the Pforzheimer Foundation Scholar Award at Harvard, the Clifford Chance Business Law Prize, the highest academic award, and the Calcott Pryce Subject Prizes in Banking and Finance, Corporate Insolvency, International Copyright, and Consumer Law, at the University of Wales.
 

Mr. Shaun Beauclair, Treasurer and Director, Age 42
Mr. Beauclair has been involved with production agriculture since 1981. He received his B.S. Degree in Agronomy from North Dakota State University in 1987. Since 1989, he has been a sales representative for Dow AgroSciences. He has been a leader in his community, serving as a board member at Stephen-Argyle School since 2004. Mr. Beauclair has a renewable fuels background, having been the founding board member of US Bio Energy in Hankison, ND. He is also an investor in Midwest Grain Processor, in Lakota, Iowa and Chippewa Valley Ethanol, in Benson, MN.
 

Mr. Tyler Bruch, Director, Age 27
Mr. Bruch commenced his first farming operation in Bahia, Brazil in March 2003. He has been actively involved with agriculture for several years, having been raised on a family farm in Iowa. Prior to moving to Brazil, he co-managed crop production and labor for Bruchside Farms, Inc. in Iowa for four years and he maintains an ownership interest in the company. He is fluent in Portuguese and lives in Luis Eduardo Magalhães, Bahia, Brazil. Mr. Bruch has a degree in Agriculture Studies from Iowa State University with an emphasis in economics. He has also studied agriculture in Canada, Italy, Panama, and Brazil. Mr. Bruch is a frequent presenter on Brazilian agriculture to universities and continuing education groups throughout the U.S. and a contributing writer to Soybean Digest, for which he writes a column about agriculture in Brazil.

Mr. Alan Kluis, Director, Age 54
Mr. Kluis is Executive President and Chief Market Analyst for Northland Commodities. He will serve as a director of Global Ag Biodiesel L.L.C. and a market analyst for BrazilCo. Mr. Kluis has spent time in Brazil studying local commodities markets and has performed consulting work in Brazil. Mr. Kluis earned his degree in Agricultural Economics from the University of Minnesota. After graduation from college, he served as the Executive Manager for the Minnesota Soybean Assn. and led its lobbying efforts. Mr. Kluis has worked as a commodity advisor and broker since 1976. He is one of two approved Cargill Pro-Pricing Grain directors and is an introducing broker with Rosenthal Collins Group. Mr. Kluis has been an expert columnist for Corn and Soybean Digest for 13 years, has published two books, and is commonly quoted in major publications, including The Wall Street Journal. He is a featured speaker at commodity conferences nationwide and a frequent market analyst for the Linder Farm Radio News Network. He is also the co-author and editor of the Northland Commodities newsletter, which covers the commodities markets. Mr. Kluis also participates in a farming operation near Slayton, MN, giving him hands on experience in current issues affecting agricultural operations
 

Mr. Leigh Pell, Director, Age 42
Mr. Pell is a sixteen-year employee of Dunavant Enterprises, Inc. Mr. Pell will assist Mr. Kluis as a marketing analyst for BrazilCo. Mr. Pell has significant experience in the buying, selling, logistics, and processing of cotton and other agricultural commodities. He has also served on numerous cotton boards, associations, and committees. Mr. Pell graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a B.A. degree in economics. Since that time he has traveled extensively in his business and now lives in Fresno, CA. As a handler of various growths of U.S. cotton, he has a broad based knowledge of cotton markets, processing equipment, and related by-products to the cotton industry.
 

Gian Carlo Gangemi, Project Engineer, Age 42
For the last 5 years, Mr. Gangemi has worked as a chemical engineering consultant for leading petrochemical companies throughout the world, including Petresa (Spain), Engelhard (United States), Oxiteno (Brazil), EMALAB (Middle East), and BALLESTRA (Italy). He has extensive experience in the commissioning and start-up of petrochemical plants, with particular emphasis in catalyst systems, product quality improvement, performance testing and development and optimization of production capabilities (ranging from pilot and laboratory plants to large industrial facilities).

Before becoming a consultant, Mr. Gangemi was a senior engineer for 14 years at DETEN QUIMICA S.A., a Brazilian company which is a subsidiary of CEPSA, the world’s leading producer of LAB (linear alkyl benzene). In such capacity, he was charged with the management and oversight of the LAB process unit, including technical analysis of systems for quality control, performance testing and production and technical support for all of the company’s major industrial clients. He also served as the chief plant manager of the company’s sulfonation plant, which has a production capacity of 80,000 ton/year of LAS (linear alkyl benzene sulfonate).

Mr. Gangemi directed and managed several project teams for DETEN QUIMICA, including teams engaged in the start-up of its LAB plant teams charged with, increasing plant production capacity from 120,000 tons LAB/year and then to 170,000 tons LAB/year to 220,000 tons LAB/year, and teams responsible for the development of plant quality control and performance standards.

Mr. Gangemi is currently completing his doctoral thesis on the use of reactive distillation systems for biodiesel production at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. In 1992, he obtained a Master of Science in chemical engineering with an emphasis in chemical kinetics reactions and heterogeneous catalysis from the Bahia Federal University, Brazil. He received a Bachelor of Science in chemical engineering from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 1987.