Brent Erickson
Industrial and Environmental Executive Vice President
Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO)
Brent Erickson is executive vice president in charge of the Industrial and Environmental Section at the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO). BIO represents more than 1,100 biotechnology companies, academic institutions, state biotechnology centers and related organizations across the United States and 31 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. Department of Energy’s Laramie Energy Technology Center.
After completing graduate school Mr. Erickson joined the staff of U.S. Sen. Alan K. Simpson (R-Wyo.) as a legislative assistant handling energy, public lands, environment, defense and arms control issues. In 1993, Mr. Erickson became legislative director and managed all legislative and policy issues for the Senator, who was then the Senate Republican Whip.
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. He was chosen to chair a Senate task force of the multi-industry Air Quality Standards Coalition. While at API he earned three special achievement awards.
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 vice-chair of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Task Force on Biotechnology for Sustainable Industrial Development, a position he held until 2005. In September 2001, he was selected to be a member of a Senate Agriculture Committee advisory group charged with developing renewable energy proposals, which were ultimately included in the final 2002 farm bill legislation. He headed up the Bioenergy/Agriculture Working Group of the Energy Future Coalition, an advocacy coalition funded by the United Nations Foundation, and he continues to be active in the coalition. 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.