FORT WAYNE, IN – April 5, 2022 – Sortera Alloys, a company whose mission is to enable nearly 100% reuse of waste recovered from end-of-life products, has announced the appointment of Michael Siemer as chief executive officer. Founder Nalin Kumar, Ph.D. will assume a new role as chief technology officer.

“I couldn’t be more pleased to be named CEO of such a great company as it moves from pilot to commercial operations,” said Michael Siemer, CEO, Sortera Alloys. “At Sortera, we are delivering high quality materials without the tremendous impact that comes with virgin feed stocks. I am excited to lead this experienced team forward which will have a major impact on the circularity of heavy industry.”

Founded by Nalin Kumar, Ph.D. and Manuel Garcia in 2020, Sortera is using A.I. and engineering expertise to uniquely deliver high throughput with high purity in its sorting processes, while also keeping costs down. In late 2021, the company announced $10M in new funding led by Breakthrough Energy Ventures. Building on earlier funding from Chrysalix and the Department of Energy Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), the funding will continue to go towards scaling operations and growing the team, with initial efforts targeted at high-quality industrial metal recycling from automobiles.

“As an early lead investor, Breakthrough is thrilled with the trajectory and great progress made by Sortera Alloys over the past 11 months,” said Carmichael Roberts of Breakthrough Energy Ventures. “Nalin, Manny, Ben and the entire team have had unprecedented success in a short period of time. Now with a leader like Michael coming on board, the transition from pilot stage to commercial operations will be all the more swift.”

Sortera Alloys brings advanced artificial intelligence (A.I.)-powered image, data analytics and sensors to the industrial reuse industry. The company’s first products include sorted aluminum alloy feedstock, which is a $10B+ market. Sortera operates from a 10-acre facility in Fort Wayne, IN and its first mass production plant is under development and will be operational by summer 2022. The company has been shipping trial truckloads of aluminum feedstock – cast, sheet and extrusions – for the past few months from its pilot scale plant.

Sortera is protected by over 25 issued and pending patents and offers a low-cost, scalable and high-throughput solution. Sortera’s technology drives new opportunities for multiple industries by generating new high purity recycling products through advanced industrial scale sortation methods. Creating novel high purity recycled (and up-cycled) metal feedstocks from existing scrap streams enables ready for use supply of metals and alloys for high quality domestic manufacturing.

“We are very proud of what we have accomplished at Sortera to bring circularity to metals markets,” said Nalin Kumar, Ph.D., founder. “With Michael joining as CEO, I am greatly looking forward to his taking the company to the next level.”

Sortera’s A.I. powered sorters have the capability to both upgrade feedstock streams and also remove unwanted contaminants. The upgraded streams can then be used to make new products in markets ranging from automotive cast and flat-roll products, building and construction, aerospace and consumer packaging.

Prior to joining Sortera, Siemer served as president of OSIsoft, the data management platform company now part of AVEVA, where he oversaw the strategic vision and future of OSIsoft, created and led the new executive committee and supported the company’s global revenue growth and subscription transition. Prior to that, Michael was VP, Operations Technology at Devon Energy where he led digital transformation with 21 Decision Support Centers for a 6,000 person $24B market cap upstream oil and gas industry leader. He also held roles with Sandridge Energy and 3M.  Michael holds a BS in electrical engineering from Syracuse University, an MS in electrical engineering from Colorado State University and an MBA from Oklahoma Christian University.