Facet power Leadership team

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Ms. McCrae Kessler is President and Co-Founder of Facet Power snd developer of Facet Power's category defining Complete Climate Solutions Energy Ecosystems project design.   25 years of commercializing waste to energy technologies as an attorney, entrepreneur, emerging industry association & policy leader, and Chief Commercialization Officer gives Ms. McCrae Kessler unparalleled insight into how to optimize the environmental, economic, and social impact value of biomass waste at every touch point in the recycling and energy process.  Ms. McCrae Kessler's vision of Solving Climate Like a System charts the fastest path to 1.5C, works to ensure a Just Transition, and creates Climate Prosperity for people, planet, and businesses.

 Ms. McCrae Kessler is an international environmental law, environmental law, policy, sustainable development, and carbon markets expert with a talent for mitigating regulatory, adoption, and project development risk in emerging recycling, renewable energy, and climate technologies. She has a passion for maximizing the environmental, climate, social, and economic impact of every action. 

Ms. McCrae Kessler is also Founder and Director of the U.S. Biochar Coalition,      an industry association she created in 2023 to unify the voice of biochar, agriculture, forestry, climate tech, and carbon removal industry stakeholders in advocacy for and development of market, policy, and economic conditions to catalyze biochar industry growth. 

Prior to co-founding Facet, Ms. McCrae Kessler served as Chief Commercialization Officer at Pennsaco Technologies, a negative emissions thermal conversion company.  Ms. McCrae Kessler developed innovative circular business models and cross sector applications to convert organic, municipal and plastic wastes into renewable electricity, green hydrogen and biochar, and carbon removals.  sa negative emissions technology company, where she to create innovative circulate biomass waste solutions for carbon draw down, soil health and landscape restoration, food, water and climate security, and sustainable development in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Ms. McCrae Kessler was Founder and EVP, Head of Environmental & Regulatory Affairs of Turning Earth, LLC, a developer of integrated organics recycling facilities, recycling food waste to produce renewable energy, compost, and heat for greenhouses using dry high solids anaerobic digestion & in-vessel composting technology.  At Turning Earth she developed the business model; growth strategy; technology selection, patenting, and licensing; project development and risk mitigation strategy; and led successful project siting, permitting and community outreach initiatives for the Turning Earth Central Connecticut Organics Recycling Facility in Southington, CT.  

Ms. McCrae Kessler was a founding, 10-year, Member of the Board of Directors of the American Biogas Council, Ms. McCrae Kessler started, built and ran the Council’s Federal Policy Program for 12 years and helped grow the U.S. biogas industry from 20 companies in 2010 to 300+ representing a $68 Billion industry today.  She also Co-Chaired the AD Co-Products Working Group where she led a multi-year effort with industry, regulatory, and public entities to develop standards, testing protocols, and certification programs for digestate to highlight agronomic benefits and build economic value. ABC's Digestate Standard & Certification Program was published in 2016. 

Ms. McCrae Kessler practiced environmental and international environmental law at Arnold & Porter in New York and Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer in London, where she specialized in developing innovative permitting, risk mitigation, and regulatory strategies to support commercialization of novel waste recycling and bioenergy technologies.  She counseled the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and sovereign states on a broad range of environmental issues in the context of litigation, regulatory compliance, permitting and corporate, banking and real estate transactions. 

Ms. McCrae Kessler began her career at the Office of International Environmental Policy at the United States Environmental Protection Agency working on United Nations Sustainable Development policy.  

At the Center for International Environmental Law, she worked to strengthen human rights and environmental protection procedures at international multi-lateral development banks, assisting indigenous peoples internally displaced by large infrastructure projects in the Global South file grievances and seek reparations. 

Ms. McCrae Kessler is admitted to the Bar of the State of New York. She received her JD, summa cum laude, from American University Washington College of Law in 1998 where she was a senior staff member of The American University Law Review. She received her BA in Political Science from Vanderbilt University in 1992.  

Dr. Bertrand Hankoua is Vice President of Sustainable Agriculture Innovation and Co-Founder of Facet Power. He is a world leading expert in international agricultural development, biotechnology methodologies, and plant genetics, holding multiple patents for rapid cultivation techniques and deploying the first cassava genetically optimized for production under stress conditions in Africa.

              Dr. Hankoua is also President and Chief Operating Officer of Bioenergy and Agricultural Solutions, Inc (BEASI) where he works to commercialize bio-fuel and associated co-products technologies that mitigate climate change, enhance agricultural productivity, and improve human health in sub-Saharan Africa.

              Recently, BEASI, Inc initiated a renewable energy project in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources and Energy (MINEE), The United Nation Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), and The Climate Technology Centre & Network (CTCN) of the UNFCCC Technology Mechanism to strengthening the biofuel industry in Cameroon through the development of sweet potato and sweet sorghum value chains for bioethanol production. 

Dr. Hankoua has served as Principal Investigator on more than $28,000,000 in research grants from the National Science Foundation and the United States Department of Agriculture for developing and deploying renewable energy and climate-smart agriculture technologies.

              Dr. Hankoua’s international fellowships and awards include the Swiss Center for International Agriculture, the African Union, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETHZ), UNESCO’s Biotechnology Action Council, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, and Visiting Faculty by the US Department of Energy. 

              Dr. Hankoua has received a Joint-PhD in Environmental Science from the University of Ibadan, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland, and a Master of Business Administration in Finance, Leadership, Management, Business and Digital Analytics from the University of Illinois.