Jimmy Samartzis
CEO, LanzaJet
Jimmy Samartzis is the Chief Executive Officer of LanzaJet, Inc., a global leader in sustainable fuels technology and production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel from low-carbon, renewable, and waste-based sustainable sources.
Throughout his 25-year career, Jimmy has driven pioneering changes in companies and across industries and governments. He is a transformation-focused leader who has an innate ability to motivate teams, partners, funders, and governments to pursue, adopt, and execute on change efforts that enable economic growth, energy security, and national security. Jimmy’s relentless commitment to ensure there is focus on innovations to enable an improved future has enabled incredible progress in the global clean energy transition.
Since its inception as the founding CEO of LanzaJet, Jimmy is leading the company and the technology through commercialization and operational execution including in building the world’s first commercial ethanol-based Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) biorefinery. LanzaJet is supported by a world-class group of strategic investors including LanzaTech, Suncor Energy, Mitsui & Co., Shell Oil, and British Airways, along with financial participation from All Nippon Airways, Microsoft, Breakthrough Energy, and the US Department of Energy.
Jimmy’s leadership is enabling LanzaJet to develop projects in 25 countries representing five continents. LanzaJet is working with its strategic investors and with third party licensees on multiple projects across the globe, working its way towards a goal of 1B gallons of sustainable hydrocarbon production using LanzaJet’s ATJ technology by 2030. LanzaJet has announced projects in the US, UK, EU, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
While in the airline industry, his contributions led to pioneering test flights, the first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel refinery, and to a global industry agreement at the United Nations to enable a reduction in aviation emissions and adoption of low-carbon fuels. Additionally, he led a global coalition of stakeholders across the value chain to break down the barriers associated with the commercialization of sustainable fuels.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a global leader in high-energy particle physics. He is on the Board of Advisors of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). With his lifelong commitment to empowering youth, he supports his alma mater by serving on the Board of Trustees of Loyola Academy.
Jimmy previously served as chief executive of a multi-billion-dollar business unit at United Airlines with nearly 10,000 employees, as well as in various other senior executive functions at the airline. He has served as an executive advisor to clients globally through his work with top consultancies including Oliver Wyman, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Slalom. He served President William J. Clinton at The White House and his administration at the US Department of Labor, and worked in the Mayor’s Office for the City of Chicago.
He earned his M.B.A. from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and belonged to Pembroke College at Oxford, a M.A. from John Hopkins University, and an B.A. from the University of Chicago.
CEO, LanzaJet
Jimmy Samartzis is the Chief Executive Officer of LanzaJet, Inc., a global leader in sustainable fuels technology and production of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel from low-carbon, renewable, and waste-based sustainable sources.
Throughout his 25-year career, Jimmy has driven pioneering changes in companies and across industries and governments. He is a transformation-focused leader who has an innate ability to motivate teams, partners, funders, and governments to pursue, adopt, and execute on change efforts that enable economic growth, energy security, and national security. Jimmy’s relentless commitment to ensure there is focus on innovations to enable an improved future has enabled incredible progress in the global clean energy transition.
Since its inception as the founding CEO of LanzaJet, Jimmy is leading the company and the technology through commercialization and operational execution including in building the world’s first commercial ethanol-based Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) biorefinery. LanzaJet is supported by a world-class group of strategic investors including LanzaTech, Suncor Energy, Mitsui & Co., Shell Oil, and British Airways, along with financial participation from All Nippon Airways, Microsoft, Breakthrough Energy, and the US Department of Energy.
Jimmy’s leadership is enabling LanzaJet to develop projects in 25 countries representing five continents. LanzaJet is working with its strategic investors and with third party licensees on multiple projects across the globe, working its way towards a goal of 1B gallons of sustainable hydrocarbon production using LanzaJet’s ATJ technology by 2030. LanzaJet has announced projects in the US, UK, EU, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
While in the airline industry, his contributions led to pioneering test flights, the first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel refinery, and to a global industry agreement at the United Nations to enable a reduction in aviation emissions and adoption of low-carbon fuels. Additionally, he led a global coalition of stakeholders across the value chain to break down the barriers associated with the commercialization of sustainable fuels.
He currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a global leader in high-energy particle physics. He is on the Board of Advisors of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC). With his lifelong commitment to empowering youth, he supports his alma mater by serving on the Board of Trustees of Loyola Academy.
Jimmy previously served as chief executive of a multi-billion-dollar business unit at United Airlines with nearly 10,000 employees, as well as in various other senior executive functions at the airline. He has served as an executive advisor to clients globally through his work with top consultancies including Oliver Wyman, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Slalom. He served President William J. Clinton at The White House and his administration at the US Department of Labor, and worked in the Mayor’s Office for the City of Chicago.
He earned his M.B.A. from the Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and belonged to Pembroke College at Oxford, a M.A. from John Hopkins University, and an B.A. from the University of Chicago.