Bill Grieco
William (Bill) Grieco is appointed chief executive officer (CEO) of AIChE’s RAPID (Rapid Advancement in Process Intensification Deployment) Manufacturing Institute, replacing the interim CEO, Thomas Walsh. Grieco officially assumed his role on August 1. In his new leadership role, Grieco is responsible for all of RAPID’s operations, including research and development (R&D) activities, corporate governance and compliance, according to June Wispelwey, AIChE’s executive director.
Outlining Grieco’s extensive corporate experience, Wispelwey highlighted his former role as vice president of energy and environment at Southern Research, a nonprofit research institute based in Alabama, where he defined and implemented strategies to transform the business from one serving only the fossil energy sector to a boutique innovation testing, development, and consulting organization focused on reducing the environmental footprint of energy generation and chemicals production.
Prior to joining Southern Research, Grieco spent five years leading innovation and technology for Owens Corning, where he built a Front End of Innovation team and led R&D for the $3 billion Building Materials Group. He was reportedly also instrumental in winning $13 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) SunShot program to develop and commercialize a building integrated solar photovoltaic roofing shingle for residential use.
Earlier in his career, Grieco served as managing director and CTO of Gardenia Ventures, an innovation commercialization and consulting firm, where he managed investment due diligence, technology strategy development and opportunity search and selection efforts for clients ranging from private equity investors to new ventures to F500 firms. His other senior-level innovation roles focused on process development across multiple industries including the biofuels startup PetroAlgae, where he and his team built the first-of-a-kind intensive biomass production process to grow and convert aquatic plants to purified proteins and energy feedstocks. For the biopharmaceutical firm Alkermes, he spearheaded development and commercialization of the VIVITROL and RISPERDAL CONSTA product lines. Grieco began his career at the Rohm and Haas Company, now part of DowDuPont.
Grieco serves on the external advisory boards for Florida Solar Energy Center and the Georgia Tech Energy Policy Innovation Center. He has been a member of AIChE for 25 years, and chaired the Nanoscale Science and Engineering Forum in the mid-2000s. He earned a PhD and Master’s degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Bachelor’s degree from Georgia Institute of Technology — all in chemical engineering.
For more information, visit: www.aiche.org/RAPID
