Cobalt Biofuels Names Dr. Rick Wilson CEO

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MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. October 29, 2008: Cobalt Biofuels, which last week completed a $25 million equity financing, announced today that Dr. Rick Wilson has been appointed to the position of Chief Executive Officer. Dr. Wilson comes to the company with over twenty years of global energy commercial and technology experience, recently including Vice President of British Petroleum’s Global Derivatives Chemicals business unit.

“Dr. Wilson’s background in process engineering and broad executive experience in the fuels and chemical industries make him an excellent choice to lead the commercialization of our technology,” said Dr. Pamela Contag, founder and former CEO of Cobalt Biofuels. “With the recent completion of our $25 million equity financing and the appointment of Dr. Wilson we are in a great position to move our technology into the marketplace.”

“Cobalt has developed breakthrough technology for producing biobutanol. The technology will change existing butanol production through cost advantages, and dramatically improve the economics and emissions performance of butanol for gasoline production,” said Dr. Wilson. “The development of renewable fuels and chemicals is vital to energy security and sustainable economic growth, and biobutanol will play a major role in this development. Pam Contag has put Cobalt in a great position to be a leader in the industry, and I look forward to her continuing role in the development of the company.”

Dr. Richard Wilson received a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business and a PhD in Chemical Engineering from Lehigh University, where he focused on energy efficiency. During his seventeen years at BP/Amoco, Dr. Wilson held a variety of technical, trading and executive positions and was also responsible for BP’s $3.5 billion petrochemical business, ultimately spun out as Ineos. Dr. Wilson has also served as a Senior Advisor to the CEO of Codexis, where he led the development of a business strategy for enzyme development technology in connection with a joint venture with Shell.

Dr. Pamela Contag, prior to founding Cobalt Biofuels, founded Xenogen Corporation in 1995 and served as President and concurrently as CEO of Xenogen Biosciences. Xenogen Corporation went public in 2004 and successfully merged with CaliperLS in 2006. With more than 25 years of microbiology research experience, Contag is widely published in the field of non-invasive molecular and cellular imaging. She received her Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Minnesota Medical School in 1989 and completed her postdoctoral training at Stanford University School of Medicine. Under her leadership, Xenogen received multiple “R&D 100” awards in physics, honored with the Fortune “Top 25 Young Businesses” award and named one of the 100 fastest growing companies by the San Francisco Times. Dr. Contag was also named as one of the "Top 25 Women in Small Business" by Fortune magazine in 2001.