RALEIGH – Tethis, a Raleigh-based biomaterials startup, on Wednesday announced it has appointed Robin Weitkamp as chief executive officer.
Scott Bolin, founder of Tethis, will lead a newly created sister company.
Tethis
Weitkamp is a longtime chemicals and materials executive.
“We are thrilled to be expanding our team with the addition of Robin,” said Chris Evans, executive chairman of Tethis, in a statement. “His recent experience scaling emerging growth materials businesses makes him an excellent fit to be joining our company at this stage in its development.”
Weitkamp joins Tethis from Elevance Renewable Sciences, a privately funded renewable chemicals company, where he served as chief operating officer. There he led all manufacturing, supply chain, regulatory, engineering, licensing and commercial oversight for the global chemical company. Prior to Elevance, he oversaw the Collaborations Division at Symyx Technologies, and before that, held various commercial leadership roles within BP and Albemarle.
Tethis manufactures biodegradable polymers, alternatives to plastics that are derived from corn starch rather than petrochemicals. The company’s current focus is on manufacturing polymers with super absorbent qualities, the primary market for which will be baby diapers.
Tethis secured $17.6 million in funding earlier this year to scale operations and open a manufacturing facility in Zebulon.
The financing will enable the company to commercialize a superabsorbent product that could fundamentally change the diaper industry by making it greener and reducing landfill waste. Right now, 92 percent of disposable diapers end up in landfills, and four percent of landfill volume is estimated to be diapers.
“I see immense opportunities in the Tethis product,” said Weitkamp in a statement. “Providing consumers with improved, biodegradable diaper technology excites me a great deal, not least because, as a father of four, I understand firsthand the incredible potential for this innovation to bring a major change to consumers worldwide.”
New venture
In the course of bringing its new absorbent technology to market, Tethis discovered and patented several additional applications for its underlying technology, some of which are already in use in products.
To capitalize on these additional applications, the startup has elected to found a sister company under the leadership of Bolin.
Bolin will be asked to manage this portfolio, capitalize on these discoveries, and bring them to market. Bolin will remain a member of the Tethis Board of Directors.
“Nobody is better at identifying early stage opportunities in chemicals technology than Scott,” said Evans. “We are excited by the breakthroughs his team continues to have, and we look forward to more announcements about this work in short order.”
