Our team
ADRIAN BLACK
CEO
Adrian joined Sonichem to lead the transition from its R&D stage into a commercial enterprise. He has extensive experience in successfully founding and scaling early-stage technology ventures and solving the problems they face. Most recently, Adrian founded legal technology company NorthRow Ltd, which he scaled to a Series A+ round as CEO.
Miranda Lindsay-Fynn
commercial Director
Miranda is an experienced entrepreneur with extensive sector experience, she leads go-to-market activities, building commercial relationships with downstream chemical partners. Miranda is also on the Commercial Advisory Board of the IBioIC.
DAVID DUTTON
EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN
A successful multi sector entrepreneur and a past executive director within a major UK media group DMGT plc. David also acted as a Chairman or Non-Executive Director for several subsidiaries of DMGT, including Zoopla and has been chairman and mentor to multiple early-stage businesses and charities.
Dr Andy West
Chief Chemist
Andy is both a Chartered Chemist and a Chartered Scientist and has extensive experience providing innovation consultancy and technology transfer support for SMEs, particularly related to sustainability, waste as a resource and climate change mitigation.
Omar Farooq
Principal process engineer
Omar is a Chartered Chemical Engineer with 20+ years’ experience in chemical sites, oil & gas processing and large manufacturing organisations, covering design to commissioning.
Louie Johnson
Laboratory Manager
Louie has a robust background in organic chemistry and brings a wealth of experience and a dynamic approach to managing laboratory operations and fostering team development.
David Sithole
Plant Engineer
David, an engineer experienced in processing cellulosic materials, skillfully operates Sonichem's pilot plant, advancing our mission to transform biomass into valuable bio-based chemicals.
Olivia Jones
Process QC Chemist
Olivia is an experienced analytical chemist operating our kilo-scale test rig to support R&D trials and applying knowledge of QC techniques to characterise our products.
Angus Black
Executive Assistant
Angus expertly helps our company operations from administration to accounts.
Our expert advisors
Peter Reid – Director
Geoffrey Drage OBE
Kenneth Day
Professor Alexei Lapkin
Dr Darren Bates
Dr Madeleine Bussemaker
Eva Steele
Peter advises on the development of manufacturing technologies.
Geoffrey supports the protection of IP assets, and growth mentors the company.
A Chartered Engineer, Ken has overseen the design and operation of the pilot plant since its inception.
Professor of Sustainable Reaction Engineering (SRE) at Cambridge University since 2013, developing a Life Cycle Analysis.
An expert sonochemist, with experience building globally recognised engineering solutions involving high-power ultrasonics.
A senior lecturer in Chemical Engineering at the university of Surrey, Madeleine is involved in projects including parametric studies on sonochemical effects, biomass processing and classification.
Valorisation of lignin, Eva is currently midway through a PhD co-funded by Scottish Forestry and Sonichem (formerly Bio-Sep).