Management Team

D. Hunt Ramsbottom - Chief Executive Officer, President & Director
With over a quarter-century of experience acquiring and growing both publicly traded and privately held companies, Hunt Ramsbottom is CEO, President and Director of Rentech. Since joining Rentech in September 2005, Mr. Ramsbottom has leveraged his extensive business and management experience to focus on commercializing Rentech’s patented clean-fuel technologies. Over the course of his career, Mr. Ramsbottom acquired nearly 70 small to medium sized-companies with strong market potential, growing them into larger, more profitable ventures and strategically taking select private companies into the public realm. He joined Rentech from Circle Funding Group LLC, a buyout firm where, as Principal and Managing Director, he spent two years acquiring a range of companies in the distribution and manufacturing sectors. From 1998 to 2005, he was CEO and Chairman of the automotive repair venture M2 Automotive. Prior to that, he led Thompson PBE for seven years, taking the company public in 1995 and growing it into the largest supplier of paints and related supplies. He also previously served as President and CEO of Kellow Brown, a printer, packager and distributor for major computer hardware and software clients. Mr. Ramsbottom holds a Bachelor of Science degree from Plymouth State College.

Dan J. Cohrs - Chief Financial Officer & Executive Vice President
Since October 2008, Dan Cohrs has served as Chief Financial Officer and Executive Vice President of Rentech, and is responsible for all finance and accounting functions; mergers and acquisitions; corporate strategy; government affairs and external communications of the company. Mr. Cohrs brings more than two decades of experience in corporate finance, strategy and planning and mergers and acquisitions. Joining Rentech from the private investment and consulting firm Skycrest Ventures, LLC, Mr. Cohrs previously held senior positions in corporate strategy, development and finance in industry-leading companies such as Marriott, Northwest Airlines, GTE and Global Crossing, where he was Chief Financial Officer for five years. In those positions, Mr. Cohrs built and managed global financial and planning organizations, raised more than $25 billion of capital, and participated in some of the largest M&A transactions in the history of the telecommunications industry. Mr. Cohrs has been a strategy consultant with Marakon Associates, and a faculty member at Cornell University and Harvard University, teaching courses in corporate governance and finance. He earned a B.S. degree in engineering from Michigan State University, and M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in finance, economics, and public policy from Cornell University’s Johnson Graduate School of Management.

John H. Diesch - Senior Vice President of Operations
As Senior Vice President of Operations for Rentech, John Diesch is responsible for plant operations at Rentech Nitrogen Partners, L.P., Rentech’s Product Demonstration Unit in Colorado, and any other future synthetic fuels plants developed by the Company. Mr. Diesch was promoted in January 2008 from President of our fertilizer facility and Vice President of Operations for Rentech, positions he had held since April 2006. Joining Rentech after seven years as Managing Director of Royster-Clark Nitrogen, he previously served as Vice President and General Manager of Nitrogen Production and Distribution for IMC AgriBusiness. In 1991, he joined Vigoro Industries as Cincinnati Plant Manager after serving as Plant Manager, Production Manager and Process Engineer with Arcadian Corporation, Columbia Nitrogen Corp. and Monsanto Company. Mr. Diesch is a board member of the Gasification Technologies Council and previously held board seats at the Fertilizer Institute and with the Dubuque Area Chamber of Commerce, and was recently Management Chairman of the Board for the Dubuque Area Labor Management Council. Mr. Diesch is a graduate of the University of Minnesota and Bemidji State University, with degrees in Chemical Engineering and Environmental Studies.

Dr. Harold A. Wright - Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer
Dr. Harold Wright leverages deep experience in fuel technology development to serve as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Rentech. He joined the Company in 2005 after serving as Vice President of Technology for Eltron Research & Development, headquartered in Boulder, Colorado. This followed a 14-year tenure with ConocoPhillips where he worked in various capacities including Director of gas-to-liquids (GTL) research and development from 2004-05 and Director of synthesis gas development from 2000-04. In these roles, he was responsible for synthesis gas technology development; GTL commercial reactor design; directing GTL catalyst development; and product upgrading technology development. He oversaw all aspects of the company’s scale-up of GTL technology, which resulted in a 400 barrel per day demonstration plant in Ponca City, Oklahoma. With 24 U.S. Patents issued to his credit, he is also a registered patent agent and is authorized to practice patent law before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Dr. Wright received a B.S. in chemical engineering, cum laude, from the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from Purdue University.

Jeffrey R. Spain – Senior Vice President of Finance and Accounting
Jeffrey R. Spain joined Rentech in 2011 as Senior Vice President of Finance and Accounting. Mr. Spain’s experience spans over 20 years and includes investment banking and operations management and Chief Financial Officer roles of high growth companies. His past employers include Credit Suisse First Boston, Kimberly-Clark Corporation, LeadPoint, Inc. and eNutrition, Inc. Mr. Spain received his Masters of Business Administration from the Anderson Graduate School of Management at UCLA and earned his Bachelor’s degree in finance from Southern Methodist University.

Colin M. Morris - Senior Vice President and General Counsel
Colin Morris serves as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Rentech, which he joined in June 2006. He practiced corporate and securities law at the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins LLP from June 2004 to May 2006. Previously, Mr. Morris spent four years practicing corporate and securities law in the Silicon Valley office of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich and Rosati after completing similar work in the Silicon Valley office of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.

Joe Herold - Senior Vice President of Human Resources
Joe Herold joined Rentech in December, 2011 in the role of Senior Vice President of Human Resources. During the past 30 years, Mr. Herold has worked in the oil, chemical, aerospace and semiconductor industries, with leadership roles in operating sites, engineering design centers, sales & service offices and division & corporate headquarters. His experiences include leadership roles with Occidental Petroleum, AlliedSignal Aerospace, Robertshaw Controls and International Rectifier, where he held the position of VP, Global Human Resources. Mr. Herold has an extensive background in designing and implementing talent management and leadership development processes, organizational due diligence and integration of mergers & acquisitions, building effective employee engagement and labor relations partnerships and facilitating organization change. Mr. Herold is a graduate of Case Western Reserve University, an alumnus of the Human Resources Roundtable (HARRT) at UCLA’s Anderson School of Business and a member of the Advisory Board to the Master’s in Human Behavior program at USC. He also serves as a life skills trainer and mentor at Covenant House Los Angeles, and has served on the Training Advisory Board for Inroads LA.

John A. Ambrose - President, Rentech Nitrogen Partners, L.P.
John Ambrose is President of Rentech Nitrogen Partners, L.P.. Joining Rentech, Inc. in 2007, Mr. Ambrose has three decades of chemical manufacturing experience, including specialty and commodity chemical manufacturing, international responsibilities, Six Sigma, OSHA VPP, ISO9001, Responsible Care, and Environmental Management. He previously served as Plant Manager at Ferro Corporation’s New Jersey plasticizer production site from 2003-2007. Mr. Ambrose began his career with PPG Industries where he advanced through several manufacturing positions over the course of fourteen years, holding positions such as manufacturing manager and environmental compliance/remediation manager within the Optical Monomers business unit. He has also managed and expanded multiple worldwide plants for the company’s Precipitated Silica business unit. Mr. Ambrose is a graduate of the University of Michigan with a degree in Chemical Engineering. He is on the Board of Directors of The Fertilizer Institute and the Dubuque Area Labor-Management Council. He is also active in the Dubuque Rotary and the Galena, Illinois Chamber of Commerce.

Eric Darmstaedter – President, ClearFuels Technology Inc
Eric Darmstaedter, is President of ClearFuels, which is 95% owned by Rentech. Mr. Darmstaedter, founding member of ClearFuels, has 30 years of technical and commercial experience in the U.S. and Asian energy industries, including development of project companies, start-ups, strategic partnerships, joint ventures and execution of acquisitions, technology transfers and licensing agreements. Mr. Darmstaedter was formerly the Vice President of Business Development for various companies including HEI Power Corp International, Metcalf & Eddy and Research Cottrell. Mr. Darmstaedter holds a BS in Environmental Engineering from Cornell University. He serves on the Hawaii Angels Executive Board and the boards of Soane Energy, Nanopaper and Durafizz.

Julie Dawoodjee - Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications
Julie Dawoodjee brings over a decade of investor relations, communications and public reporting experience to her position of Vice President of Investor Relations and Communications at Rentech. Prior to joining Rentech in 2007, Ms. Dawoodjee served as Senior Manager, Financial and Operations Analysis and Investor Relations at Overhill Farms, a NYSE AMEX US-traded food manufacturer. She also previously held the position of Manager, Investor Relations and Financial Research for fiber optic telecommunications provider Global Crossing, a NYSE listed company. Prior to that, she worked at the Investment Banking firm of Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette (Credit Suisse First Boston) where she worked on IPO and M&A transactions. Ms. Dawoodjee graduated with honors from the University of Southern California, with a B.S. in business administration with concentration in finance and a minor in psychology. She is a member of the National Institute of Investor Relations (NIRI) and the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).

James McVaney - Vice President, Government Affairs and Aerospace Business Development
Jim McVaney joined Rentech in 2007 as Vice President of Government Affairs. He has more than 13 years of experience in advocating on behalf of industries and companies on energy interests, including those in the aviation, chemical, retail and agricultural sectors, and more than 17 years in political affairs. Prior to joining Rentech, Mr. McVaney served as Director of Government and Political Affairs for the Air Transport Association, the leading trade association for the U.S. airlines, where he headed their advocacy efforts on energy and environmental matters before Congress and the White House during what was the most difficult energy environment that the industry had faced. Before that, he served as Team Leader, Energy and Climate Policy and as chief lobbyist on those and other issues at the American Chemistry Council (ACC), the leading trade association for the U.S. chemical industry. Mr. McVaney came to ACC from the Food Marketing Institute were he led the supermarket industry’s energy advocacy efforts, including those related to electric power usage. Mr. McVaney began his career in Washington as a legislative aide in the U.S. House of Representatives. He holds a bachelors degree in politics from the University of Georgia.

Eileen Ney - Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer
Eileen Ney joined Rentech in 2009 as Vice President and Chief Accounting Officer. Ms. Ney brings 25 years of experience with publicly traded and privately held companies to Rentech in the areas of financial planning and forecasting, business integration, organization design, SEC reporting and Sarbanes-Oxley compliance. Over the course of her career, Ms. Ney has served as Vice President – Finance for Lantronix Inc., Controller for NexGen Inc., Director of Business Planning for Global Crossing, Director of Financial Reporting for Dole Packaged Foods, and Audit Manager for Nestlé USA. She has provided leadership to establish internal controls, financial policies, accounting procedures and financial system infrastructure at each company with whom she has been associated and has vast knowledge of SAP, Oracle and Hyperion software implementation. Ms. Ney received a B.S. in Business Administration from Oakland University and an MBA in Finance from University of Southern California.

Colin H. Campbell – Vice President, Business Development, Canada Region
Colin H. Campbell joined Rentech in 2011 as Vice President of Business Development for the Canada Region. Mr. Campbell brings with him over 20 years of experience in the oil and gas industry, the majority of which was spent with Royal Dutch Shell in Canada, the United Kingdom and the U.S. While at Shell, he supported, among other things, the successful project execution of Shell’s 100,000 barrels per day Oil Sands Mine and Upgrader expansion. Mr. Campbell is a candidate for an Executive Masters of Business of Administration from Royal Roads University. He received his Bachelor’s degree in Economics from Queens University.