Russ: This is the Business Maker's Show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com. Continuing on with this topic of Mission New Energy I have the new advisory board with me right now. I have Roger Frizzell, V.P. of American Airlines. Roger, welcome to the Business Maker's Show.

Roger: Thank you. I'm glad to be here.

Russ: I have Major General Doug Pearson, retired United States Air Force. Welcome to the Business Maker's Show.

Doug: Thank you Russ.

Russ: I have a former, prior guest on the Business Maker's Show Brian Tippins with HP. Brian welcome back.

Brian: Happy to be back. Thank you.

Russ: You bet. Brian at the time we interviewed him before headed up HP's Diversity Program but now you've got incremental responsibility. Tell us about that.

Brian: Yeah. We've expanded what was our Small Business Supplier Diversity Program to incorporate some other horizontal procurement support functions including sustainability which is all about looking into the green procurement aspects of our supply base and ensure that our suppliers have socially ethical responsible practices and also supplier development, taking our best strategic suppliers and growing them to help grow their share of wallet and make them better suppliers to HP.

Russ: Cool. Sustainability, man, is the word these days.

Brian: I agree.

Russ: Is sustainability important at American Airlines?

Roger: It's definitely important. It's part of my job as well if not certainly as much as it is Brian's but part of my job is to deal with the environmental issues, to report what we're doing in the community to certainly work with our diversity supplier efforts in a number of other areas.

Russ: Okay. Well it's happening now, too. Major General Doug Pearson, tell us what you're doing these days now that - you seem to be very, very young to be retired. What are you doing with your time these days?

Doug: Well I'm spending a lot of time with Mission New Energy. I'm really enjoying it. When I found out what the company was all about and James asked me to chair this advisory board I jumped at the opportunity for two reasons. First of all, it gives me a chance to give back over my career in the military and industry. I've been a big user of energy and I've always been interested in finding better ways to use energy and alternate energy sources. Secondly, I just wanted to give something back to the community and this is an awesome way to do it and a green way and hopefully leave this place a little better for my grandchildren. So that's what I'm doing these days.

Russ: Okay, real cool. Now what is so unique about Mission New Energy and why we're here in Dallas, Texas today is sort of this diving headfirst into the whole aviation world and fueling airplanes. Now I understand you were a pilot in the Air Force, too?

Doug: That's right. I've actually been flying airplanes for 43 years or so, 34 of that in the Air Force and mostly flying high-performance fighters and as a test pilot I flew a lot of different airplanes and experimented with different engines and other things. Did a little bit of fuels work and other things. So this is kind of right down my alley. So I'm really looking forward to getting better products out there for all of our aviation industry.

Russ: Neat. It seems like if you were an experimental pilot and experimenting with other fuels I guess sometimes those experiments don't work out and you have a bad fuel?

Doug: That's true. You try to find those things out on the ground but sometimes you don't.

Russ: Right. There's no concern in your opinion for the bio-fuel created by this new, cool company?

Doug: Absolutely not. The product here and the processes we go through generates a product that goes into the machines equal in fact much better than a petroleum based fuel that we use today. I'm most currently a solo pilot today. I flew back from Florida last night in my own airplane. So I'm very excited about putting this product into my airplane and using it so that I create less emissions through the air and lower my fuel costs.

Russ: Okay, real cool. Now Roger, here you are with American Airlines and I assume that even the C level executives know that you're on the advisory board of Mission New Energy?

Roger: Absolutely. There was a lot of excitement actually because we need a green fuel product as well. We've made a number of announcements over the past couple of months moving into this space with other products and other opportunities but I think Jatropha has such a potential for us from a cost basis as well as a green fuel possibility and it just got clearance from the federal government in the last couple weeks. As a result we're full speed ahead and let's make this thing roll and put it into our manufacturer and plane process.

Russ: Well that's real neat. I certainly for one hope that it works. It would be real cool. Generally speaking, I'm a skeptic but you guys - in fact you guys sound sort of passionate about this. Brian - now your connection with sustainability at HP and this product seems to make sense but I know you have what I would call probably today two very busy jobs.

Brian: Definitely.

Russ: Why did you take on this mission as well?

Brian: That's a good question. I think it fits very well with those missions. It's not mutually exclusive at all. It's interesting on a few levels. I think it's a great business value proposition in sustainability. We like to talk about the problems out there and there's very few companies out there that are offering a good solution for reduction of carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions. So that's very compelling. As James I'm sure told you a great sustainability story in the way that the farming of this Jatropha seed that underlies a product creates jobs and creates wealth with Indian farmers. I think also very compelling is just the fact that there's an intersection between technology and sustainability that one of the reasons why Mission is so successful is because they have some great proprietary technology solutions that encourage the growing of this product. So that's also interesting to me. I had to be a part of it.

Russ: Now Doug, for you I don't know how you spend your days. I know how I want to spend mine when I'm retired but boy. You gave a real good endorsement when you were talking a second ago about feeling good about it but did you have to think twice about making a commitment that was going to take some time to do this?

Doug: Well I only had to do a little research on the company and the people involved. I got very excited about, one, the output, the product. The bio-fuels that Mission New Energy creates are a very useful product but what's really exciting about them is they change the price configuration equation for bio produced fuels and they lower it. That's what we need. We need green renewable products that lower costs, not raise them. Today we're paying premiums for virtually all bio-fuel. We need to change that and we need to make it a cost advantage to use and go green. Secondly, there's a very compelling argument with Mission New Energy on the business model they've created. They have created as James often reminds us is in India they have taken farmers who are basically unemployed and now they are extremely productive. That brings education. That brings health. That brings all the positive issues of society to communities that were otherwise struggling. So in and of itself that's very compelling.

Russ: I agree. I agree totally.

Doug: I told James early in the discussions that we had, "I'm a skeptic so I want to go see that." So within the next month I'm going to India and I'm going to traipse the fields and see how this is both produced and processed.

Russ: Really, really cool. Well Roger I couldn't help but think while Doug was talking about prices and the fact that this is a fuel that's actually less expensive than I think what the airlines pay today. Man, price fluctuations in your business are painful. I mean -

Roger: It's been extremely painful. We probably are paying more than $2 billion more this year alone than we paid for fuel last year and that kind of cost can't be passed onto the passengers. There's an unwillingness to pay a certain level. So as a result it makes you balance sheet pretty difficult.

Russ: When I watch it what's happening I just think, "My god, what's it like to be running an airline right now when all of a sudden the prices jump 15, 20 percent and you can't get together and collude with all the other guys but everybody kind of inches up and kind of inches down. But it's a tough, tough way to run a business.

Roger: Think about this. This is just a great factoid. For every penny that fuel increases it costs us $30 million a year. $30 million for every penny. So it's a pretty deep hole in our pockets sometimes.

Russ: So you need those farmers over there to get to growing this Jatropha ______ ______.

Roger: We're excited. This has potential for us in so many areas.

Russ: Right. Guys, well I really appreciate you sharing your interest in the company. I'm certainly going to pay attention and maybe try to circle back sometime and get an update. I'll - one day I can see myself actually filling up my vehicle at the pump and I can tell my son or my grandson would probably be more appropriate, "Hey I knew these guys when they did this." But thanks a lot.

Doug: You're very welcome.

Russ: This is the advisory board of Mission New Energy USA. This is the Business Maker's Show heard on the radio and seen online at TheBusinessMakers.com.