DEL.ICIO.USUP CLOSE
CEO takes once-hyped ethanol company in new direction
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sunday, November 23, 2008
David Ames got rich in the cable modem business. Now the Alpharetta entrepreneur sees a new boom coming — energy.
Two years ago, Ames took over the top job at Xethanol, a cellulosic ethanol company. The company was reeling from an expose by short-selling investor Mark Cuban’s Sharesleuth.com, which said Xethanol overhyped its ability to make ethanol from materials other than old-fashioned corn. Under Ames, the renamed Global Energy Holdings has moved out of experimental ethanol — other than some efforts with orange rinds — and into the more established landfill gas energy business. The company was listed on the New York Stock Exchange last month under the ticker GNH.
Sean Drakes/Special
David Ames, a major player in the cable modem business, now focuses on energy and efficiency as CEO of Global Energy Holdings.
• Residence: North Atlanta
• Family: Wife, Cindy; daughter, Shauna
• Favorite vacation: Nantucket Island, Mass.
• Book recommendation: "Hot, Flat, and Crowded: Why We Need a Green Revolution -- and How it Can Renew America," by Thomas L. Friedman.
• What's on iPod: '60s and '70s music
• Hobbies: Antique cars
• Biggest indulgence: thegoodcompany.com
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Q: When did you get to Atlanta?
A: I arrived in 1992. I founded convergence.com, which was one of the founding companies in the cable modem industry. It was a Georgia startup company, and it was very successful. We sold it in 1999.
Q: How did you get into the energy sector?
A: I retired. I was investing, looking at the world and investing in alternative energy companies. One of the investments … was the company Xethanol. I went to the annual meeting and 2 1/2 weeks later, they asked me to come on the board.
Q: Was it because of Sharesleuth?
A: We were the poster child for Sharesleuth. [Cuban] was shorting the stock and making all kinds of accusations. I agreed to become CEO for $1 per year. The deal was that once I cleaned up the [then New York-based] company, I could bring it to Georgia.
Q: Did you clean house?
A: Yeah. I had to get rid of everybody. Still, what had happened is that the company had inherited many millions of dollars worth of research, done with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Department of Energy. Quite candidly, the whole idea of cellulosic ethanol is probably years off. That doesn’t mean there haven’t been breakthroughs. But very economical ethanol, it isn’t here yet.
Q: What about Brazil?
A: That’s sugar cane. They’re not growing a lot of sugar cane in the Southeast. The one thing that’s abundant here, and really my focus, is there’s a lot of biomass [wood waste, grasses, trash, etc.]. And my thought was, if you couldn’t make ethanol out of it, what can you do? That’s how I’ve re-engineered the company.
Q: What does Global Energy Holdings do now?
A: I focused on two businesses. One is taking the most abundant feedstock, which is waste. We take these landfill dumps and mine the methane out of them. We extract the high BTU gases out of them that go into the pipeline to make electricity. We have a unique way of taking the high BTU gas out, and of taking the bad stuff — the carbon dioxide — out. The CO2 can be used to make algae. Algae can be made into animal feed, food to help out the catfish industry. The pork industry has a real problem with the high food prices, too. You can make beta carotene out of it, get carbon credits. We can take these dumps and not only make energy but make good things out of them. … Another business is … a group of people working with different military and government facilities to make them more efficient.
Q: How big will alternative energy be?
A: I was a major player in the Internet and cable modem business. Honestly, I think this is bigger. It’s global. We’re talking about [hundreds of] billions in petroleum spending alone that leaves our country. We have to keep that money here. We have to keep jobs here and enhance the energy in our country. I was very interested to watch the lines at the gas station [in September after hurricanes Gustav and Ike]. I know the cause was the storm. Don’t be fooled, though. It will happen again. There’s no viable liquid alternative. … I think it would be great to see sugar cane grown in the Southeast, grow it and turn it into liquid fuel. One of the big things I want is to bring jobs to Georgia and the Southeast.
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