44.01 appoints new Board of Directors

44.01 has appointed a new Board of Directors following the completion of its $37m Series A fundraise. 44.01’s new Board of Directors will be:

- Joanna Holt, Independent Chairperson

- Jeroen van der Hoek, Equinor Ventures

- Christina Karapataki, Breakthrough Energy Ventures

- Greg Fleming, Air Liquide Venture Capital (ALIAD)

Max Altman (Apollo Projects) and Raouti Chehi (independent), will step down from the Board. Everyone at 44.01 thanks them for their advice and guidance over the past two years and for their help to get the company to where it is today.

44.01’s new board brings international experience in carbon storage, engineering, and technology commercialisation and will help 44.01 to refine and scale its technology around the world.

Talal Hasan, Founder and CEO of 44.01 said “Thank you to our previous Board of Directors who played a major role in 44.01’s development. I am grateful to them all for their support. I look forward to working with our new Board of Directors to accelerate our mission of protecting and repairing our climate.”

Joanna Holt has become 44.01’s Independent Chairperson. Joanna brings over 20 years’ experience in clean technology engineering and investment and has helped develop and scale start-ups including Everoze, Skyray Engineering and LiveDiligence. Joanna is also a Non-Executive Director for London listed Downing Renewables & Infrastructure Trust (DORE).

Joanna Holt said “I am delighted to join 44.01. The company’s award-winning technology offers a promising solution for permanent, safe carbon sequestration. I look forward to working with the 44.01 team and its board to help refine and scale this technology to provide a truly global climate solution.”

44.01 has completed successful pilot projects in Oman and the UAE. 44.01 won the Earthshot Prize in 2022 for the ‘Fix our Climate’ category and the company’s Project Hajar in Oman was recently announced as an XPRIZE Carbon Removal Top 20 Finalist.

About the Board

Joanna Holt – Chair

Joanna is a specialist in sustainable energy projects. She has over 20 years’ experience in the sector with a focus in offshore wind and battery storage.

Joanna is a co-founder of international technical consultancy Everoze, which supports developers, investors and policy makers on decarbonisation projects, with a range of engineering, commercial, strategic and sustainability advice.

Prior to Everoze, Joanna was the global technical lead for Project Engineering Services and a member of the Renewables Advisory Board at DNV.

Joanna is a Non-Executive Director of the Downing Renewables and Infrastructure Trust (DORE).

Jeroen van der Hoek

Jeroen is a Senior Investment Manager at Equinor Ventures and sits on numerous boards. His focus is on investments in subsurface and digital exploration and production technologies. Jeroen is passionate about investing in early phase start-ups and providing hands-on support to companies with unique technologies and broad implementation potential in the energy industry.

Prior to his current role, Jeroen had 17 years’ experience in the oil and gas industry worldwide. He held various technical roles in exploration and geoscience, from Petroleum Engineer to Leading Advisor geo operations and Project Manager on exploration campaigns.

He holds an M.Sc. in Applied Earth Sciences from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.

Christina Karapataki

Christina is a Partner at Breakthrough Energy Ventures, a fund that invests in companies addressing climate and sustainability challenges. She focuses on decarbonization solutions for the electricity, transportation and manufacturing sectors.

Prior to her current role, Christina worked as a Venture Principal at the Schlumberger corporate venture capital group. She invested and established joint development partnerships with early-stage technology startups looking to adapt their products to oilfield applications.

Christina holds BA and MEng degrees in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cambridge and an MS degree in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Greg Fleming

Greg Fleming is an Investment Director within Air Liquide Venture Capital – ALIAD. ALIAD is a strategic venture investor supporting collaborations between Air Liquide business units and emerging technology companies.

Prior to ALIAD, Greg held a number of positions within Air Liquide including Director of the Air Liquide Corporate R&D Innovation team in Paris and Deputy Director of the Air Liquide Research Center in the US (Delaware Research and Technology Center). 

Greg has considerable experience in leading technology teams from product development to commercialization.

About 44.01

44.01 eliminates CO2 by turning it into rock. The company’s pioneering technology accelerates the natural process of CO2 mineralisation to remove captured CO2 permanently in less than twelve months. 44.01 takes CO2 captured directly from the air, or from hard-to-abate industrial processes, helping decarbonise vital industries and ultimately return the atmosphere to sustainable levels of CO2. The process is safe, scalable and lasts forever.