#Yarn & Fiber

2024-04-25

AMSilk strengthens management team

AMSilk GmbH, a global leader in advanced materials made from spider silk-based proteins, today announces the appointments of Ralph Fraundorfer and Ctibor Kohutovic to its Management Board starting immediately.

Ralph Fraundorfer has been appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and will lead the finance team, with responsibility for all financial issues, such as company accounts, financing and risk management. Ralph’s professional finance career spans over 20 years, having worked for companies such as Shell, Syngenta and Actelion Pharmaceuticals. Most recently, Ralph was CFO of Tropic Biosciences, a pioneering company in the field of agricultural gene editing, where he built the finance function, enabling strong growth from 40 to over 150 employees and successfully closing several financing rounds.

Ralph Fraundorfer officially succeeds Arne Treinies as CFO, with Arne leaving the Company to pursue other opportunities. ”We would like to thank Arne for his important contribution to the scale-up of AMSilk”, Ulrich Scherbel (CEO) says. “In his role as CFO he has professionally built up the finance and organizational structures of the Company. We wish him continuous success and all the best for his new challenges.”

Ctibor Kohutovic joins as Chief Production Officer (CPO), with responsibility for driving AMSilk’s industrial scale up as it moves into the commercialization phase. Ctibor will focus on the Company’s global protein production, developing production capacities with new and existing CMOs, improving capabilities and reducing costs. Ctibor has extensive experience in global production processes, process improvement and contract manufacturing, beginning his professional career at Evonik in 1998 as a Fermentation Process Engineer at the Fermas site. Most recently, he was Head of Strategic Projects at Evonik Operations, as well as Site Controller and Strategic Project Manager at Evonik Fermas.

The key appointments of Ralph and Ctibor complete the AMSilk Management Board, alongside current Chief Executive Officer, Ulrich Scherbel, and Chief Scientific Officer, Gudrun Vogtentanz.

Ulrich Scherbel, Chief Executive Officer at AMSilk, said: “Ralph and Ctibor are two proven experts, whose industry knowledge, experience and track record are of immense importance for the future development of AMSilk. These appointments complete our Management Board, and I look forward to working alongside them both to drive the Company’s continued industrial scale-up towards profitability.”

Ralph Fraundorfer, Chief Financial Officer at AMSilk, added: “AMSilk has a stellar team and I am looking forward to helping scale up production of a fantastic product that the world really needs. AMSilk has products with a real purpose and people with great passion. For me, these are the most important elements of a successful company, and AMSilk has them all.”

Ctibor Kohutovic, Chief Production Officer at AMSilk, said: “Joining AMSilk feels like the perfect alignment of my passions, expertise, and aspirations. AMSilk’s vision and potential are truly inspiring. I am very motivated to play my part in ramping up production so that we can launch our spider silk-based products to the market.”

Wolfgang Colberg, Chairman of the Board, AMSilk, commented: “AMSilk is at a pivotal point in its development. To attract individuals of this caliber to the Management Board is testament to the progress AMSilk has made towards its goal of becoming a leading protein solutions business for a variety of industries.”

AMSilk’s spider silk-based protein fibers are the gold standard, offering high-performance qualities which translate to a wide range of applications in the textile and automobile industries. Based on their exceptional natural properties, which can be tailored to the specific needs of the market or customer, AMSilk’s high-performance material outweigh many natural or fossil-based materials, while being verifiably biodegradable.

In January 2024, AMSilk announced a partnership with 21st.BIO to accelerate production using a new protein production strain created from highly specialized precision fermented microorganisms, ensuring that AMSilk can meet demand as it increases production from the laboratory to industrial scale. The new strain ensures extracellular expression of silk proteins, enabling manufacturing at unprecedented productivity levels due to higher yield and greater efficiency, thereby reducing production costs. In March 2024, AMSilk also announced an update on its strategic R&D collaboration with BRAIN Biotech, which allows the structural proteins underlying AMSilk’s protein fibers to be modified at the amino acid level enabling products to be easily tailored to specific market requirements.

Evonik and AMSilk extend partnership for sustainable biotech silk materials

Evonik and AMSilk, a global leader in advanced biomaterials based on silk proteins, have deepened their collaboration with a long-term agreement to produce sustainable silk proteins at industrial scale. Building on their initial manufacturing agreement from 2023, the companies have commissioned a manufacturing line at Evonik’s Slovakian site for AMSilk’s high-performance silk. This innovative biomaterial is produced with minimal environmental impact and is designed for use in premium fashion and highly demanding automotive interiors.

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