Hosted by
Managing Director & Chief Science Advisor
Piper Jaffray
Doug Cameron is Managing Director & Chief Science Advisor at Piper Jaffray. His major responsibility is in building the firm's global franchise in renewable energy and clean technology.
Cameron joined Piper Jaffray in August, 2008 from Khosla Ventures in Menlo Park, Calif., one of the premier venture capital firms in clean technology investments. As chief scientific officer at Khosla Ventures, he led technical due diligence for many of the firm’s clean technology investments. He was on the board of directors of Gevo, LS9, Mascoma, Segetis, Lanzatech, Kior and Draths, and had senior management roles in several of these companies, serving as acting CEO of Gevo, LS9 and Segetis. He continues to serve on the Scientific Advisory Boards of Mascoma, Segetis and Draths.
Prior to Khosla Ventures, Cameron was chief scientist and director of biotechnology at Cargill, Inc. in Minnetonka, Minn., where he built and led Cargill’s corporate biotechnology research group. While at Cargill, Cameron worked closely with NatureWorks, Cargill’s bioplastics joint venture; helped form the industrial bio-products business unit; was principle investigator on a Department of Energy grant for the production of 3-hydroxypropionic acid, a precursor to acrylic acid, from renewable resources. He also spearheaded Cargill’s biotech activities in China.
Before moving to Cargill, Cameron was a professor of chemical engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, were he taught biochemical engineering and established a leading research laboratory in the areas of metabolic engineering and bioprocess technology. While at Wisconsin, he consulted for several leading companies, including Cargill, DuPont and Genencor, and was a guest professor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland. His research group did pioneering research on the production of biobased chemicals, including 1,3-propanediol and 3-hydroxypropionic acid.
Cameron graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with a Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in biomedical engineering. He earned a Ph.D. in biochemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, were he did research on the microbial production of fuels and chemicals and discovered a novel fermentation route to 1,2-propanediol. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), a Fellow of the Society of Industrial Microbiology (SIM) and a Fellow of the American Society for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He is on the editorial boards of Metabolic Engineering, Process Biochemistry and Biofuels, Bioproducts and Biorefining (Biofpr). He is a consulting professor of chemical engineering at Stanford University and adjunct professor of chemical and biological engineering at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Doug and his wife, Sally, live in Plymouth, Minnesota. They have four children, Jeffrey, Derek, Sarah and Michael.
