Legion 44 CDR Cast

Christoph Gebald is the co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks, the global leader in carbon removal, empowering companies to advance their net-zero roadmaps and fight global warming.  Climeworks develops, builds, and operates direct air capture plants to remove CO2 from the air on a gigaton scale in 2050.    With more than 15 years of experience in direct air capture, Christoph is considered an expert and among the creators of this growing and crucial industry.  In 2023, he was recognized by TIME among the 100 most innovative leaders driving business climate action. Christoph has given keynotes and spoken on panels at high level global events such as the World Economic Forum, COP and Microsoft’s CEO Summit. For three years in a row, he has been selected as a Digital Shaper by Swiss newspapers, BILANZ and Handelszeitung.   Christoph is a mechanical engineer by training, holding a master’s degree with distinction, and a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich. During his Ph.D. he researched direct air capture technologies and founded Climeworks on this basis together with Jan Wurzbacher in 2009.  As co-CEO, Christoph oversees the financial, commercial, project development, communications and human resources side of the business.

Jan Wurzbacher is the co-founder and co-CEO of Climeworks, the global leader in carbon removal, empowering companies to advance their net-zero roadmaps and fight global warming.  Climeworks develops, builds, and operates direct air capture plants to remove CO2 from the air on a gigaton scale in 2050. With more than 15 years of experience in direct air capture, Jan is considered an expert and among the creators of this growing and crucial industry.  In 2023, he was recognized by TIME among the 100 most innovative leaders driving business climate action. In 2022, he was invited to speak on stage at TED Countdown London and for three years in a row, he has been selected as a Digital Shaper by Swiss newspapers, BILANZ and Handelszeitung. Jan is a mechanical engineer by training, holding a master’s degree with distinction, awarded with the ETH medal, and a Ph.D. from ETH Zurich. During his Ph.D. he researched direct air capture technologies and founded Climeworks on this basis together with Christoph Gebald in 2009.  As co-CEO, Jan oversees the technology, R&D, and operations side of the business.

Driven by the conviction that Kenya is the best location for DAC technology, Martin made the move and founded Octavia Carbon in March 2022. He currently spearheads the company's strategy, fundraising, and overall management. His time at Dalberg as the global carbon removal and carbon markets content expert honed his expertise in the carbon removal space, allowing him to develop extensive knowledge and networks. Martin holds an M.A. (Hons) degree in Politics and Management from the University of Cambridge.

Duncan leads Octavia’s engineering design and project development efforts, focusing on the design of their DAC modules and the engineering of their DAC plants. His idea for building DAC as a solution to climate change emerged while he was still in university, with the goal of supporting Kenyan farmers. He has a background in mechanical engineering and is driven by a passion to use his expertise to tackle the climate crisis.

Mike leads Octavia’s Research & Development team, focusing on materials science, chemical engineering, and process optimization. With a background in mechanical engineering, Mike has played a pivotal role in advancing Octavia's technology. He was instrumental in open-sourcing the design of Octavia’s first prototype, which is now a cornerstone of the Open Air Collective’s 'Project Epiphyte’.

Shashank Samala is CEO of Heirloom, a company building Direct Air Capture technology that harnesses the natural properties of limestone to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at billion-ton scale removal. Shashank is a serial entrepreneur with a background in financial software and electronics manufacturing. He was previously Entrepreneur in Residence at Carbon180, a leading climate policy NGO working solely on atmospheric carbon removal. His passion for remediating the climate was forged from a childhood spent in southeast India, where he saw those who had done the least to cause the climate crisis suffering the most from its impacts.

Noah McQueen is a co-founder and the Head of Strategy at Heirloom, a direct air capture company with the goal of removing billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Noah's expertise surrounds carbon capture and removal, with a focus on direct air capture and carbon mineralization technologies. Their expertise further includes techno-economic analysis and life cycle assessment to evaluate the technical and economic feasibility of carbon removal systems. Noah holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Colorado School of Mines.

Dirk Paessler, born at 323 ppm, has been a software entrepreneur since age 14 until he turned his attention to climate and especially negative emissions in 2019. He is our photographer, programmer, data wrangler and data scientist. His job is also policy and investment work. Favorite pieces of equipment: MacBook, microcontrollers, zip-ties, the cloud and a hammer Most used pieces of equipment: GMail, GSheets, data visualization tools

Ralf Steffens, born at 325 ppm, has always been self employed building prototypes and stuff for the processing and car industry. He designs and builds our hardware and runs the whole enterprise in general. Favorite pieces of equipment: Makita power tools Most used pieces of equipment: screwdriver and biceps

Maurice is founder and CEO of Silicate, a terrestrial enhanced weathering company accelerating a natural geological process – the weathering of minerals – to durably sequester atmospheric carbon dioxide and amend soil pH in farmland. At Silicate, Maurice is responsible for shaping the company’s strategy, forging partnerships with academia and industry, and developing the team so that it can achieve Silicate’s ambitious carbon removal goals. Maurice has a Bachelor of Science in Marine Biology from the University of St Andrews, and a Master of Science in Carbon Finance from the University of Edinburgh Business School. He has extensive experience in agriculture, having spent years working on some of the world’s largest farms, in the UK and Australia.

Mar is a passionate marine biologist and oceanographer specialised in algae and biogeochemical cycles with a Ph.D. in Polar Biological Oceanography and more than 15 years of experience in research. She is the leader of a research group at the Alfred Wegener Institute, specialising in algae cultivation for carbon dioxide removal. In 2021 she co-founded Seafields and acted as chief scientific advisor until 2023 developing bioengineering solutions for carbon sequestration. In 2023 she founded her own company MacroCarbon SL, with the aim of transforming CO2 into valuable products through seaweed cultivation. At MacroCarbon she leads innovative efforts to develop large-scale floating seaweed aquaculture for biofuels and bioplastic production as well as carbon sequestration in biochar.

Franziska Elmer is the Head of Science at Seafields. She has a masters in Environmental Science from ETH Zurich and a Doctorate in Marine Biology from Victoria University in Wellington. After her PhD she spent 3 years as teaching faculty at study abroad programs in the Caribbean teaching Marine Science and Marine Ecology. She has been studying Sargassum for 6 years and is the founder and co-host of the Sargassum podcast. She is also the treasurer of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean and a TEDx speaker.

Adam Gravel is a farm manager at Seafields, working closely with scientists and engineers to test innovative aquaculture equipment. Originally from St. Vincent and the Grenadines, he studied business administration at the University of the West Indies in Barbados.

Mike is the co-founder and CEO of Planetary Technologies. Planetary's vision is to restore and protect the ocean and climate for generations to come through Marine Carbon Dioxide Removal (mCDR), an area of immense potential in the fight against climate change. With a history of creating nurturing and innovative corporate cultures, Mike's passion for environmental solutions is propelling his work beyond entrepreneurship into a lifelong mission. Beyond Planetary, Mike holds roles on various company boards and always makes time for the great outdoors, drawing inspiration and resilience from canoeing, fishing and hiking with family and friends.

I've been studying the oceans carbon and nutrient cycles for over 15 years. My career as an Oceanographer began aboard a Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker, during a 5-week expedition in the Arctic Ocean. There, I first learned about how Ocean Acidification was threatening arctic ecosystems, and the following year I changed my undergraduate course load to focus on studying oceans. About 13 years later I accepted a faculty position in biological and chemical oceanography at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. About 3 years into that position I learned about Planetary and the exciting research they were conducting with my former colleagues at Dalhousie University, and I took a leap of faith out of academics into the private sector. As the Chief Ocean Scientist at Planetary, I lead our growing science team, and work with numerous academic teams around the world. I joined Planetary because it at the time, it seemed clear that this climate solution had real potential to make a difference in the world, and nearly 4 years in, I'm more convinced than ever that this work can have a meaningful global impact.

Claire is a geochemist with expertise in basalt chemical weathering, aqueous geochemistry, and secondary mineral formation. She earned both an M.S. and a Ph.D. from Northwestern University, where her field-based research focused on basalt weathering in both subsurface and surficial settings in Iceland. As a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University, she developed Cella’s novel carbon injection method to optimize the efficiency of mineralization at scale.

Corey’s background spans the private and public sectors, with a focus on creating economic transformation through innovation and climate action. He’s designed and led large-scale climate initiatives at the World Bank and United Nations Environment Programme. He is a graduate of Yale University.

Anu Khan is Founder and Executive Director of the Carbon Removal Standards Initiative, a nonprofit that provides financially unconflicted technical assistance to NGOs and policymakers on carbon removal quantification. Anu previously led the Science & Innovation team at Carbon180, a long-standing carbon removal think tank, where her work focused on building systems to promote accountability in federal carbon removal policy. Prior to that, Anu co-led climate-grant making at Founders Pledge, with an emphasis on policy advocacy and energy innovation.

Peter Minor is a co-founder and CEO of Absolute Climate, and a veteran of the carbon removal industry. He previously served as the Director of Science & Innovation at Carbon180, the premier US federal policy organization for carbon removal. While there, he contributed to the development of key programs like the DOE Regional DAC Hubs, and pioneered core principles required for high-accountability MRV. Peter is also a technical reviewer for the carbon removal XPRIZE and steered development of Activate’s Carbon Management vertical. Always the optimist, Peter is a firm believer in humanity’s capacity to solve big problems.

At Isometric, Stacy is responsible for leading our science team. This includes ensuring that rigorous science underpins all of Isometric’s carbon crediting decisions and that the Protocols and Modules are in line with the Isometric Standard. Stacy was previously Head Of Sustainability at Shopify where she was responsible for building Shopify’s $55M+ CDR portfolio and was a founding member of Frontier. She also serves on the advisory boards of Carbon Removal Canada and Collaborative Fund, a venture capital firm. She has a background in environmental engineering and public policy, and has 20 years of experience working at the intersection of science and regulation in both the private and public sectors.

James Irungu Mwangi is the founder and CEO of Africa Climate Ventures, where he is working to build and accelerate transformative climate-smart and carbon-negative businesses across the continent. James is also the founder of the Climate Action Platform – Africa (CAP-A), a public benefit organization launched in 2021, to unlock Africa’s potential for inclusive prosperity through Climate Positive Growth. James serves as an independent director on several boards including the Skoll Foundation, the Global Centre for Pluralism, One Acre Fund, Old Mutual Limited and Koko Networks. He holds an AB in Economics from Harvard University and is a 2021 Yale University World Fellow, a 2009 Archbishop Tutu Leadership Fellow and a 2013 Young Global Leader. For his efforts to put Climate Positive Growth on the global agenda, James received a 2022 Climate Breakthrough Award and was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential Africans of 2023 by the New African magazine.

Sebastian Manhart is the world’s most followed carbon dioxide removal (CDR) expert, providing daily market & policy insights to >33,000 followers. He is the Senior Policy Advisor of Carbonfuture, the leading platform for high-quality CDR credits. Sebastian is also the Chair of the Board of the DVNE, the German CDR Association, as well as a founding Director of the US Biochar Coalition and the Enhanced Weathering Alliance. Sebastian also founded and runs CDRjobs, the sector’s leading job platform. Previously, Sebastian spent a decade as a tech entrepreneur, advised Angela Merkel´s Chancellery, and worked with governments globally through the World Bank. Sebastian is an economist with a BA from UCL and an MPhil from Cambridge University.

Ugbaad heads up Carbon180's environmental justice initiative. With over eight years of interdisciplinary experience in environmental science research, policy development, advocacy, and data analysis, Ugbaad’s work focuses on promoting intersectional and equitable climate policy. Previously, she worked for the City of Ottawa, informing municipal and provincial environmental legislation on the ground, and developed policy for both a grassroots organization and the City of Edmonton. Ugbaad holds a dual Master’s of Science in forest sciences and renewable resource management. She has been published in The Hill and Electricity Journal.

GCV is a systems integrator and project development company working to harness the abundant resources of the East African Great Rift Valley towards global decarbonization efforts by developing large-scale green industry and technical removal projects in suitable project sites. We work with energy-intensive businesses looking for renewable energy and waste heat, enabling them to operate with enhanced efficiency and achieve net zero targets. We have a particular focus on Direct Air Capture and Storage (DAC&S), taking advantage of the Rift Valley geology that allows for carbon mineralization. Our goal is to capture 1M+ tonnes of CO2 annually from the atmosphere by 2030s.

Mugwe Manga is the co-founder of Olsuswa Energy Limited, a pioneering geothermal development firm recognized among the top 50 companies in the London Stock Exchange Future Shapers ELITE network for innovation in 2020. With over 15 years of leadership experience as a Start-Up Executive and seasoned Business Strategist, Mugwe is committed to driving sustainable growth across Africa. He is the author of numerous insightful articles and the book The Energy Future of Africa, which explores the continent's energy transformation. Mugwe’s career began at Goldman Sachs in London, and he has since risen to key positions in African boardrooms. Notably, he serves on the board of ICEA Lion Insurance Group, East Africa's leading insurer, where he chairs the ICT and Innovation Committee. As a Consulting Advisor to The Rockefeller Foundation, Mugwe brings his expertise in Power, Climate, and Carbon Markets to foster impactful development in Africa. His academic background includes a Certificate in Organisational Leadership from Harvard Business School, a Bachelor's degree in Economics from the University of Nottingham, a Master's degree in International Business from Grenoble Ecole de Management, and a Diploma in Sustainability from the Swedish Institute Management Program (SIMP).