"The other Dr. Lyons" is how Dr. Mark Lyons was introduced at the 2008 Alltech Symposium by his father, Dr. Pearse Lyons, founder and president of Alltech. It might be daunting for some to have to follow in the footsteps of an innovative and passionate entrepreneur such as Dr. Pearse Lyons. Mark Lyons, though, has embraced his legacy as the other Dr. Lyons, and has taken up the challenge of working with his father and the Alltech team to create what they are calling "The Greenest Generation."
Mark Lyons chatted with Business Lexington agriculture columnist, Kara Keeton. Here are the highlights. Click on the podcast below to hear the entire interview.
KK: Mark, you are son of Dr. Lyons, the founder of Alltech. Tell me about growing up in Kentucky and watching your dad develop a company that has grown to the size of Alltech.
ML: It was a very interesting upbringing. I joke that we spent our time growing up in ethanol plants and feedlots, but it is certainly the case. He was somebody who was extremely dedicated and had an extremely strong woman behind him.
One of the things I learned early on was the best way to see him was to go with him, and that is why probably I've had a bit of a nomadic lifestyle myself, traveling around the world. ...
I think we were able to have that closeness because perhaps there was an expectation or an understanding of the situation, and the understanding that the reason he started this company was for his family.
KK: Now you have not just fallen into a role in this company, you have worked up to a point into the company.
ML: We have joked about the first book, A Step Toward Energy Independence, the joke there being that my sister and I put the stickers on the book, and if you notice, there is a rectangular sticker and a round sticker. My sister being the elder and the brighter was in charge of putting the rectangular sticker on because that had to go on perfectly, whereas, the round sticker, wherever it went would pretty much be fine. That was my job.
So from there, it did progress a bit. Every spring break or summer break, I was always somehow involved, whether it was working in the lab, planting flowers, or putting the roof on the Lyons Den on the farm. So I did a number of things like that, always getting a different feel. Essentially I've worked in every department.
When I finished with my master's, essentially there was a decision: Would I come here or would I take on a different role? We made the decision that if I didn't understand the fundamentals of the business, then it would be very difficult for me to one day run the business. That is why we made the decision that I would go to Mexico. We had a plant that was just opening up, and I was able to work in that plant initially more on a process optimization level and then on to managerial responsibility for that facility.
I stayed in Mexico for about three and a half years, and then I took on a different role, which essentially encompassed a bit of our activities in Europe, a plant we bought in Serbia, and also the new project to build a very, very large yeast plant in Brazil.
KK: Now the next big project you will be overseeing is right here in Kentucky: the biorefinery project in Springfield.
ML: Yes, again it goes back to a concept that we, when we were working in the alcohol industry, brought to our customers. We said to our customers, "You can add value to your products." You have to engage with the animal feed industry because if not, you will end up in a natural conflict, which is what simply is happening today.
It fundamentally comes down to the fact that one of the biggest customers of the ethanol industry is the animal feed industry, but the two don't link up; they don't have a dialogue. Our idea had always been to take the outputs of the plant and really create products the animal feed industry could build their industry on. That is the basis of the biorefinery.
Because of the experience we have with solid state fermentation, which is the basis of the plant I ran in Mexico and the basis of my Ph.D. work, we have the technology to add the cellulose to ethanol. Then phase two would include the work we are planning to do with customers, adding the dairy aspect and pulling in the algae aspect.
KK: Tell me a little more about the algae aspect.
ML: That is really a little more for our younger group coming through in the company. We are very, very excited about. We feel that we are on the cutting edge of this technology. There are not that many groups working on it, and I don't think there are that many groups with the flexibility and ability Alltech has. We are essentially going to focus on the algae that can utilize the CO2 as a raw material; we can capture the CO2 that comes off the ethanol and SSF plants. All that CO2 can be transferred into this algae system, which can be used to grow the algae and then produce oxygen, which makes the whole facility carbon neutral, while at the same time producing all this energy, which is an exciting concept.
KK: You gave a talk at Symposium about the Greenest Generation, our generation, those in their 20s and 30s, and the responsibilities that we have in business and to the community and the world. Can you touch on that and tell me why that is important to you?
ML: I think it was quite instilled in my experience at the Lexington School and in my family - the quote, "to whom much is given, much is expected."
Dr. Dawson and the other Dr. Lyons, they are incredible people with incredible young minds, but they couldn't really get up there to say we are the greenest generation. It was really up to me to take that gauntlet.
I guess what it comes down to is there are a lot of ideas I have worked on my whole life, and my friends too. This has always been close to me and it is great to see that the company has gotten to a size to have an impact of this nature, to take some ideas and concepts being discussed in the media and the industry and make some sense of it, some business sense. Let's not leave this up to incentives; let's look at what is really the most efficient and incorporate cost of pollution into our calculations when we are looking at the cost of energy. When we do that, we are really looking at the opportunities that are there, and what the opportunities will be in the future.
KK: In Kentucky, though, Alltech is seen as a feed supplement company.
ML: Essentially we are an animal health company, and that is our bread and butter. The energy aspect is something that I don't think we would have gotten into unless we have something unique to present. That is really the case in everything we do. If someone comes in and has the same products as us, then our products aren't good enough. We are always looking for that next level of the value added.
I think with this scenario, with the fact that we understand the ethanol and the animal feed industry, we are uniquely positioned and that has been recognized by the DOE.
Will we have this huge energy arm? It not sure, but for now, the idea is to prove that this (the biorefinery) works.
KK: Speaking of the Department of Energy, Alltech just receive a grant from the DOE for the biorefinery plant in Springfield, correct?
ML: We received a grant for $30 million, and now we are going to go through the process of working this through with the DOE. We also got some support from the state to the tune of $8 million. I think that is a great endorsement for all the work my father and his team have done to build this company up over the years.
KK: Where do you see your future as Alltech continues to grow?
ML: I think the nature of the business, as well as the nature of the founder and president of the company, is to be involved in all aspects of the business and understand all aspects. He (Dr. Lyons, Sr.) is never too far from anyone, and he knows everybody, and I am pretty much the same in that aspect. It is probably the one thing I enjoy the most - that is, interacting with other people in the company.