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

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 musical episode with Nuno Maulide, a brilliant chemist AND award winning pianist. Enjoy this discussion about the link between music and science, and his beautiful performance of Bach, Mozart, Chopin and more. And stay tuned for our next season featuring our customers and partners starting in September!

**This episode was first released in January 2024.

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Did you know that there’s a strong connection between music and science? Ilham speaks with award winning chemist and pianist Nuno Maulide about the science behind the classical music of the greatest composers. He talks about the musical talent of brilliant scientists such as Albert Einstein and Max Planck, what scientists and business leaders can learn from music, and beautifully plays pieces by Bach, Mozart, Schubert, Chopin, Rachmaninoff and Debussy. Listen and be inspired!

Nuno Maulide is a professor and head of the Institute for Organic Chemistry at the University of Vienna. Nuno studied piano and chemistry in his hometown in Lisbon and then went on to earn his PhD at the University of Louvain in Belgium. He has studied at universities in Louvain-la-Neuve, Paris and at Stanford University, and started his independent work as a Group leader at Germany's Max Planck Institute for Carbon Research. He has received numerous prestigious awards in both chemistry and music throughout his career.

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

*This episode was originally released in March 2022*

For some inspiring summer listening, we are re-sharing some of our favorite episodes on the power of science and chemistry. This is the VERY FIRST episode we released. Stay tuned for our next season featuring our customers and partners starting in September!

In this episode, first released in March 2022, Ilham sits down with Nobel prize-winning scientists Professor Steven Chu and Professor Ben Feringa to discuss some of the most exciting innovations in energy, clean mobility, and healthcare; the importance of ensuring that scientific innovation is at the service of humanity; the winner of the 2022 Ernest Solvay Prize by Syensqo; and how science and chemistry are key to enabling a more sustainable future.

Steven Chu is a professor of Molecular and Cellular Physiology at Stanford University and the former US Secretary of Energy. In 1997, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for developing methods to cool and trap atoms with laser lights. Ben Feringa is a Professor at the University of Groningen, and the winner of the 2015 Solvay prize. In 2016, he won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his groundbreaking research on the design and synthesis of molecular machines. They were both part of the jury that chose the winner for the 2022 Ernest Solvay Prize by Syensqo, Katalin Karikó.

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

What is the recipe for an effective and successful partnership? Jean Oelwang, the CEO of Virgin Unite, and one of the foremost experts on partnerships, explains! She and Ilham have a lively discussion about celebrating friction in partnerships, embracing the disruptive detours in one’s career, why we need dyslexic thinking in business, how Virgin Unite is making a big impact in the world, and so much more.

Timestamps

• 1:35 - Inspiration from her dad
• 4:23 - Disruptive detours
• 8:30 - The impact of Virgin Unite
• 10:06 - Partnering
• 14:49 - Dyslexic thinking
• 18:40 - Planetary Gardens
• 22:47 - The B Team
• 27:35 - What leaders inspire her
• 30:40 - Advice to young leaders

Jean Oelwang is the President and founding CEO of Virgin Unite, which houses all the philanthropies of the Virgin company, and has incubated some of the most effective partnerships, such as The Elders, The BTeam, The Branson Centre for Entrepreneurship, and many more. Jean is probably the foremost expert on partnerships. And after spending three decades helping companies put the wellbeing of the people and the planet at their core, she is the perfect person to discuss how we can create sustainable AND profitable businesses.

She is the author of Partnering: Forge the Deep Connections That Make Great Things Happen.

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 can we use the tools of the marketplace and business to solve the problems that lead to poverty? That’s where patient capital comes in. Jacqueline Novogratz, the CEO of Acumen, explains how her venture capital fund’s long term investments, which prioritize social progress along with financial returns, have positively impacted 650 million people across the globe. She and Ilham discuss the most inspiring companies Acumen has invested in; the importance of kindness and patience in business; achieving audacity AND humility when working towards one’s goals; how storytelling is key to success, and so much more.

Timestamps

• 1:42 - Inspiration for solving the problems of poverty
• 3:39 - Becoming a banker
• 6:18 - Founding Acumen and the emergence of patient capital
• 8:59 - How to build sustainable and profitable companies
• 12:47- Most inspiring companies Acumen invests in
• 16:23 - The beauty of Acumen’s manifesto
• 20:05 - The importance of storytelling
• 25:37 - Pushing back against the naysayers
• 29:46 - Embracing the beauty

Jacqueline Novogratz is an entrepreneur, an author and quite frankly a beacon of light in the world. She is the founder and CEO of Acumen, a nonprofit global venture capital fund that uses entrepreneurial approaches to address global poverty by investing in companies with the purpose. She is the author of Manifesto for a Moral Revolution: Practices to Build a Better World and The Blue Sweater: Bridging the Gap Between Rich and Poor in an Interconnected World.

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 can space launches become sustainable? Orbex is making it possible! Phil Chambers, CEO of Orbex sits down with Ilham to talk about how his company is building the most advanced, low carbon, micro launch vehicles in the world. They discuss the Orbex Prime rocket which will launch later this year; their creation of the first bio-friendly fuel launch system that slashes emissions more than 90%; how to build a company culture; his advice to young entrepreneurs, and more.

Timestamps

• 1:24 - The spark for his entrepreneurial spirit
• 3:15 - Interest in space
• 4:42 - The first vertical launch space rocket from British soil
• 7:41 - Building the most advanced, low carbon micro launch vehicles in the world!
• 10:50 - How the Prime rocket will change satellite launches
• 13:01 - When will it launch?
• 13:54 - Managing risks
• 15:39 - Building the core values of your company
• 19:00 - Advice to young entrepreneurs
• 20:55 - An avid birdwatcher!

Phil Chambers is a leading entrepreneur who has played pivotal roles in some of Europe's most successful startups. He is now the CEO of Orbex, which is a UK based launch services company in the small satellite industry. Orbex has developed one of the most advanced, low carbon, high performance, micro launch vehicles in the world, and at Syensqo we are proud to partner with Orbex to provide the advanced materials for their Prime rocket.

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