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In 1936, Charlie Vignieri began his life long career in the meat packing industry. At age 12, he worked for his father at the family’s butcher shop in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The family shop grew and became known as Kenosha Packing Company. Following his father’s death in 1960, Charlie took over as president of Kenosha Meat Packing Company. As operations expanded overseas, the company eventually became Kenosha Beef International (KBI). For nearly fifty-years, Charlie’s leadership and vision have guided the company
through key business decisions and helped position KBI as one of the top ten portion providers for the quick serve restaurant industry. Charles Vignieri was deeply interested in biodiesel and recognized that the byproducts of KBI’s meat industry was a feedstock that could be synthesized into biodiesel with the potential to lower the cost of biodiesel production to be competitive with hydrocarbon fuel. It was this pioneering spirit that drove the development of the Biosource Fuels technology, even when crude oil was valued at less than $20 per barrel and without the current economic incentives. KBI assembled a team of professional engineers and management staff, led by Mike Marquardt, who have brought this vision to reality and positioned Biosource Fuels as one of the premier biodiesel production technology companies in the world. Nova acquired the assets of Biosource Fuels in early 2006. | 