Board of Directors

Steven J. Furcich has over 40 years operating experience across the midstream and downstream agribusiness sectors, working with a wide range of agricultural crops, process technologies and their products. He is an inventor on a number of issued patents involving agricultural products. Mr. Furcich is a Partner in the Tillridge Global Agribusiness Fund, and a director of some its portfolio companies. Additionally, Mr. Furcich is a Joint Venture Partner and Director in Wilmar Nutrition (a subsidiary of Wilmar International), and a Director at Furst-McNess (a subsidiary of Easy Bio). Prior to Tillridge, Mr. Furcich spent over 28 years at ADM, a multinational food processing and commodities trading corporation, listed on the NYSE with a market capitalization of US$45B. At ADM, Mr. Furcich served as Vice President & Director Group Operations for Oilseeds, and later as President of ADM’s Nutrition and Malting Divisions, and Vice President of ADM Polymer. Mr. Furcich has a degree in Agricultural Engineering from the University of Illinois.

Mr. Kale joined the Wilmar International Ltd in March 2005 and is responsible for the global biofuels and oleochemicals business of the Wilmar Group. Wilmar International has a market capitalization of some US$19B, and is a constituent stock of the Straits Times Index of the Singapore Stock Exchange. He formerly co-founded KemOleo Pte Ltd with Wilmar International. He formerly headed the oleochemicals business for Peter Cremer GMBH and was the Managing Director of Peter Cremer Singapore. Mr. Kale holds a Bachelor of Arts (Honors) in Economics and a Masters in Political Sciences from the University of Delhi.

is the Chief Executive Officer of Inventure Renewables and the driving force behind the company’s recent period of growth, overseeing the development and commercialization of three cutting-edge renewable technologies—totaling approximately $250 million in installed capital—both in the United States and overseas. Acknowledged for his leadership and innovative contributions, he is named on 20 patents encompassing diverse sustainable processes and technologies. Appointed CEO in December 2019, Ryan previously served as Chief Technology Officer beginning in 2018, focusing on expanding Inventure’s portfolio in licensing, sponsored research, manufacturing, and engineering services. In this role, he utilized the company’s biodiesel platforms and nutraceutical expertise to evolve new partnerships and refine process efficiencies. Before that, as Engineering Manager (promoted in 2016), Ryan led more than thirty chemical engineers and chemists in projects ranging from process design to plant commissioning, culminating in the successful launch of Inventure’s first commercial-scale technology at a 10,000-ton-per-year capacity. He also established the Sponsored Research division, which facilitated additional innovation partnerships and growth opportunities. Ryan joined Inventure in 2015 as a Lead Project Engineer, where he was integral to the Mixed Supercritical Fluid (MSCF) platform’s deployment for nutraceutical production with Wilmar International—covering applications such as methyl esters, Vitamin E, and Sterol processing. Earlier in his career, he worked under a Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant with General Atomics and UOP to create low-value biofuels from algae and other sustainable sources. Subsequently, he joined Alchimia in Missouri, generating front-end loading documentation for an international renewable energy initiative within the U.S. biofuel sector. Ryan is a graduate of the University of Alabama, where he studied chemical and biological engineering as a Presidential Scholar.

Ms Chai’s career spans over 35  years, reflecting a unique combination of finance and investment banking advisory work with the executive responsibility of a major corporation. While working in the investment banking industry – largely based in Hong Kong with Schroders and Merrill Lynch – Ms. Chai was responsible for fund raising (equity and equity linked issues), IPOs, M&As, corporate restructuring and general advisory transactions for local and multinational corporations in a variety of industries in North and South East Asia. She also served as Finance Director of SCMP Group, a Hong Kong listed corporation which is one of the largest English language publishing and print media companies in the region.. Ms. Chai is a chartered accountant by profession with an honors degree in Finance from Sheffield University, England.

Mr. Leach was formerly non-executive Director of CLP Holding, the parent company of China Light & Power Co. Ltd, a position he held since December 1978. In addition, he was formerly independent non-executive Director of Hong Kong Aircraft Engineering Co. Ltd. and a Director of China Construction Bank Asia. Mr. Leach has spent most of his career in Hong Kong working on various appointments with the Kadoorie Family. During this time he was exposed to many privately held and public operations, with a later focus on the Kadoorie family’s associated publicly held corporations, including CLP Holdings, Hong Kong and Shanghai Hotels, and Tai Ping Carpets. Mr. Leach was closely involved from the inception of China Light and Power’s international operations in Thailand, India and Australasia. In the early 1980s, he ran a venture capital company which invested in oil field equipment manufacturing and construction materials. Mr. Leach holds an MBA from Columbia University and is a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales.

Mr. Loh is a key investor in a several businesses in Asia. Over a 20 year period he built an  oil field  equipment manufacturing and service business, initially in Singapore, and latterly worldwide. This company was merged into a US company and became a leader in its field.

Mr. Kuok had a career of over 23 years with the Kuok Group companies, and was involved in many diverse areas of businesses ranging from commodities, real estate, media (both television and print) to music production in various countries in the Singapore region. Since retiring from the Kuok Group, he has invested in various businesses and has an extensive network of contacts in China.

With over 25 years of experience in the clean technology sector, Mr. Tegen has co-founded and led multiple innovative companies. In 2007, he co-founded Inventure and served as CEO until 2018, assisting in developing patented process technologies like Mixed Supercritical Fluid. He later co-founded Socati Corp, a former cannabinoid biotechnology company and currently serves as Executive Director of Engineering at Cleen Technology, using chromatography technology for cannabis markets. Mr. Tegen has developed or co-developed over 50 global patent filings across multiple industries.