John Keppler Biography and Net Worth

John Keppler is a Co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Enviva, the world’s largest producer of sustainable wood pellets that provide energy companies around the globe with a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels. In this role, Mr. Keppler is responsible for leading the strategic direction of the company, recruiting a talented executive team and growing the business both in the United States and abroad. On a mission to displace coal, grow more trees and fight climate change, Mr. Keppler co-founded Enviva in 2004. 

Over the last 17 years, Mr. Keppler has exponentially grown Enviva from a start-up to a billion-dollar corporation through the development of the company’s ports and manufacturing facilities, as well as the acquisition of several facilities that have led to Enviva’s expansion across the U.S. Southeast. Enviva’s growing operational footprint in the U.S. Southeast now includes nine wood pellet production plants and five deep-water export terminals across Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Florida. To date, Enviva has an annual production capacity of 5.3 million metric tons of sustainable wood pellets a year and currently employs more than 1,000 people across the globe. 

Enviva exports sustainable wood pellets to global heat and power companies in the United Kingdom, the European Union, the Caribbean, South Korea and Japan. In addition to expanding its international customer base, Mr. Keppler successfully led Enviva Partners, LP (NYSE: EVA) to its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange in 2015, making it the first publicly traded company in the biomass industry.

Prior to founding Enviva, Mr. Keppler was a Director at AOL in the early 2000s. Since 2018, Mr. Keppler has been a board member for the Sustainable Biomass Program (SBP), a non-profit standard-setting organization that manages a voluntary certification system designed for woody biomass used in energy production. 

Mr. Keppler holds a Bachelor of Arts in political economy from the University of California, Berkeley, as well as a Master of Business Administration from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration at the University of Virginia. Mr. Keppler currently resides in Maryland with his family.