Kevin Moore joins Iowa State University as Chief Technology Officer for Biobased Products
Posted Feb 7, 2022
Kevin Moore has joined Iowa State University to serve as the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) for Biobased Products, part of the State of Iowa’s Biosciences-based economic growth initiative.
As CTO, Moore will serve as a conduit between research and industry. He will work closely with the Biobased Products platform lead, Brent Shanks, and Iowa State researchers – along with the BioConnect Iowa CEO and staff – to help identify promising emerging technologies and facilitate their development into commercial products.
“The CTO is vital to our efforts of growing a robust Biobased Products innovation ecosystem at Iowa State,” Shanks said. “Kevin has the technical expertise, the market knowledge and insight, and the collaboration skills to help Iowa State’s research teams partner with industry to identify and develop new innovations and technologies that meet market needs and drive economic growth for the state.”
Moore brings an impressive depth and breadth of industry experience to his new role as CTO for Iowa State’s Biobased Products platform and innovation ecosystem. From 2017 through 2021, Moore served first as vice president for the Advanced Separations Group then vice president for BioProcess Solutions for Trucent, Inc., a leader in industrial fluid separation technologies, services and chemistries. Prior to that, he served in a variety of capacities during his 27-year tenure with Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) Company, including vice president of BioProducts Operations, vice president of the BioProducts and Industrial Group, and vice president and then president of Renewable Chemicals. In his final capacity with ADM, Moore was responsible for oversight of the company’s offering of renewable performance chemicals – a $300 million per year line of drop-in replacement biobased chemicals including propylene glycol, refined glycerin and industrial and beverage alcohol.
Moore is enthusiastically embracing his new role at Iowa State. “Over the years I’ve been fortunate to have a broad range of industry leadership roles and experiences. I’m excited to leverage those previous experiences in an opportunity that lets me work with some really smart people at Iowa State,” he said.
“My intention is to be a catalyst,” Moore added. “In chemistry, a catalyst is an ingredient that helps reactions happen faster and with lower activation energy. I view my role here similarly: to be an enthusiastic advocate and champion for advancing the research teams I engage with – working to remove obstacles, partnering to secure funding and advancing new technologies to commercialization.”
Moore replaces Sundeep Vani, who served as the Biobased Products CTO before recently accepting a role that returned him to industry. Moore is one of three CTOs serving the overall Biosciences innovation ecosystem at Iowa State, joining colleagues, Nadilia Gomez and Michael Roof, CTOs for the Digital and Precision Agriculture and Vaccines and Immunotherapeutics platforms, respectively.
“We’re delighted to have all our Biosciences research and innovation platforms returned to full strength,” said Peter Dorhout, Vice President for Research at Iowa State. “Our CTOs – in tandem with our platform leads – bring the technical expertise, market sensibility and collaborative leadership needed to drive discovery, technology transfer and commercialization that sustains long-term success and economic growth for the state through the Biosciences.”