Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), the non-profit public-private partnership focused on invigorating the American textile industry, has announced the promotion of Michelle Farrington to chief technology officer (CTO).

In her new role as CTO, Farrington will be leading AFFOA’s integrated technology development team with responsibilities spanning business development, programme management and engineering. She will be responsible for developing AFFOA’s technical strategy, and ensuring technical programmes are developed in alignment with that strategy, both within the organisation and with its members.

“I’m excited to see Michelle step into this new role,” said AFFOA’s CEO Sasha Stolyarov. “Her broad and deep technical knowledge, coupled with a talent for translating the voice ofthe customer into a technical strategy, make Michelle perfectly suited for this position. Over the last 18 months she has contributed to the strategic growth of AFFOA by building relationships with an expanding set of stakeholders both in industry and academia and we look forward to her continued success as CTO.”

“I’m looking forward to ramping up growth here at AFFOA,” said Farrington. “This means hiring great engineers, having in-depth conversations with our members and creating innovative solutions for bringing advanced functional fabrics to market in a more predictable and manufacturable manner.”

Prior to joining AFFOA as vice president of strategic growth, Farrington spent over two decades in the semiconductor industry specialising in commercialising new technologies including MEMS inertial sensors, energy harvesting and e-textiles.

AFFOA is a non-profit, public-private partnership founded in 2016 as one of the DoD-funded Manufacturing USA Innovation Institutes. Headquartered in Cambridge, Massachusetts, AFFOA’s mission is to rekindle the textiles industry by leading a nationwide enterprise for advanced fibre and fabric technology and manufacturing innovation. To catalyze the development of advanced functional fibres and strengthen the domestic textile industrial base, AFFOA has assembled a Fabric Innovation Network (FIN) made up of 140+ member organisations.

www.affoa.org