nwasianweekly.com
Feb. 9, 2008

Photo provided by Yale Wong

Yale Wong (right) with Zhang Guobao, vice chairman of China’s National Development Reform Committee.

Fueled by success

Yale Wong turns garbage into
profits

By Eleanor Lee
Northwest Asian Weekly

Yale Wong actually wants dirty, used vegetable oil. In fact, he’ll pay restaurants for it, 10 cents for every gallon.

The 40-year-old entrepreneur — who started an Internet service provider 14 years ago, when he didn’t know anything about the Internet other than it would be huge — has undertaken yet another venture at the cutting-edge of technology.

Wong, the co-founder and CEO of General Biodiesel, is turning used vegetable cooking oil into high-grade fuel. His company, using a patent-pending technology, cleans and recycles waste oils to produce fuel that can be used directly in any diesel-powered vehicle.

Wong said his newest company is not only a boon for the environment, it also creates jobs and reduces the need to import of foreign oil. “Everybody wins from a positive energy source,” he said.

He added that a further benefit of recycling waste cooking oil for fuel was taking dirty oil out of the food supply. “We’ve heard rumors that a lot of the used vegetable oil gets shipped back to China and gets reintroduced to the food supply for humans,” he said. “Also, waste vegetable oil goes into making more animal products, like dog food.”

Wong said waste should “never be consumed by animal or human,” referencing mad cow disease as a potential, worst-case consequence.

According to Wong, biodiesel made from waste oil differs from other alternative fuels that actually use more energy than they produce. “It takes 7 gallons of gasoline to make 6 gallons of ethanol,” he said.

In 2005, researchers at Cornell University and the University of California Berkeley found that ethanol production using corn grain required 29 percent more fossil energy than the energy ethanol fuel produced. Biodiesel production using soybeans required 27 percent more fossil energy than the biodiesel fuel produced.

Wong asserts that General Biodisel is much more energy efficient because they use “really bad oil” and are able to produce a high-quality fuel. “Most people have this perception that you can take high-quality oil, like soy or canola, and make high-quality biodiesel. We can take the worst, like feed stock, and make the best-quality biodiesel from it,” he said.

Wong recently returned from a trip to China, where he scouted potential partners and investors. Wong described China as one of the fastest growing economies in the world, a “wide open market,” but a place he would warn people about. He said, “It’s not easy for anyone to enter China. If you don’t know the right people, don’t have the right contacts, it’s very, very risky. You will lose a lot of money.”

Wong is fortunate enough to know the right people and have the right contacts. Former Gov. Gary Locke was an initial intermediary, and Wong has been to China with the trade missions of both King County and Washington, D.C.
Wong said he also had an advantage as a
Chinese American. “The Chinese people are leery about doing business with people in general, so it’s always about building trust,” he said. “I seem to gain a good rapport. … I don’t know what it is, if it’s the way they met me, or the way I was introduced through certain government organizations, or just basically having a good conversation with them, having a good read on me.”

Wong considers the ability to read a person well the most essential skill a businessman, especially an entrepreneur, can have. “Business is easy to do; reading someone is hard to do,” he said.

One of Wong’s plans for his venture into China is to create a jet fuel using biodiesel. He is partnering with a Chinese aerospace company and hopes to attract the attention of Boeing once he introduces biodiesel to the aerospace industry abroad.

Another of Wong’s plans is to take General Biodiesel public is less than a year and a half, making this the only company he has carried all the way from inception to public trade. Wong said about his history of creating hugely successful companies and selling them after a few years, “I’m one of those people who can wholeheartedly admit what I’m good at and what I’m not. And if there was a 100-yard dash, I’d say I’m the best 70-yard dasher. … I’m really good at building companies, and I’ll stay in it for 10 years, then I think someone else should take over.

“This might be the turning point in my life, with this company, because I might take it all the way through,” Wong added, citing his experience and maturity as reasons he anticipates staying with General Biodiesel for the long haul.

Of course, he might take all that experience and maturity and enter another field altogether. Wong said, “I’m not superstitious, but I met a fortuneteller in China who said I should go into politics. The funny thing is, I’ve been contemplating politics for a long time now … but I think I’m too black-and –white. … I won’t be gray. I think most politicians are gray, because they want to make both sides happy. But if (people) want someone really, really honest, I’m that guy.”

In the meantime, Wong exercises his influence in the business world and as a mentor to up-and-coming entrepreneurs, including Olympic gold-medalist, speed skater Apolo Ohno, an official spokesman for General Biodiesel.

Wong’s advice for all young people just beginning their careers is to fight the feeling of desperation. “When you’re desperate, you’re willing to take a lot of shortcuts. And that’s when you can get burned. And you can pay an extremely high price for that. Always walk a straight line,” Wong said.

If you own a restaurant and would like to sell your used vegetable oil to Yale Wong’s company, General Biodiesel, please call 206-777-3000.

Eleanor Lee can be reached at e.lee@nwasianweekly.com.

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