According to Erica Nemser, the CEO of Ardent, “Hard things are hard, but not impossible.” Meet the entrepreneur who is making carbon capture for the “hard to abate” industries a reality!

As Erica says, if everyone in these industries could snap on Ardent’s membrane carbon capture solution, “that’s a third of global emissions of CO₂. We would reach all of our goals almost immediately.” In this episode, Ilham and Erica have a fascinating discussion about falling in love with the customers' problems, celebrating failure as part of the journey, and even what track driving and entrepreneurship have in common!

Erica Nemser is the CEO of Ardent, an advanced membrane technology start-up headquartered in the USA. Ardent provides separation solutions for some of the world's toughest industrial chemistry challenges, including carbon capture and storage.

At Syensqo we are proud to partner with Ardent, combining Syensqo's world-class materials science with Ardent's innovative membrane carbon capture solutions.

Timestamps

• 1:30 - Love of science, chemistry and entrepreneurship
• 2:52- The switch to carbon capture economy and Ardent’s role in it
• 6:12 - The impact of carbon capture on climate change and the economy
• 7:37 - Journey of starting Ardent
• 11:15 - Small companies as a disruptive force
• 14:54 - Inspiration from the “absence of materials”
• 19:44 - The power of AND
• 22:29 - Ardently working for solutions
• 24:13 - All about people
• 26:43 - Recipe for success
• 30:11 - What track driving and entrepreneurship have in common

For additional details about the podcast, show notes, and access to resources mentioned during the show, please visit https://www.syensqo.com/en/podcast

How is one mother and entrepreneur empowering 100 million mothers around the world? Meet Yvon Bock, the Founder and CEO of Hegen, a company that sells baby bottles and breastfeeding products . She has a fascinating story about how she went from a career in sales to becoming a stay at home mom to founding one of the fastest growing companies focused in Singapore. She took the lessons she learned from having her own children and applied them to create a thriving business.

Ilham and Yvon talk about persistence and how Yvon’s design for the next revolutionary bottle went through more than 200 iterations. Each setback that Yvon faced meant returning to the drawing board, but her relentless determination ultimately led to the perfect solution. They also talk about how important it is to have a strong purpose and the right mindset to achieve your dreams. As Yvon says, we can be devoted mothers AND successful businesswomen. It’s the power of AND!

• 1:52 - Inspiration for her entrepreneurial spirit
• 4:00 - From a career in sales to stay-at-home mom to successful entrepreneur
• 8:21 - Purpose: Empowering 100 million mothers around the world
• 13:06 - Failure and persistence
• 18:06 - Her book Extraordinary and the power of storytelling
• 21:00 - A sustainable AND profitable business
• 15:12 - Fearlessness, courage and never giving up
• 27:29 - The power of AND: Being a mother AND a successful business woman
• 31:35 - Family time

Yvon Bock is a leading entrepreneur, an author, and the founder and CEO of Hegen. After several years as a stay-at-home mom, Yvon saw that women need better products - bottles, breastpumps, etc - to be able to balance motherhood and their careers. With this inspiration she founded Hegen, where she came up with the Express-Store-Feed system to make the breastfeeding process more seamless. The name “Hegen” comes from the German idiom “hegen und pflegen” which means to care for and to nurture. This is the vision that she hopes to bring forward as Hegen continues to embark on its mission to empower 100 million mothers worldwide.

She is the bestselling author of Extraordinary: From Stay-at-Home Mum to World-Class Entrepreneur

At Syensqo we are proud to partner with Hegen to provide our circular, non-fossil feedstock polymer for their sustainable bottles.

For additional details about the podcast, show notes, and access to resources mentioned during the show, please visit https://www.syensqo.com/en/podcast

For some inspiring summer listening we are re-sharing some of our favorite episodes on the power of science and chemistry. This is a special episode on chemistry AND cooking with Christophe Lavelle, an expert in molecular gastronomy. And stay tuned for our next season featuring our customers and partners starting in September!

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Chemistry is everywhere and cooking is no exception! In this podcast, Ilham joins Christophe Lavelle – one of the foremost experts on molecular gastronomy – in the kitchen to learn about the chemistry of cooking, molecular gastronomy, how cooking is both an art and a science, and even how to make caramel foam with bicarbonate of soda and liquid nitrogen!

Christophe Lavelle is a biophysicist, an epigeneticist and one of the foremost experts on the chemistry of cooking, or molecular gastronomy. His research focuses on the regulation of gene expression and the biophysical properties of macromolecules… including the ones you eat! He is a researcher at the Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), co-founder of the Food 2.0 LAB and runs a lab at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris. He also teaches in many universities and establishments throughout Paris including the famous Le Cordon Bleu.

For additional details about the podcast, show notes, and access to resources mentioned during the show, please visit https://www.syensqo.com/en/podcast