Evolva announces new CEO

11-Jul-2018 - Switzerland

Evolva announces that as part of entering the next phase of its evolution, the current Evolva CEO Simon Waddington steps down as CEO with immediate effect. Until he will leave the company towards the end of 2018, he will support the new CEO in completing work on Evolva’s technology base. This will include the building of a framework for an innovation pipeline that will deliver commercially attractive new products.

Our current CFO, Oliver Walker, who has co-led the company’s strategic development, will be Evolva’s new CEO. He will retain his financial responsibilities with the current VP Finance Alessandro Del Fabro leading the financial operations. Scott Fabro, Evolva’s Chief Commercial Officer, will additionally assume the role of Chief Operating Officer as he will be taking responsibility also for the supply chain. There are no near-term plans to expand the executive management team as Evolva’s R&D activities in Reinach will be led by Astrid Schäfer. She joined Evolva in 2010 and held several critical research roles.

Simon, Oliver and Scott have led the planning and execution of the Company's corporate restructuring and transformation from July 2017. The important achievements have been raising CHF 86M in equity in November 2017, significantly reducing the cash burn rate, centralizing most R&D activities in the Swiss headquarters and building a strong commercial organization. In addition, during the past 12 months Evolva has filed for registration of its breakthrough, next-generation pest control product nootkatone and restructured the Cargill-stevia commercial agreement to maximize shareholder value with reduced financial commitments.

As the major parts of restructuring are completed, Evolva now enters the next phase of its development with a strong focus on commercial and operational activities. This will also include expanding the current product range with “ready-to-go-to-market” products and exploiting Evolva’s ability to rapidly go from product concept to commercial reality. The new CEO will be physically located at Evolva’s headquarters in Reinach, Switzerland, with the COO being located in the USA, the main market for Evolva’s innovative products.

Gerard Hoetmer, Chairman of Evolva’s Board of Directors, said “On behalf of the whole Board, I would like to thank Simon for all his efforts in building Evolva during the last seven years and especially to carry out the transformation during the last twelve months. We are confident that under Oliver’s leadership Evolva will further accelerate its activities to build the business and reach its true potential.”

https://www.bionity.com/en/news/1156318/evolva-announces-new-ceo.html