dr. paul A. willems

EBI Associate Director

As Technology Vice President for Energy Biosciences in BP, Dr. Paul Willems is responsible for integrating biotechnology into BP’s business activity. His duties include leading the development and execution of an integrated technology strategy which incorporates all of BP’s bio-related activity and which is fully integrated with BP's company-wide business strategies. Dr. Willems is also the Associate Director for the Energy Biosciences Institute, a 10 year research collaboration between the University of California at Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and BP. In this capacity he is responsible for providing strategic input into the Institute’s overall mission and research programs and for integrating the research results and capabilities of the Institute into BP’s business activities.

A chemical engineer, Dr. Willems has held a variety of technical, manufacturing and commercial leadership roles throughout his 20-year career. He previously served as Business Technology Manager for BP’s global PTA (purified terephthalic acid, a polyester raw material) business, and as technology vice president for acetyls and aromatics. In this capacity, he guided the development of BP’s next generation PTA technology. Dr. Willems has deep experience in the development, scale up and commercialization of manufacturing technologies for commodity chemicals. Dr. Willems earned a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Ghent in Belgium in 1986.