MetGen announces today the appointment of Harri Kerminen as the Chairman of the Board and personal investment by Mr. Kerminen into MetGen via his management company HST Partners. Harri Kerminen is an experienced chemical industry international executive with more than 30 years of experience. Mr. Kerminen retired last year from the post of President and CEO of Kemira Oyj, a leading global water chemistry company serving municipal water, pulp and paper industry, oil and gas and mining industries. Throughout his career, he has held senior management positions in the company including responsibility for pulp and paper business area, one of the target sectors for MetGen’s enzyme solutions offering. Today, Mr. Kerminen is active as a corporate director on a number of boards including chairmanship of Finpro, and directorships at Finnair Oyj, Tikkurila Oyj, Outokumpu Oyj, Normet Oy and Achema Group boards.
“I am delighted to join the Board of Directors of MetGen and to contribute to the success of the company that has a unique technological platform allowing for significant energy savings in pulp and paper industries,” Harri Kerminen comments on his appointment. “Through the recent months I met an innovative group of entrepreneurs with strong international vision and clear understanding of issues facing their target markets in Finland and beyond, and decided to personally invest to further strengthen my commitment. Through my personal involvement I look to improve the chances of this young Finnish start-up to succeed on the world markets by lending my expertise and contacts and working with the management to build a globally recognisable company.”
“We are proud and honoured to have Harri Kerminen join our Board of Directors,” mentioned Alex Michine, MetGen CEO. “We look forward to his contribution and insights in commercialising our enzyme solutions in pulp and paper, advanced biofuels and biochemical, and water industries. By building an internationally recognised board MetGen makes a strong commitment to corporate governance and looks forward to building its collaboration network with various industry players.”
MetGen has recently announced closing of a financing round in the amount of 2.2M euro with participation from Sofinnova Partner Green Seed Fund, Finnish Industry Investment, Finnvera and HST Partners.
For more information, please contact:
Harri Kerminen, Chairman of the Board, MetGen Oy, tel: +358 500 817 230, e-mail: harri.kerminen@hstpartners.fi
Alex Michine, CEO, MetGen Oy, tel: +358 40 543 37 40, e-mail: alex@metgen.com
About MetGen
MetGen is a Finnish company that develops disruptive enzymatic products that enable significant efficiency improvements in the pulp and paper and biofuels industries, as well as removal of toxic micro-pollutants from waste water. The company offers enzymatic solutions for the pre-treatment of a variety of lingo-cellulosic biomass. MetGen provides enzymes that dramatically save energy at the refining step in the pulp and paper industry. In the advanced biofuel sector, MetGen enables production of low cost lingo-cellulosic sugars. MetGen’s competitive advantage is the ability to tailor or adapt enzymes to meet each customer’s segment specific needs. www.metgen.com