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 intensity, renewable, and waste-based sustainable sources. Throughout his 25-year career, Jimmy has driven pioneering changes in companies across industries and in government. 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 accelerated 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 development, commercialization, and operational execution including building the world’s first commercial demonstration ethanol-based Alcohol-to-Jet (ATJ) biorefinery. LanzaJet is supported by a world-class group of strategic investors including Airbus, British Airways, Groupe ADP, LanzaTech, Microsoft, Mitsui & Co., MUFG, Shell Oil, Southwest Airlines, and Suncor Energy, along with financial participation from All Nippon Airways, Breakthrough Energy, the US Department of Energy, and the UK Department for Transport.
Jimmy’s leadership is enabling LanzaJet to develop opportunities in more than 25 countries representing five continents. LanzaJet is collaborating 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. LanzaJet has announced projects in the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, India, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. Recognized for its impact and innovation, LanzaJet has been named to the TIME100 Most Influential Companies list, the FORTUNE Most Innovative Companies list, the MIT Technology Review’s 15 Climate Tech Companies to Watch list, and as the S&P Global Rising Star Company among other accolades.
While in the airline industry, his contributions enabled pioneering test flights on sustainable fuels, the first commercial-scale sustainable aviation fuel refinery, and a global industry agreement to catalyze a reduction in aviation emissions and adoption of low-carbon intensity fuels presented to and approved at the United Nations. 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 Advisors of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and previously on the Board of Directors for the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, a global leader in high-energy particle physics. With his lifelong commitment to empowering youth, he supports his alma mater by serving on the Board of Trustees of Loyola Academy and several other nonprofit organizations. 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 the President of the United States at The White House and 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, an M.A. from John Hopkins University, and a B.A. from the University of Chicago.