Nearly every oil or chemical refinery
of the conventional sort is comprised of
dozens, even hundreds, of technologies
from different entities. The purpose of
BECii is to accelerate the development of
bioRefineries™. As its founder, president
and chairman, Chrapko wasn’t content to
assemble just any slate of board directors,
either. One is Dr. Muzyka, DuPont’s new
Chief Science and Technology Officer.
Another is Alberta YPOer Marshall Sadd
and Dr. Vicky Sharpe, who heads up the
US$1.05 billion SDTC (www.SDTC.ca), a
clean tech grant-giving body. BECii enjoys
the support of the regional government of
Alberta, whose Ministry of Energy gave it
US$4.2 million to get off the ground, and the
government of Canada which matched this,
giving a total of US$8.4 million.
Besides philanthropy, Evan literally puts
his life on the line for his convictions. On
a recent solo sales trip for his for-profit
company Highmark (www.Highmark.ca),
he needed to travel within 95 miles of what
the American CIA has deemed the most
dangerous place on Earth. While there,
his life insurance company temporarily
suspended Chrapko’s coverage. He says that
Highmark’s current fund-raising drive might
suffer among some investors after they learn
that many of Highmark’s prospects are in
the Third World. Chrapko points out that
the right, smart investor will also know that
the waste-to-energy potential in the Third
World is one-hundred times bigger than in
the West.
Apart from being grateful for returning
home safely, the recent trip was not without
its hairy moments. To show courtesy to
his hosts, Chrapko traveled without the
customary security phalanx. He claims that
choice actually prevented a catastrophe. He
demurs talking about the details, preferring
to explain the bigger mission: “It would
break even the coldest capitalist heart to
see hospitals closed for lack of electricity
in a metropolis with double-digit millions
of people. A city which also has millions
of cattle and other farm animals within a
20 mile radius – all of whose waste is not
being harvested for its energy, just getting
flushed into the sea. You can see the lifechoking algae blooms on Google Earth. So
if you’re me and you own the world’s most
economical waste-to-energy technology, it
would be criminal to sit safely at home and
wait for opportunities to come knocking.
leave the world a better place
than it was before you came into it.
that doesn’t mean
you can’t do well
for yourself
along the way.
Thankfully, my wife and family are
deeply supportive of my travel all over the
Developing World, anxious, but supportive.”
Anticipating a big overseas expansion,
Chrapko and his wife, Irene, have their
young children learning Mandarin. The
family may move to Shanghai so that he
can manage Highmark’s expansion into
Asia (they recently incorporated a company
in Hong Kong), the Middle East and Africa
while co-CEO Shane focuses on North and
South America and Europe. To represent
them in Asia, the brothers have recently
hired the eldest son of YPO member, Warren
Spitz, Gregory, who is fluent in Mandarin,
Korean, Japanese and German! Spitz is
a past chair of YPO Upper Canada with
whom Evan co-day chaired (with YPOer
Yung Wu and WPOer Richard Ivey) the twoday, award winning ‘Respect Leadership’
event. Chrapko and Spitz have a legacy of
YPO firsts, such as the first YPO ]