Sustainable biochemicals company Circa Group AS has announced that Dr Sarah Hickingbottom has joined the company as General Manager for New Product Development and Stakeholder Relations on 29 March 2021.

Dr Hickingbottom was previously CEO of BioVale, a bioeconomy innovation cluster based in Yorkshire, UK. She has extensive global consultancy experience from LMC International and Frost & Sullivan advising brand owners, chemical manufacturers and agricultural producers on oleochemicals, bio-based chemicals and fuels, including markets, feedstocks, economics, policy, innovation and scale-up. Her Organic Chemistry PhD is from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

Following Circa’s successful IPO in March 2021, this new role adds capabilities to deliver on Circa’s strategy to develop and commercialise derivatives of Levoglucosenone (LGO). Dr Sarah Hickingbottom will work closely with customers across Circa’s networks, including with the BBI JU and Consortium members involved in the H2020 Flagship project ReSolute plant in Eastern France.

Tony Duncan, CEO and co-founder of Circa Group, said, “We are delighted that Sarah is joining us – her considerable skills and experience in a wide range of sustainable chemistry markets considerably strengthen Circa’s commercialisation objectives. Our sustainable Levoglucosenone platform offers considerable opportunity for industry to both replace current difficult petro-based molecules as well as consider molecules that until now have been prohibitively expensive to utilise in commercial applications.”

www.circagroup.com.au