C-Capture has appointed former Rolls Royce CEO Warren East, CBE as chair.
As well as his role at the luxury auto giant, East is a former CEO of UK semiconductor giant ARM. He will join the Leeds-based climate tech company this month.
C-Capture’s objective is to develop the world’s most energy-efficient carbon capture process using the company’s unique solvent-based technology that can capture CO2 directly from industrial flue gases. C-Capture is developing a scalable, modular approach that will lower the cost of capture compared to current commercial solutions and can be applied to a wide range of hard-to-abate industries.
Tom White, CEO of C-Capture, said: “I am absolutely delighted to announce that Warren will be joining us. His wealth of experience in commercialising novel technologies along with his commitment to the energy transition is a true asset to the company at a critical period in our growth”.
“His expertise in successfully scaling and transforming businesses will be invaluable as we move forward with the commercialisation of our unique technology and expand our investor base.”
East added: “I am excited to be joining the team at this pivotal point and to work with the management to scale the business. C-Capture’s carbon capture technology has all the elements needed to break through the barriers currently preventing widespread adoption of this critical technology for the world to achieve Net Zero.”
East is a chartered engineer with almost 40 years’ industrial and technological experience. His early career included 11 years at Texas Instruments, before joining ARM in 1994, where he was appointed to the board in 2000 and was CEO from 2001 to 2013. As CEO of Rolls-Royce from April 2015, until his retirement on 31 December 2022, he led the company through a period of significant modernisation, capacity growth, and cultural change. In addition, he successfully steered the business through the Covid-19 pandemic and championed its strategic shift to Net Zero.
His significant leadership experience includes previous non-executive director roles at Dyson and BT Group as well as current board roles at ASML and Tokamak Energy. He has a degree in Engineering Science from Oxford University, an MBA from Cranfield, and honorary doctorates from Cranfield, Newcastle, Bath, Loughborough and Derby Universities. With his wife he is also the founder of the Relithan Charitable Trust which supports STEM education and medical research.
