Mark HerremaFounder

United States - Orange County, California

Mark Herrema is Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Newlight Technologies.

Newlight Technologies is an advanced biotechnology company using carbon capture technology to produce high-performance polymers that replace oil-based materials by out-competing on price and performance.

Newlight was founded in 2003 with a question: instead of letting carbon go into the air, why can't we use that carbon as a source of good? Over the course of 10 years of research and development, Newlight developed a biotechnological process to produce a material called AirCarbon®: a thermoplastic polymer made by combining air and greenhouse gas that is able to replace a range of oil-based materials, such as plastics.

Today, Newlight is operating the world’s first commercial-scale greenhouse gas-to-AirCarbon manufacturing facilities, using carbon that would otherwise become part of the air to produce materials that replace oil-based plastics in furniture, electronics, packaging, and a range of other products.

Since commercial scale-up in 2013, Newlight has developed commercialization relationships with Dell, Sprint, Virgin, KI, HP, and The Body Shop. In 2015, Newlight executed a 19 billion pound off-take agreement with Vinmar International as well as 10 billion pounds in licensed production.

In recognition of Newlight's technological and commercialization achievements, Newlight has been honored to be awarded: "Innovation of the Year" by Popular Science in 2014, "Technology Pioneer" by the World Economic Forum in 2015, "Technology Excellence Award" by PC Magazine in 2014, "Company of the Year" by CleanTech OC in 2014, "Biomaterial of the Year" by the Nova-Institute in 2013, and an R&D 100 Award as “one of the 100 most significant innovations of the year" in 2013.

Mr. Herrema graduated magna cum laude High Honors from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Politics and Political Theory, with additional work in Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry.