Jennifer Holmgren

CEO, LanzaTech

Dr. Jennifer Holmgren is CEO of revolutionary carbon recycling company, LanzaTech. Prior to joining LanzaTech, Dr. Holmgren was VP and General Manager of the Renewable Energy and Chemicals business unit at UOP LLC, a Honeywell Company. She was one of the key drivers of UOP’s leadership in low carbon aviation biofuels, and under her management, UOP technology became instrumental in producing nearly all of the initial fuels used by commercial airlines and the military for testing and certification of alternative aviation fuel. Today, under Dr. Holmgren’s guidance, LanzaTech is working towards developing a variety of platform chemicals and fuels, including the world’s first alternative jet fuel derived from industrial waste gases. Jennifer is also the Director and Chair of the LanzaJet Board of Directors. LanzaJet, Inc., is a new company that will produce sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) for a sector requiring climate friendly fuel options. Dr. Holmgren is the author or co-author of 50 US patents and more than 30 scientific publications and is a member of the National Academy of Engineering. In 2003, she was the first woman awarded the Malcolm E. Pruitt Award from the Council for Chemical Research (CCR). In 2010, she was the recipient of the Leadership Award from the Civil Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative (CAAFI) for her work in establishing the technical and commercial viability of sustainable aviation biofuels. In 2015 Dr. Holmgren and her team at LanzaTech were awarded the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Award and she was awarded the BIO Rosalind Franklin Award for Leadership in Industrial Biotechnology. Sustainability magazine, Salt, named Dr. Holmgren as the world’s most compassionate businesswoman in 2015. In October 2015, Dr. Holmgren was awarded the Outstanding Leader Award in Corporate Social Innovation from the YWCA Metropolitan Chicago. Dr. Holmgren was named as #1 of the 100 most influential leaders in the Bioeconomy in 2017 and received a Global Bioenergy Leadership Award in 2018 and the 2020 William C. Holmberg Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Advanced Bioeconomy by the Digest, the most widely read online bioeconomy journal. A TEDx Chicago speaker, Jennifer is also the 2018 recipient of the AIChE Fuels & Petrochemicals Division Award as well as the Biofuels Digest Global Bioenergy Leadership Award. In 2021 Jennifer received the Edison Achievement Award for making a significant and lasting contribution to the world of innovation.