In a filing with the Bermuda Stock Exchange, the board of directors of Veritas Group Limited announced the passing of director Philip Halbert “Hal” Neilson, an attorney and the company’s corporate compliance officer.

Mr Neilson, who was 63, was based in Mississippi where he was the Municipal Judge for the City of Oxford.

Last June, he was elected by his peers as president of the Mississippi Municipal Judges Association.

Veritas produces organic nano-fertilizer to increase food production, and the technology to convert bio waste to energy.

The group stands out with a growing world population that demands more food, but also produces more waste.

The company provides services for farmers to clear up agricultural residue, process the waste/residue and create income producing commodities: bio electricity; bio gas; terra preta soil; activated charcoal and carbon credits.

Judge Neilson had previously worked at the US Federal Bureau of Investigation for 23 years as a special agent and legal counsel, and upon retirement opened his own law office in Mississippi.

He was licensed to practice in the State of Mississippi, the Supreme Court of Mississippi, the United States District Court for Northern and Southern Mississippi, and the United States Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

The city judge for Oxford, he was a member of the Mississippi Bar Association, the Lafayette County Mississippi Bar, the Federal Bureau of Investigation Agents Association, the Society of Former Special Agents of the FBI, and the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association.

The Veritas statement said: “Hal was a lodestone for the directors and officers of the company. We could always look to him to calmly, lawyerly point the direction to ‘true north’.

“Hal’s vision for the company and its subsidiaries was always one of success: success for the shareholders (and) success for the customers and users of the company’s products and services.

“The company realises it will take time to replace such a stalwart team player.”