President, Environmental Specialties International, Inc. (ESI)

Mr. Held has 42+ years’ experience in the solid waste industry, with a particular focus on landfill gas and landfill gas to energy, beginning with direct participation for his MS degree in USEPA research on leachate and gas generation in the late 1970’s. Mr. Held provides consulting services to private solid waste clients and landfill gas to energy developers supporting new landfill gas to energy project feasibility, analysis, negotiation and implementation. He has been involved in all aspects of LFG - from LFG generation, LFG control for compliance, LFG recovery for beneficial use, and innovative technologies related to LFG. He has managed a portfolio of over 70 Landfill Gas to Energy projects, was responsible for the development and implementation of 15 new projects, and been directly involved in dozens more as a consultant. He also supports existing projects through compliance, operations and financial assistance. He actively participates in landfill gas to energy market and industry groups for supporting incentives, regulation and markets to advance the landfill gas to energy business.

Vice President, Environmental Specialties International, Inc. (ESI)

Jim Wiegand has more than twenty years of experience as a patent attorney, in boutique and international firms and as in-house counsel for start-ups.

In addition to infringement analysis, patentability opinions, portfolio analysis, patent harvesting, and right-to-use clearances, Mr. Wiegand has successfully written and prosecuted patents in a wide variety of technologies, including analog and digital circuitry, instrumentation, software, telecommunications, electronic device processing, and mechanical devices. Prior to his work as a patent attorney, Mr. Wiegand was a design engineer and an editor with Massachusetts Institute of Technology' Lincoln Laboratory Journal.

Mr. Wiegand is also of-counsel with a boutique intellectual property firm in Boston.