ABOUT
BYAS was founded in Chicago at www.insidetheplant.com in late 2018 with a vision of innovating at the interface between the circular economy (zero waste and sustainable re-use of limited resources) and the wealth of our planet’s algal resources. This breakthrough site plays a vital role in
bringing anaerobic digestion to its rightful place as the foundation of a sustainable urban food chain.
BYAS is committed to researching, developing and
implementing new ways of making our food better,
more accessible and healthier and to reducing the
environmental burden of food production on our
precious planet.
THE TEAM
Leonard Lerer
Our Founder and CEO is an MD MBA with almost 30 years of life sciences R&D, finance and management experience
Rob Agterberg
Our Chief Marketing Officer and Head of International Operations brings international experience in management consulting.
Marc Peter Geytenbeek
Our Chief of Public Affairs and Head of Europe brings experience in entrepreneurship, sales and marketing
Seth Little
Our SVP for sustainable agriculture brings scientific knowledge and hands-on experience in agriculture and vertical farming .
Chloé Placines
Director of the joint Bubbly Dynamics - BYAS Algae Digester laboratory
Prof. Peter Lammers
Our Principal Scientific Advisor is an internationally recognized algal scientist specializing in extremophile species
Erik R.
Erik leads our cellular agriculture laboratory
Jiyan Cen
Jiyan is research scientist in our Circular Economy - Cellular Agriculture laboratory
Jay Pleckham
VP of Bioprocess Engineering
Katie Spear
Katie is Director of Operations in Chicago
Tony Milewski
Tony is our principal Mycologist
COLLABORATORS
& ADVISORS
We are honored to collaborate with John Edel, Founder and CEO of Bubbly Dynamics, the owner and operator of The Plant. John’s vision, his unfailing support and our shared commitment to circular economy principles have been critical to our success.
BYAS extended family includes our interns, temporary staff, consultants, Bubbly Dynamics staff, volunteers at The Plant, innovators and other startups and we wish to recognize the contributions of Cedric Kamaleson, Mike Phippen, Nikki Huynh, Carolee Kokola, Lucas van Beers, Alex Enarson, Jeremy Piacente, Felix (@felizreef), Matt (@kombuchade) and Tyler Bogartz.
As BYAS grows, we will extend our Advisory Board that currently includes Professor Peter Lammers (Principal Advisor – Algae Sciences), Ira van Eelen (Principal Advisor – Cellular Agriculture) and Professor Bernard Lerer (Principal Advisor -Biomedical Science).