Juha Salmela, Chief Technology Officer, co-founder and inventor of the sustainable fibre innovation. © Spinnova

Spinnova, a Finnish, sustainable fibre company, has announced that Juha Salmela, Chief Technology Officer, co-founder and inventor of the sustainable fibre innovation, has been chosen Europe’s CTO of the Year 2018.

The CTO of the Year Europe award is given annually to the most prominent and inspiring technology leaders who are forerunners in innovation. CTOs are awarded by the European Industrial Research Management Association together with innovation consulting company Spinverse.

The CTO of the Year Europe 2018 winners were announced in the EU Industry Days event in Brussels last week. Belgian Dr Nicolas Cudré-Mauroux from the chemical company Solvay won the large company series, whereas Mr Salmela won the small and medium size company series. Both CTOs and their companies focus on using technology in an innovative way to promote sustainability.

Mr Salmela invented spinning textile fibre out of microfibrillated cellulose without harmful chemicals in 2009, with inspiration from spider silk research. He and Spinnova’s expert team have scaled the innovation from a laboratory scale into a large industrial pilot in just four years, with a technology concept invented by Salmela.

“This recognition for Salmela is well deserved, thank you to the organizers. In addition to being our innovator and the mastermind behind our technology, Juha is also an inspiring colleague and a caring team leader who wants to see other people succeed,” said Janne Poranen, Spinnova’s CEO and co-founder.

Prior to inventing the fibre spinning method and founding Spinnova, physicist Salmela was a team leader of VTT’s (Technical Research Centre of Finland) rheology and process flows team. His main focus was on experimental research of paper making related fibre suspension flows and rheology. Salmela has also led several large industrial process development projects in his 18 years with the VTT. Mr Salmela is also a father as well as a licensed ultra-light aviator and ski instructor.

www.ctoeurope.net

www.spinnova.com