Jim Steele is the General Manager of the Lactic Solutions Product Group within Lallemand Biofuels & Distilled Spirits (LBDS).  Before joining LBDS in 2017, he was Professor of Food Fermentations at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for twenty-nine years.  Additionally, co-founded and was the Chief Executive Officer of Lactic Solutions Inc.  He has published more than 100 refereed research articles, 18 book chapters, and 2 books on industrial fermentations. He received his BS in Microbiology, MS in Food Science and PhD in Genetics from the University of Minnesota.