The saga of Osage Bio Energy’s cross-country odyssey to its headquarters in western Henrico County involves reams of scientific research, professional connections to Virginia Tech and state government, $300 million in private capital, and more agronomy and science than you can shake a test tube at.
But explaining just how the Southeast’s first major barley-based ethanol producer came to move its headquarters into Henrico’s Innsbrook office park is actually fairly simple: The CEO’s wife made the call.
“You can credit the headquarters completely to my wife,” says Craig Shealy, the youthful president and CEO of Osage Bio Energy, which he founded in 2007 along with ethanol innovator Earle Spruill.
The Shealys were living in Seattle, where Craig was developing private
equity, venture capital-backed businesses. “Earle Spruill and I had worked together in another business venture, and I invited him over to the house for dinner,” Shealy recalls. “And he showed up on my doorstep with a stack of research to say, ‘Hey — this is what you have to do next!’”
The next step in the energy business, Spruill argued, was to develop new ways of supplying ethanol to the fuel-thirsty East Coast market. As a 1970 Virginia Tech graduate, Spruill knew that many eastern cities, including Richmond, were under federal mandate to include ethanol in the gas mix to clean up the air. He also knew the profit potential is huge.
“Will you come and join me in this adventure?” Spruill asked his long-time friend.
Shealy had the connections to find a private equity partner, and the experience in building a management team that could make the barley-based company grow.
Spruill’s timing was perfect. Shealy already had been studying what he calls “the renewable space” — that is, environmentally friendly, renewable energy sources — and was eager to get into the business.
“That moment the founding partnership was born,” Shealy says.
Spruill already had set up an ethanol distribution company, Osage Inc., near Roanoke. Today, Osage Inc. is touted as the largest independent distributor of motor-fuel grade ethanol in the Southeast, moving more than 165 million gallons a year.
Shealy wanted to locate his headquarters for the planned ethanol-production company somewhere in the southeast, which is its target market.
Initially, the South Carolina native wanted to return home to Columbia, but after looking at houses there, Isabel Shealy ruled out living in the Palmetto State. She suggested checking out Virginia.
“We literally drove up to Richmond, and my wife looked around here and said, ‘This is a nice- looking place. Let’s live here.’” She was drawn to the Twin Hickory community near Innsbrook. “We live literally right around the corner in Twin Hickory, and so do a lot of our friends who helped get the company off the ground.”
With two young children, he said, “It felt like the place we could call home. It made sense to stay right here.”
As Shealy built his leadership team — now with 21 headquarters employees — he soon realized that locating in Henrico County is “a really big selling point.” He cited “the quality of the schools, the quality of life,” with plenty of places to shop and an easy commute to work. Most of his staff lives in Twin Hickory, Wyndham or other nearby neighborhoods.
