OUR MANAGEMENT
Mohammed Khan
CEO
Prof. David Fairen-Jimenez
Founder, President and CSO
Owen Garrigan
CTO
OUR BOARD MEMBERS
Mohammed Khan
CEO
Prof. David Fairen-Jimenez
Founder, President and CSO
Jogchum Brinksma
Chairman
Ate Visser
Director
Alan E. Nelson
Director
Belén Linares
Director
Chevron Technology Ventures
Observer
Peter Robson
Observer
Gregory M. Wilson
Observer
THE SCIENCE TEAM
Dr Robin Babu
Senior Scientist
Dr Ceren Camur
Lead Scientist
Dr Lik Hong Wee
Research Manager
Dr Gerard Boix
Research Associate
Dr Naveen Kumar
Synthetic Chemist
Dr Ram R. R. Prasad
Synthetic Chemist
Dr Ying Xiong
Characterisation Scientist
Christie Burton
Lab Technician
Valdis Suharevs
Lab Technician
Simon Woor
Lab Technician
Daniel Oakes
Lead Scientist
THE ENGINEERING TEAM
Dr Aurelia Li
Computational Scientist
Ailsa Morrison
Process Design engineer
Dr Mohamed Abdelraouf
System and process engineer
Dr Amir Farmahini
Process systems engineering team lead
Nikos Stephanopoulos
Senior Process Engineer
Dr Amin Koochaki
Process engineer
Dr Hesam Maleki
Senior Process Engineer
Matthew Langley
Senior Process Engineer
Rory Hayes
Lead Process Engineer
Tom Baggott
Senior Process Engineer
Anthony Ortega
Process Engineer
Yangyangbing Liao
Process Engineer
Operations
Giorgos Karaglanis
Operations Manager
The commercial team
Charu Sharma
Business Development Associate
Robin Gillham
Business Development Manager
Daniel Swallow
Business Development Manager
The Project management team
Anna Markov
Project Manager
Jialin Tang
Project Manager
IP
Nigel Roberts
IP DIRECTOR
HR
Denise Durkin
HR Manager
Finance
Peter Logsdon
Finance DIRECTOR
OUR ADVISORS
Neil MacDougall
Ex-Chair of Silver fleet Capital and BVCA
Board Member of UKBAA
Board Member of UKBAA
Andrew Milnes
Ex BP Executive
Commodity Specialist
Non Exec Director
Venture Investor
Commodity Specialist
Non Exec Director
Venture Investor
Michael Pambianchi
Ex Corning executive
Breakthrough ENERGY FELLOW
Breakthrough ENERGY FELLOW
John Walker
Ex Board Member Johnson Matthey
FTSE 100 Board member
Ex-CEO Clean Air
FTSE 100 Board member
Ex-CEO Clean Air
Mohammed Khan
CEO
Mohammed is a seasoned executive with a proven track record of transforming and growing a range of businesses from energy, chemicals, specialities, life sciences, water and other industrial markets. Common themes spanning a career over 27 years include technology commercialisation, creating enterprise value, customer intimacy and partnerships, full M&A cycle including joint ventures experience. Mohammed has operated in most industrial geographies across the world and brings significant customer insight and business leadership experience to Immaterial with a career spanning across Johnson Matthey, BP and a number of SMEs.
Prof. David Fairen-Jimenez
Founder, President and CSO
David is a co-founder of Immaterial and leads the development of our fundamental technology. He is a Royal Society University Research Fellow and Reader in Molecular Engineering in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cambridge, where he leads the Adsorption & Advanced Material Laboratory. His research into the application of MOFs in energy applications and nanoscale drug delivery is underpinned by fundamental studies into molecular recognition and self-assembly processes inside nanoporous materials.
Jogchum Brinksma
Chairman
Jogchum is an entrepreneurial senior executive with a detailed experience in different industries, both large private and public corporations. He became fascinated by the recent enhanced possibilities of computational analytics of large datasets for complex decision making and analytical review. Over the past years he invested in a broad range of university spin-outs with innovative breakthrough technology, which benefit from these enhanced capabilities in their scientific research towards promising commercial applications. He supports the companies with capital and advises on strategic challenges, in a capacity as Non-Executive Director or Advisor. His deep experience and relationships in energy markets support Immaterial in accelerating the commercial growth of the company.
Ate Visser
Director
Ate brings nearly 40 years of broad, international senior executive experience in the energy and chemicals industries. He has successfully developed and managed large integrated upstream and midstream natural gas/LNG, Gas-to-Liquids and chemicals businesses. During his Shell career, he served as a member of the Upstream Asia Leadership Team, and the global Integrated Gas and Shell Chemicals Leadership Teams. Ate supports various other start-ups, a global consultancy and serves on the Supervisory Board of two companies. Throughout his career, Ate has consistently focussed on using cutting-edge R&D to overcome world-scale technology challenges, and unlock significant value through innovation. For Immaterial, with its ground-breaking platform technology, he sees opportunities to advance the state-of-the-art in a broad range of industries and applications. Ate is an active member of the Immaterial team.
Alan E. Nelson
Director
Alan E. Nelson is the Vice President of Technology at SLB, and previously was Senior Vice President of Battery Materials for Redwood Materials, Chief Technology Officer for Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (ADNOC), Chief Technology Officer and CEO of New Business Development for Johnson Matthey, Global R&D Director for The Dow Chemical Co., and Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering at the Univ. of Alberta. He is also the 2024 President of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Alan has led the development and commercialization of environmentally sustainable technologies, including lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells, carbon capture and storage, and hydrogen production. Alan is a Chartered Engineer in the U.K., a Fellow of AIChE, and a Fellow of the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE). He received a BS from University of Minnesota Duluth and PhD from Michigan Technological University, both in chemical engineering.
Kevin Eggers
Director
Kevin Eggers is a Founding Partner of AP Ventures, an independent venture capital fund and serves on the board of various portfolio companies.
Kevin has a broad range of international experience spanning over twenty years, having worked extensively across Europe, South Africa, and the United States. Prior to launching AP Ventures, he was with Anglo American plc for ten years in various senior Commercial and Corporate Finance positions. Kevin is passionate about discovering and investing in advanced technologies that have a meaningful impact on the environment.
Kevin received his honours degree in Business Science from the University of Cape Town (South Africa) and is a qualified Chartered Accountant.
Away from investing, Kevin has completed numerous marathons, canoe races and triathlons and is also an avid golfer and tennis player.
Belén Linares
Director
Belén Linares has 24 years’ experience in Aerospace & Energy. She is an expert in Research, Technology & Product development for Energy & Powerplant Systems.
Educated in France, she started her career in 1998 with Airbus, where she managed the A400M Military Aircraft Powerplant System Team in Toulouse & Madrid. She moved in 2004 to the Energy sector, into Siemens Gamesa, Global Wind Turbine Manufacturer as head of Product Development. In 2016, Belén joined the Utility Acciona Energia as Global Head of Innovation. In 2023, Belén Linares moved to Cepsa as Head of Innovation.
Belén has an Aerospace Engineering & High Degree Master in Electrical Systems from the Madrid Polytechnic University. Aspen Institute Fellow, she completed the Advanced Management Program for Women Executives from ESADE Business School and in 2017 the Global Growth Strategy Program from Wharton School in Philadelphia. Belén was also, from 2017-2023 Innovation & Technology Vice President of EJECON: Spanish Women Executives & Women CEO’s Association.
Peter Robson
Observer
Peter Robson is Managing Director Fund Management of Energy Revolution Ventures and also Portfolio Manager of ERV Fund I. He has 36 years of global investing experience, managing institutional portfolios across the capitalisation spectrum. Prior to joining Energy Revolution Ventures, he was Director of Bury Street Capital, Chief Executive TreeTop Asset Management Ltd and Partner of TT international. He holds an Engineering Science degree from University of Oxford and held a Short Service Commission in 1st The Queen’s Dragoon Guards.
Gregory M. Wilson
Observer
Dr. Gregory Wilson is the Vice President for Science and Advanced Technologies at JERA Americas. Dr. Wilson is an expert in decarbonized fuels; power generation with zero-carbon fuels such as hydrogen, ammonia and biofuels; hydrogen synthesis from both renewable electricity and natural gas with CCS; hydrogen transport and storage; renewable energy including photovoltaic devices and reliability plus deep expertise involving the crystalline silicon photovoltaics supply chain. Dr. Wilson was at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) from 2011 to 2018 where he was the Director of the National Center for Photovoltaics. In 2018 he started his own consulting practice focused on the technology and business opportunities associated with the rapid decarbonization of the global energy system. He joined JERA Americas in 2021.
Owen Garrigan
CTO
Owen has more than twenty five years experience of leading technical, innovation, and operational activities in global industrial and specialty chemical companies. During that time he has led teams in product and process development, capital projects, operations management, open innovation and collaborative ventures, working internationally through a career including ICI, AkzoNobel, FUJIFILM and Johnson Matthey.
Dr Robin Babu
Senior Scientist
Robin is responsible for scaling up our MOFs and the research and development of new MOF materials. Robin completed his PhD in Chemistry from Pusan National University in South Korea, where his research was focused on the development of numerous materials (metal organic frameworks, mixed metal oxides, and nano materials) for catalytic applications. He also holds an MTech degree in Industrial Catalysis and MSc degree in Chemistry. To date, Robin has published 22 international papers related to the design, green synthesis, and investigation on the structural properties of MOFs for carbon capture and transformation catalysis.
Dr Ceren Camur
Lead Scientist
Ceren leads all the wet-lab R&D activities. Prior to joining Immaterial, Ceren was a Research Associate in the Adsorption & Advanced Material Laboratory (AAML) at the Department of Chemical Engineering & Biotechnology and a College Research Associate at St John’s College at the University of Cambridge. She completed her PhD in Materials Science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain in 2019. During her PhD, she successfully created synthesis processes using the spray-drying method, enabling the manufacture of MOF powders at a multi-kilogram scale in collaboration with AxelOne, Lyon, France under a Horizon 2020 project called ProDIA.
Dr Lik Hong Wee
Research Manager
Lik Hong is leading the synthesis, processing and upscaling of zeolites for catalytic and separation applications at Immaterial. He completed his PhD in Chemistry at Manchester Metropolitan University (2008) where he developed novel methods for the fabrication of ultra-thin zeolite films. After completing his Fonds voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek – Vlaanderen (FWO) research fellowship at the University of Leuven, he joined the Department of Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology at the University of Cambridge as a senior FWO research fellow. He specialises in the design, synthesis and processing of nanoporous materials such as zeolites, metal-organic frameworks and ordered mesoporous silicas.
Dr Gerard Boix
Research Associate
Gerard completed his PhD in chemistry at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in Spain. His research was focussed on the development of MOF-based composite materials for applications such as water remediation, biomedicine, and drug delivery. He also holds a MSc in Industrial and Research Chemistry and a BSc in Chemistry both from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Gerard’s role at Immaterial is the design, synthesis, and optimisation of monolithic MOFs as well as developing the technologies for their industrial scale production.
Dr Naveen Kumar
Synthetic Chemist
Naveen is a synthetic chemist who recently joined Immaterial in November 2022. He completed his PhD in 2021 from University of Limerick, Ireland, where he continued as a postdoctoral researcher for approx. a year and then moved to Virginia Tech, USA for another postdoc from June 2022 to October 2022. His research expertise is design, synthesis, and characterisation of Metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for adsorption and/or separations. Naveen’s role at Immaterial is to work on the development of monolithic MOFs for industrial applications.
Dr Ram R. R. Prasad
Synthetic Chemist
Ram completed his PhD in Chemistry at the University of St Andrews, UK where his research focused on developing post-synthetically functionalised metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) for cascade catalysis. He later joined the University of Sheffield as a Research Associate, working on developing novel metal-organic
nanosheets (MONs) for catalysis and sensing applications. At Immaterial, Ram’s role centres on the development of monolithic MOFs for carbon capture.
Dr Ying Xiong
Characterisation scientist
Ying graduated with PhD degree from Sun Yat-sen University. After graduating, his career included working as an Application Specialist in Quantachrome Instruments (China branch), as well as post-doctoral positions at Imperial College London, the Autonomous University of Madrid, and the Catalysis and Spectrochemistry Laboratory (CNRS-ENSICAEN-UNICAEN), where he led and was involved in several research projects mainly about using porous materials for gas separation applications. At Immaterial, Ying brings his expertise in porous material characterisation to help the development of novel MOF-based gas separation systems.
Christie Burton
Lab Technician
Christie is responsible for maintaining and supporting the labs, and helping in large-scale MOF production and synthesis. Prior to joining Immaterial, she gained extensive lab experience as a Lab Support Technician and holds an MSc in Volcanology and Geological Hazards from Lancaster University, with knowledge in environmental processes and climate change.
Valdis Suharevs
Lab Technician
Valdis brings a wealth of expertise in laboratory management and quality control. As a Senior Laboratory AID Level 3 at Illumina Centre, Valdis managed materials, international shipping, and chemical purchasing. Previous roles include Laboratory Technician at VWR/Astrazeneca and Quality Controller at Hexcel Composites Ickleton, where Valdis demonstrated expertise in operational laboratory support, inventory management, and precise materials testing for aerospace clients. With a detail-oriented and logical approach, Valdis contributes to the efficiency and excellence of laboratory operations.
Simon Woor
Lab Technician
Simon has over 25 years of experience working as a laboratory technician starting at the University of Cambridge. He then worked at several startups, with his last role helping to develop potassium biosensors with Kalium health. He is skilled in a wide range of laboratory techniques including running bioreactors and protein purification, as well as general laboratory management.
Daniel Oakes
Lead Scientist
Daniel joins us to add his experience to the science team in the development of MOF’s and our next generation products. He holds a PhD from Imperial College London in organometallic chemistry and polymerisation catalysis. Daniel’s professional career has encompassed process development, R&D and innovation team leadership roles with a focus on the development of high value advanced materials and coatings.
Dr Aurelia Li
Computational Scientist
Aurelia is responsible for screening large datasets of materials using molecular simulations to find the most promising ones. Prior to joining Immaterial, Aurelia completed her PhD at the University of Cambridge with Prof. David Fairen-Jimenez. Her work focused on the development of datasets of porous materials (metal-organic frameworks and cages). She also holds an MPhil in Advanced Chemical Engineering from the same university and a Diplome d’Ingenieur (equivalent to MSc) from Centrale Paris.
Ailsa Morrison
Process Design engineer
Ailsa divides her time between optimising and delivering kg-scale MOF production onsite, and undertaking research and design work for future tonne-scale projects. She holds an MEng in Chemical Engineering from Imperial College London. Prior to joining Immaterial, she worked as an Applications Engineer, specialising in advanced metrology equipment, working with customers to develop innovative quality assurance solutions in industries ranging from medical devices to aerospace.
Dr Mohamed Abdelraouf
System and Process Engineer
Mohamed has a background in fluid mechanics, coatings, and process simulation which he has developed during his Ph.D. and MSc. Mohamed is currently leading a system project which is focused on the design and simulation of a unit operation for carbon capture and purification from gas-fired boiler flue gas.
Dr Amir Farmahini
Process systems engineering team lead
Amir is a Lead Chemical Engineer and carbon capture specialist with 10 years of industry and academic experience on carbon capture. Amir’s expertise span across various aspects of systems engineering design for solid sorbent-based carbon capture technology including adsorbent selection and characterization; reactor design; process design and optimization; feasibility and FEED studies; technology demonstration; piloting and scale-up of swing adsorption systems (PSA/VSA/TSA). Amir has many publications in the field of adsorption, nanoporous materials, and carbon capture. At Immaterial, Amir is leading the Process Systems Engineering team for the design and development of energy efficient carbon capture systems based on Immaterial’s innovative monolithic metal-organic frameworks (m-MOFs).
Nikos Stephanopoulos
Senior Process Engineer
Nikos holds an MEng in Chemical Engineering from the National Technical University of Athens and an MSc in Advanced Process Engineering from Imperial College London. He is also in the process of completing his dissertation on Industry 4.0 readiness models for his MBA with Warwick Business School. Prior to joining Immaterial, Nikos has worked within Operations Management and Process Engineering in the food industry specialising in process improvement, standardisation and design. In his current role at Immaterial, Nikos is responsible for managing process safety, design and equipment selection to scale up the manufacturing process.
Dr Amin Koochaki
Process Engineer
Amin, who holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering, has extensive experience in various computational techniques. These techniques encompass MD and MC simulations, as well as DFT calculations, specifically applied to the fields of carbon capture and water uptake with MOFs. With a background as a process engineer, Amin has contributed to numerous projects focused on sizing and rating process engineering equipment. At Immaterial, Amin is responsible for using process modeling techniques to analyse adsorption systems, with a particular emphasis on carbon capture.
Dr Hesam Maleki
Senior Process Engineer
Hesam is a Senior Process Engineer at Immaterial with a research background in material science and process design of adsorptive and catalytic systems. He has developed several process models involving gas-solid interactions and is interested in exploring ways to utilise carbon dioxide and hydrogen to address climate change. At Immaterial, Hesam is working on the design and optimisation of carbon capture processes using state-of-the-art MOF monoliths.