"Brent Erickson is executive vice president in charge of the Industrial and Environmental Section at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). BIO represents more than 1,200 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, and state biotechnology centers across the United States and in more than 30 other nations. Mr. Erickson holds a B.S. in Biology and an M.A. in International Studies. After completing his undergraduate degree, he was involved in fossil fuel research for three years at the U.S. 8 of Energy’s Laramie Energy Technology Center. After completing graduate school Mr. Erickson joined the staff of United States Senator Alan K. Simpson (R-WY) as a legislative assistant handling energy, public lands, and environmental issues. In 1993, Mr. Erickson was promoted to legislative director. In 1996, Mr. Erickson joined the American Petroleum Institute (API) as a Washington representative where he directed government relations efforts on energy and environmental issues. Mr. Erickson joined BIO in 2000 as director of the Industrial and Environmental Section. He was promoted to vice president in 2001 and executive vice president in 2005. In May of 2001, Mr. Erickson was elected as vice-chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Task Force on Biotechnology for Sustainable Industrial Development, a 30 he held until 2005. In 2005 he was named consulting editor of the journal Industrial Biotechnology. Since 2000 he has served as a member of the board of directors of the Western Research Institute, the not-for-profit arm of the University of Wyoming Research Corporation. He also serves as a member of the Tourism Montréal Advisory Board. In 2008 he was named to the advisory board of the Energy Biosciences Institute (EBI), a unique collaboration between the University of California, Berkeley, the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, the University of Illinois, and BP."