Leveen Biography

Mr. Leveen obtained his BS Eng Chem in 1973, his MBA in finance and strategy in 1975 and MSChE in 1977.  He was a Monsanto fellow for his graduate studies.
 

He worked from 1977 till 1982 at Air Products and Chemicals and was responsible for design and economic evaluation of LNG base-load heat exchangers and other natural gas consuming facilities such as Hydrogen/Carbon Monoxide. 

In 1982 he joined Air Liquide to lead their tonnage gas business as well as their merchant industrial gas business in the US.  He managed the contracting and purchase of electric power and natural gas that exceeded $100 million per year.  After attending an executive development program at INSEAD, Air Liquide appointed him as VP of Group Strategic Planning in their Paris France headquarters.  Mr. Leveen was one of five senior executives who executed the successful acquisition of Big Three Industries (NYSE)by Air Liquide for over one billion dollars in 1986. 

 

In 1988 Mr. Leveen left Air Liquide and formed ITZ A GAZ to develop products and to consult to high technology industries.  For over a decade he consulted to clients such as Intel, HP, IBM, and various Asian microelectronics companies and was the project manager of over $8 billion of capital projects executed worldwide. 

In 1997 and for approximately a year Mr. Leveen consulted full time to Duke - Louis Dreyfus on power generation and distribution in the deregulated power generation market that was emerging in the USA.  This company was a joint venture between Duke Power the large US electric utility and Louis Dreyfus the large global commodities trader.  His work related to a strategic plan that was successfully executed.

In 1998 Bechtel invited him to run the global business unit for the global design and construction of microelectronic facilities.  In 2000 Bechtel appointed him as their officer in a JV with Siemens and American Electric Power to be the executive to develop business around independent power generation and power quality and reliability systems.  He left Bechtel in 2004.

 

From 1997 till 2004, Mr. Leveen also acted as the lead expert witness for Lloyds of London in the half billion dollar insurance claim for a fire in a Taiwanese chip fabrication facility.  Mr. Leveen adjusted the claim for Lloyds and led the settlement negotiations for a sum well below the actual loss with the owner.   He then led the subrogation effort to recover the insurance payout.  These efforts were successful and gained the award of significant sums in arbitration.

From 2005 till June of 2011 Mr. Leveen was employed by Genentech, now a member of the Roche Group, where he performed strategic planning and drug product development for this world renowned company.  He has published numerous articles on novel methods for the manufacture of monoclonal antibodies and therapeutic proteins.  In June 2011 Mr. Leveen retired from Genentech but continues to consult to Genentech in the area of strategic planning.

On September 15^th 2011 the Northern California Chapter of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE) gave Mr. Leveen their Professional Development award for his lifetime of work in the field of chemical engineering.  This award is normally given to a distinguished academic at the University of California Berkeley or Stanford.  Below is the announcement of the award from the Norcal Chapter of the AIChE:

“Abstract:  The lecture tonight during this award ceremony for Mr. Lindsay Leveen’s Professional Development will cover the topic of how Chemical Engineers need to be cabinetmakers and make fine furniture out of wood.  This is a metaphor for his body of work where he helped the companies he worked for increase value of  their inputs and yield enormously valuable and highly profitable products such as biological medicines, microprocessors, and specialty and industrial gases. 

About the speakers:  With almost 40 years of experience in chemical engineering and executive management in high value added process industries such as pharmaceuticals, microelectronics, and specialty chemicals, Mr. Lindsay Leveen brings much wisdom to organizations that are in the business of extracting value out of processes that transform chemicals, energy, labor, and capital into products that society needs and consumers will buy.

His knowledge of energy systems is broad and began with his graduate work in Thermodynamics and the publication of his thesis on the direct integration of the Gibbs Duhem equation in the Oxford University Press.  He continued to apply his education of chemical engineering and finance through many years of work.  He was an expert witness in perhaps the largest insurance claim for property loss in a semiconductor fabrication facility.  He has consulted and worked in the areas of energy deregulation, alternative energy generation, traditional energy generation, power transmission and distribution, power quality and reliability systems, and on hydrogen and sustainability 

Lindsay received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and an MBA from University of Witwatersrand, S. Africa and a M.S. in Chemical Engineering from Iowa State.  His book on the hope and hype of hydrogen is translated into Japanese and is used in Japan as a university text for students of energy policy and sustainability.  Lindsay has given outside expert testimony to the US Senate on advanced batteries and fuel cells.  He also has given keynote addresses at numerous conferences on sustainability.  Lindsay blogs each week on energy and sustainability at www.greenexplored.com where he is called “Lindsay Leveen The Green Machine”.   He has lectured at UC Berkeley, Stanford and many other leading universities on numerous occasions.   He has worked with the think tanks in the Bay Area such as CIFE, SRI International and EPRI.  Lindsay says he is fortunate to have studied chemical engineering and to have applied this wonderful profession to enterprises that exemplify what we can achieve.”