Meet the Team

KNOWLEDGE. OPERATIONAL SKILLS. MANAGEMENT STRENGTH.

Our team has the unique understanding and experience required to steer the course of such a distinctive enterprise – plant breeding, sivilculture, field applications, labour management, logistics and marketing. In addition to these essential skills, our team also employs the environmental, economic and social accountability best practices that will ensure that the goals and successes of these projects are met and rewarded.

  • David McClure

    President & CEO

    With an extensive history of entrepreneurial success, Mr. McClure has a proven and definitive ability to bring a business concept to fruition and make it profitable. As founder of Bedford Biofuels, he has worked around the clock to assemble the right assets and people to drive the company’s long-term success. As CEO, Mr. McClure brings a clear vision, strong leadership and humanity to Bedford Biofuels. His past experience includes running marketing for a successful real estate syndication company with multiple offices in North America and Southeast Asia. His attraction to Alberta in 2008 was oil, but recognizing the boom would be limited, he turned his efforts to “green” oil. The emerging biofuels market has room for some innovative, entrepreneurial re-thinking. A market with such great demand is an ideal place for Mr. McClure to assert his unique brand of entrepreneurism.

  • David Kombe

    VP Public Relations

    Educated in the UK, Kenya and Japan, Mr. Kombe has a broad range of international experience. He has worked in the public and private sectors for more than 20 years and is well-known throughout the country, specifically for his five-year term as a Member of Parliament for the Kenya National Assembly.

  • Joel Ruhu

    VP Human Resources, Kenya

    A highly qualified Range Management and Accounts Technician and Co-operator, Mr. Ruhu has held and served in various positions in Kenya and internationally. He is past President and Chair of the Pan African Body for the Credit Unions and Co-operatives in Africa. Educated and residing in Kenya and having served with the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development, Mr. Ruhu has a unique understanding of the culture in Kenya and a connection to its people.

  • Kevin Loman

    Business Development

    Kevin Loman, based in Kuala Lumpur, manages Bedford’s activity in Asia and the Middle East. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Economics focused on international trade, banking and world petroleum markets. In assessing means to mitigate Bedford’s risk, Kevin Loman crafted a blueprint to include Political Risk and Crop insurance as part of the company’s strategy. He engaged his personal insurance contacts internationally, with whom he worked successfully to have the policies underwritten, resulting in the first crop insurance in Jatropha history. He sits on the Board of Rose Collar Foundation and volunteers with his wife on the ground in foreign countries in furtherance of the foundation’s mission.

  • Dustin Mitchell

    Managing Director

    While pursuing a Bachelor of Economics, Mr. Mitchell started his entrepreneurial career in the construction, finance and biomass industries. He founded a new home construction company in Alberta focusing on green, environmentally friendly technologies. He became Vice President of the properties division for an international merchant bank and VP Sales and Marketing for a Western North American Sales and Marketing company in the biomass industry.

  • Aubrey (Bully) Dunn

    Agriculture Manager

    Mr. Dunn brings expertise from two Jatropha operations and an extensive history of agricultural management to the Bedford team in Kenya. Hailing from Zimbabwe, Mr. Dunn’s experience ranges from managing horticultural and plantation crops to raising cattle to running traceability systems from field to markets, pest thresholds and integrated pest management systems, crop nutrition and composting processes, preparing standard operating procedure manuals and bio diversity studies.

  • Harry Hayden-Payne

    Plantation Manager

    More than 25 years of commercial farming and agriculture experience bring Mr. Hayden-Payne to Bedford. He has managed several privately owned and corporate farms in Africa. He also ran his own tobacco farming business in Zimbabwe. Extensive experience in the growing of food crops and crops used in the biofuel industry give Mr. Hayden-Payne a competitive advantage.

  • Edgar Guy Conolly

    Nursery Manager

    Mr. Conolly has been responsible for establishing and managing ventures in Jatropha and tobacco and has been involved in agriculture for more than 20 years. He has managed a packing plant, run 500 head of cattle, laid the groundwork for a 1 ha greenhouse unit for rose production, has been in charge of a horticulture initiative, and has personally managed nearly 200 employees.

  • John Mitchell

    Project Manager – Kenya

    Mr. Mitchell has been based in Kenya since late 2010 to oversee the project in the Tana Delta. He previously worked as the GM Edmonton for Bedford. Mr. Mitchell has a passion for Kenya and is drawing on his diverse life experience to get the job done. His background includes construction, farming, sales, distribution and project management.

  • Chris Grant

    Director – Asia Pacific

    Mr. Grant has more than 15 years of experience as an executive in sales and finance in the Asia Pacific region. He has worked for banks in the region and most recently was the CEO (Asia Pacific) of an expat specialist health insurance company. He has worked both at a retail, institutional and government level in the last 10 years. He has working relationships with the bulk of IFA’s in the Asian Pacific region, as well as working relationships in Government.

  • Josh Smith, CA

    Controller

    Mr. Smith is a chartered accountant with a Bachelor of Management from the University of Lethbridge. He has provided many business owners with accounting, assurance, business and tax advice. He will provide stakeholders with relevant and reliable financial information that will aid in their understanding of the company. He will focus on the analysis of the company’s current financial position as well as evaluate its potential opportunities.

  • Professor Thomson Sinkala

    VP Research & Development

    Born and educated in Zambia, Professor Sinkala brings to Bedford Biofuels a wealth of experience in the development and production of biofuels. He has more than 25 years of experience as a mining engineer and Jatropha grower. His experience includes serving as Chairman for the Biofuels Association of Zambia and the Practitioners Network for Eastern and Southern Africa, as well as the Biomass Development Plc. He is Vice Chairman of the Sub-Committee of Jatropha in the Ministry of Science, Technology and Vocational Training. Professor Sinkala was instrumental in developing Zambia’s Biofuel Development industry and the Ten Action Points derived from the development framework. He has been called upon internationally as an expert speaker, team leader, technical advisor and contributor to major publications for the development of liquid biofuels.