MEET THE TEAM
___________________________________________________________ Board ___________________________________________________________
Steve
Rowe
Chairman of
the Board
Sandro
Solari
Board Member
Mr. Solari is Chief Executive Officer of Falabella S.A.C.I. The Falabella Group is one of the largest retail companies in Latin America, with operations in Chile, Peru, Colombia, Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, measured by market capitalization (approximately US$18 billion). The Group operates five business divisions: department stores, home improvement, supermarkets, shopping centers and financial services.
After the merger of Falabella with Sodimac S.A. in 2003, Mr. Solari became Operations Manager of Sodimac Chile before being promoted to General Manager of the home improvement operation in Chile in 2005. In 2006 Mr. Solari was named Chief Executive Officer of Sodimac S.A., position which he held until 2012, when he left to assume his current role.
Mr. Solari earned a degree in Industrial Civil Chemical Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a Master’s in Business Administration from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
JEFf
Tweddale
Board Member
Jeff Tweddale is an advocate and investor in BioFiltro since 2019. He is also the President and co-founder of BookingCenter, providing hospitality clients and travel destinations with Property Management Systems, Central Reservation Systems, and global distribution opportunities. Prior to founding BookingCenter, Jeff created the The InternetCorps to deliver innovative e-commerce and e-marketing solutions to such market leaders as Sun Microsystems, Visa USA, and LaserLine. In the early days of the Internet, Jeff served as Product Manager for one of the first Internet businesses, America Online’s Global Network Navigator (GNN). While there, he supervised the software development of AOL’s first internet programs (email, chat, publishing, etc) while overseeing the service’s Web community of more than 300,000 users. Jeff also led AOL’s Consulting Services Group, leading the technical research, development, and implementation of a wide variety of new media projects for Fortune 500 clients.
Andres Iacobelli
Board Member
Rafael
Concha
board member
___________________________________________________ Executive Leaderchip _____________________________________________________
Steve
Rowe
president
Matias Sjögren
Chief Executive Officer
Rafael
Concha
Chief Operating Officer
Cheri
Harrington
Chief Business Officer
Cheri leads BioFiltro’s core operations, including financial management, HR, and risk management.
With 20+ years of leadership experience within both private and public sectors, Cheri has a proven track record of successfully leading teams and growing organizations.
Before BioFitlro, Cheri served as the Chief Operating Officer at non-profit, where she led the organization in achieving sustainable growth. Cheri also spent almost 10 years at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), where she made recommendations to Congress on ways to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of federal programs.
Cheri holds a BS from the University of California, Davis, and an MPA from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.
___________ Accounting, HR and Legal ___________
_________________________ Quality, GHG and Carbon _________________________
Eva
Diaz
Controller
John
Kenley
general
counsel
P
Aaron Simonson
Laboratory &
Quality Assurance manager
Patrick Beckett
VP of Quality
and R&D
Patrick is an environmental engineer and industrial ecology professional passionate about issues at the nexus of water, agriculture, climate change, and environment. He leads BioFiltro’s environmental biotechnology product development and provides technical and quality assurance support to BioFiltro clients. Patrick holds a B.S. in Physics and Mathematics from Missouri Southern State University, and an M.S. in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Engineering from UC Davis, where he also earned a graduate certificate in Industrial Ecology.
In previous professional roles Patrick has led quality control efforts for complex battery assemblies, conducted research on advanced lithium-ion battery electrodes, and later managed energy and sustainability projects for large corporate clients in the telecommunications industry. In his academic career, Patrick has worked with Astrobiology and Planetary scientists at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratories on research concerning methane cycling on Mars and carbon and nitrogen cycling at submarine hydrothermal vent systems. For his thesis research at UC Davis Patrick conducted experimental studies on the application of iron nanoparticles for chemodenitrification and more recently conducted Life Cycle Assessments for water resource recovery technologies that generate co-products such as non-potable water for irrigation, soil amendments, or alternative forms of protein.
SAbina
Dore
Carbon
specialist
Sabina Dore’s work has centered on carbon and GHG. Recently, she collaborated in obtaining the first certification of carbon credits for an innovative dairy manure treatment technique based on vermifiltration. She collaborated to include this technique in California’s programmed efforts to reduce dairy GHG emissions. S. Dore measured methane emission reduction of a vermifiltration dairy project. She also designed and managed a healthy soil demonstration project on vermicompost application to crop soils.
S. Dore has collaborated in developing a carbon protocol for rice and wetlands of California and quantified carbon offsets and GHG dynamics of ecosystem restoration projects in California.
She has longstanding experience using the eddy covariance technique to quantify carbon, water, and energy fluxes in forest and agricultural ecosystems. She also gained experience in measurements of soil and leaf gas exchanges and ecosystem carbon pools, including soil and above and below-ground forest vegetation.
A significant focus of her research was to quantify the effects of management practices such as harvest, thinning, prescribed fire and wildfires on forest carbon and water dynamics.
S. Dore worked on several U.S. and European scientific projects and published scientific peer-reviewed articles in international journals on GHG, carbon, and water dynamics.
____________________________________________________ Business Development ____________________________________________________
Guillermo
Tagle
Vp of
Product
Federico
Pümpin
VP of Sanitary, Food and Beverage
Federico is Chilean with a background in Industrial Engineering and is passionate about extreme sports, food and addressing environmental challenges. His career took a sustainable turn as he led a turnaround in a recycling company, preventing tons of waste from landfills. Seeking new challenges and international exposure, he pursued an MBA. Federico joined Biofiltro, fascinated by its innovative green technology and potential for triple-bottom-line impact (economic, social, environmental). What appealed most to him was the opportunity for long-term alignment, reinforcing his commitment to Biofiltro’s sustainable mission.
Brandon Jenks
Regional
manager
Sarah
Haupt
sales
engineer
Before BioFiltro, Sarah started and then lead her own electrical engineering company for 10 years where she specialized in solar and EV charging infrastructure. She lives in Woodland with her husband and son, has two dogs and loves spending her free time in the great outdoors!
Sarah holds a BS in biological sciences from UC Davis and worked as the dairy herd manager while attending school.
Sanjar
Taromi
Sales
Engineer
________________________________________ ENGINEERING AND PROJECT MANAGEMENT ________________________________________
Norberto Butendieck
Project management
officer
Norberto brings a heritage of dairy acumen and more than two decades of progressive experience to his role as the Vice President of the Livestock Market Segment. His hands-on work in dairy production underpins his vast understanding of industry nuances. Norberto excels at integrating dairy operations with food processing and sales, adeptly navigating shifts towards sustainable practices.
Raised in a family steeped in dairy farming and scientific research gives him a unique industry perspective. Norberto’s academic foundation—a Civil Engineering degree coupled with an MBA from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile—equips him with a blend of technical and strategic acumen aimed at driving sustainability in the dairy sector.
Sina
Pram
head of control
& automation
Gilbert
miito, ph.d.
Engineer Project Manager
Gilbert is a Biological Engineer with a Ph.D. in biological and Agricultural Engineering from Washington State University. His M.Sc. and B.Sc. are both in Agricultural Engineering from Makerere University in Uganda. He possesses over four years of industrial experience in managing wastewater treatment systems and over five years in studying and documenting biological wastewater treatment systems. For his Ph.D. dissertation, he studied biological filters like BioFiltro’s BIDA® System as low-cost and environmentally sustainable technologies for dairy wastewater management. With this background in academic and industrial wastewater treatment situations, Gilbert brings this perspective to the team. Aside from work, Gilbert enjoys sports (Go Cougs !!) and learning about other cultures.
Juan francisco castillo
Design
engineer
Juan joined The Biofiltro team in 2021 after working in different fields of engineering, such as hydraulic and highway design, architectural drawings, among others. He is in charge of engineering design and drawings for Biofiltro. Juan holds a Bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from Francisco de Miranda University in the North of Venezuela. He has extensive experience in hydraulic design and water management, as well as experience working in diverse cultures and languages. Currently, Juan is pursuing a Dual Master’s degree in Mobility from the Technical University of Berlin and the Universidad de Buenos Aires
Eduardo
MArtin
design
engineer
Eduardo is a civil engineer graduated in western Venezuela, validated in Chile, with more than 4 years of experience in architectural, structural and hydraulic design; he has experience in the application of the BIM methodology (Building Information Modeling). He joined the Biofiltro Team in 2021 and since then he participates in project designs for Chile and USA.
_______________________________________________________ OPERATIONS _________________________________________________________
Paul
Santos
head of
Operations
Paul is an industrial engineer who brings more than 20 years of experience in wastewater treatment, waste management, power generation, thermo drying, and desorption to BioFiltro. Originally from Canada, he is passionate about climate change, regenerative practices, and water.
Francisco
del Toro
technician
JAvier
del Toro
technician
Javier Del Toro was born in Mexico City but raised in Michoacán, Mexico. He immigrated to the United States when he was eighteen years old and has been living there ever since. Currently residing in Fresno with his wife and five children, Javier spent about twenty-four years working in the fields. He has been with Biofiltro for almost four years.
Kurt
Wagner
Director
of Regeneration
_____________________________________________________ ADVISORS _____________________________________________________________
John
de jonge
advisor
John’s passion for the dairy industry began on a dairy farm in Pitt Meadows, BC, Canada. From an early age, he had hands-on experience with daily management of a 150-cow dairy farm and farming of 500 acres of land. In 1990, he graduated from Olds College in Alberta, Canada with a degree in Agricultural Mechanics, Agricultural Engineering and Business. In 1995, John bought Artex Fabricators based in Langley, BC, Canada, a company that manufactured and distributed manure spreaders, silage equipment, and stabling for dairy barns to customers across North America.
Part of John’s passion is feeding the world and in diversifying away from dairy farming he has recently invested and partnered in the starting of Cubic Farms, a leader in the local chain Ag-tech which crates agricultural technologies to feed a changing world. John was the leading force in the Cubic Farm’s acquisition of Hydrogreen, an on-site automated indoor vertical hydroponic growing system for animal feed. Both companies have grown to become industry leaders in technology and equipment manufacturing.
In 2021 John sold Artex to an investment company and has been focusing on building technological solutions for various industries. John’s passion lies in the creation of technologies that span multiple market sectors to provide unique solutions to the challenges these industries experience.
Fred
Turkovich
advisor
Guillermo Carey
Advisor
Mr. Carey is partner and head of the intellectual property practice at Carey.
His practice specializes in licensing and IP litigation. He is also currently general counsel and on the board of Crystal Lagoons, one of the most acclaimed Chilean start-ups exporting its technology to over 50 countries. This company was valued at US$1.8 billion by the Boston Consulting Group. Mr. Carey has had a prominent role in its growth from its creation.
In Mr. Carey’s day to day practice, he interacts with many new ventures and helps Chilean companies license their technology worldwide.
He has received numerous awards from specialized publications as a leading lawyer in Chile and Latin America. He has also advised the Chilean government on IP & innovation policies. He has held leading positions in many global intellectual property and internet organizations and currently is on the board of the American Chamber of Commerce in Chile (Amcham).
Mr. Carey obtained his law degree from Universidad Católica.
David
Warner
Advisor
David Warner is the founder and owner of Redhorse Constructors where for the past four decades he has been working on new urban formations around sustainable and resilient infrastructure and construction systems.
He is also the co-founder of Human Needs Project which addresses the lack of basic services common in underserved urban populations.
With a focus on green building, David has turned Redhorse into one of the nation’s premier custom home builders, receiving a number of awards including Builder of the Year by the NAHB (USA), AIA, projects published in Scientific American and Architectural Digest, including achievement awards from local and industry organizations.
David received his undergraduate degree from the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley and his teaching credential in Biology from San Francisco State. He is an advisory board member at UC Berkeley College of Natural Resources Advisory.
Stephen Mccord
advisor
Stephen is a Davis-based water expert (and RPCV!) who runs McCord Environmental, a consultancy for municipalities, non-profit organizations, utilities, tribes, corporations and government agencies managing water quality.