PEORIA, Ill. — December 16, 2019 — NFW, a materials company that is innovating revolutionary new sustainable textiles, today announced the hire of Oihana Elizalde as general manager of the Mirum Business Unit. Previously, Elizalde served as director of technology at BASF, the world’s largest chemical company strongly focused on sustainability.
Elizalde’s career started in materials science research and development, helping companies in multiple industries transform their products at a molecular level to be safer and more sustainable. With an eye towards innovation and efficiency, Elizalde began collating insights from different customers and use-cases to match unique solutions to unmet needs. Those customer conversations sparked a change in course to get closer to the customer, and take on a commercial role in the personal care industry.
As general manager of the Mirum Business Unit, Elizalde will lead the commercialization of NFW’s breakthrough alternative leather, Mirum. Mirum is a high-performance plant-based material that uses 100-percent natural inputs and is completely free of petroleum-based plastics. The material first debuted earlier this year at London Fashion Week in the collection of FELDER FELDER. In her role at NFW, Elizalde will continue to scale the success of Mirum across the luxury fashion and high-end retail industries.
“While I’ve been exposed to the sustainable movement across a variety of industries, I’ve never come across something that has the potential of NFW to disrupt so many industries at once,” Elizalde said. “Mirum, in particular, achieves something that many have tried to do but have never succeeded. With the simplest ingredient — plants — and a versatile process, we are able to create a material that will help entire industries overcome their reliance on petroleum-based products. That’s an exciting future, and one I’m ready to help create.”
Elizalde’s joins the team following the recent hire of Greg Stillman, previously of Fashion for Good, as Director of Business Development. Stillman’s career has been driven by a dedication to environmental stewardship, both in energy and now in textiles, which is one of the most polluting industries, producing 1.2 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per year.
“We are grateful to have a team that believes in our mission with such vigor and for the incredible growth of our talent base and capabilities since founding. Now, with Greg and Oihana onboard, we have the firepower to scale the impact of our technology to dramatically reimagine how we think about the production of textiles — something we wear, walk on, or touch, every day,” said Luke Haverhals, CEO of Mirum. “We’re honored to welcome Oihana aboard and excited to see how this allows Mirum to grow into a household brand through our strategic partnerships.”
In addition to Mirum, NFW has developed a natural materials platform. The company’s Welded Fiber Technology consists of closed loop processes and clean chemistries that produce beautiful, luxurious and durable items that have a positive impact on the environment.
Posted December 16, 2019
Source: NFW
