Prior to founding Bixby, Mr. Walker - a lifelong visionary and inventor - created the Sleep Number® Bed and founded the Select Comfort Corporation (NASDAQ: SCSS) together with his wife, JoAnn Walker. The nationally known manufacturer and specialty retailer has been in business for more than 20 years. In 2005, Select Comfort posted net sales of more than $700M and has been ranked the number one U.S. bedding retailer for six years in a row by Furniture Today.

Mr. Walker personally holds 27 patents. He has testified before the U.S. House of Representatives’ Agriculture Subcommittee on Department Operations, Oversight, Nutrition and Forestry, and the Minnesota State Senate Committee on Jobs, Energy and Community Development. He has written three niche sales books and has been a featured speaker and panelist at many alternative and renewable energy conferences, including the Third Annual BioCycle Conference on Renewable Energy from Organics Recycling; The Norwegian Research & Technology Forum; MNBIO; and Energy Alley Showcase Program Biotechnology and Energy: The Shift from Fossil Fuels to Plant Matter.

Mr. Walker previously started several successful companies including Dynatech, the air mattress design technology firm that preceded Select Comfort; Gateway Laboratories, a producer and distributor of all-natural skin care products, food supplements and cleaning products; Timmel Industries, a marketing company for newly invented products; Homes for America, a residential real estate sales and development firm; and Walker International, an international products distributor.

He received his associate’s degree in business from the North Dakota State College of Science, and is a registered member of the Native American Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.

During his career in corporate management, Baker privately developed technologies in the field of gasification in conjunction with fabrication companies. He created and built Bixby’s first carbon gasification and liquefaction prototype unit in his garage in 1996, and spent the next decade developing and improving what would eventually become the Bixby Process.

Before joining Bixby, Mr. Baker owned a successful consulting firm specializing in start-up and turn-around companies in the rubber and recycling industries. With expertise in operations management, manufacturing, business plan development and start-ups, he led the strategic direction of multi-million dollar manufacturing operations to optimize productivity and profitability.

Prior to establishing his consultancy, Mr. Baker was a senior executive at Michelin Tire Corporation where he was tasked with finding a way to properly dispose of old tires. More than 300 million tires end up in landfills each year; if broken down to their original elements, each tire would yield one gallon of diesel fuel and 12 lbs. of semi-activated carbon. The challenge of finding an environmentally sound method of disposing of old tires that would allow for the use of their remaining energy resources led him to explore the possibilities of gasification technologies.

Mr. Baker holds a B.S in Engineering from Clemson University in South Carolina.

Mr. Kinner previously served as chief financial officer and controller for Hitchcock Industries, Inc., a supplier of castings and related services for the aerospace industry; Wellman Dynamics, a manufacturer of castings for the aerospace industries; Pinnacle Food Group, a producer of diversified food products; Kenall Manufacturing, an independent lighting manufacturer; and DHL, an international express overland transport and air freight company.

Mr. Kinner holds a BA from Miami University and an MBA from Marquette University.