About

Sean Molloy is a chemical engineer, entrepreneur and CEO with 20 years of experience developing and commercialising novel sustainable energy and materials technologies. He co-founded Ternary having spent his career at the frontier of deep tech ventures — building companies from early-stage science to industrial deployment.

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In 2014 he co-founded of Avertana, a waste-to-value technology developer whose process produces a range of commodity materials from titanium-rich steelmaking waste.

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Prior to Avertana, Sean worked at Greenlane Biogas in automotive biogas production, and at LanzaTech on the commercialisation of gas fermentation technology for carbon capture and utilisation in sustainable fuels and chemicals production. He is also chairman of ultra-low carbon emissions Zinc recovery technology developer, Zethos. 

Dr Sean Simpson is a scientist, entrepreneur and inventor who is best known as the founder of LanzaTech, which he established in New Zealand in 2005 and built into one of the world's most significant industrial biotechnology companies. 

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As Chief Scientific Officer, Sean led the development, scale-up and commercialisation of LanzaTech's gas fermentation platform for the production of sustainable fuels, chemicals and materials from industrial waste streams. The company spun out a new venture - LanzaJet - in 2020 to produce sustainable aviation fuel and diesel, and listed on the NASDAQ in 2023.

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Sean holds more than 200 patents, has published over 20 peer-reviewed journal articles, and is a board member of several ventures in the sustainable manufacturing sector. He was awarded the US Environmental Protection Agency Presidential Green Chemistry Award in 2015.

Professor Aaron Marshall is one of the world's leading electrochemists, whose research in electrocatalysis and electrochemical engineering forms the scientific foundation of Ternary Kinetics' technology.

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He is a Principal Investigator at the MacDiarmid Institute for Advanced Materials and Nanotechnology, and leads the Marshall Electrocatalysis and Electrochemical Engineering Research Group at the University of Canterbury. His group's work spans catalysis, materials science and electrochemistry, with a focus on the development of next-generation energy conversion and storage systems.

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Aaron is also co-founder of critical metals production technology developer, Zethos. In 2025, he was awarded the Royal Society Te Apārangi Pickering Medal in recognition of his work in electrochemistry and sustainable technology commercialisation.

Andrew Thorp has built a career turning advanced engineering concepts into production-ready hardware. He was an early employee at Rocket Lab and contributed to the development of the Rutherford Engine for the Electron launch vehicle, including clean-sheet design of the liquid oxygen pump electric motor, productionisation of flight-ready pumping equipment, and manufacturing transfer to Rocket Lab's New Zealand and Los Angeles facilities. 

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He later led an in-house redesign of critical propulsion components to remove supply chain constraints and contributed to HyperCurie propulsion development for the CAPSTONE lunar mission.

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Earlier in his career Andrew developed biogas plant controls through to commissioning and client sign-off, improved amphibious vehicle reliability and controls from prototype to first production, and advanced CNG fuel-injection systems through testing, robustness improvements and successful on-road trials. 

Dr Alex Anderson leads engineering at Ternary Kinetics, bringing deep expertise in scaling complex hardware systems from early-stage research through to production. 

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Alex spent over eight years at Rocket Lab, where he played a central role in the development and maturation of the Electron launch vehicle - one of the most successful small launch vehicles ever built. 

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Rising from Vehicle Test Engineer to Lead Mechanical Development & Test Engineer, he led a team of 17 engineers responsible for mechanical development and test across fluid systems, mechanisms, structural testing and instrumentation. 

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A defining part of his tenure was navigating Rocket Lab's shift from R&D startup to high-cadence production operation. This culminated in the successful management of the development and verification of mechanical systems on the CAPSTONE lunar orbiter while simultaneously supporting Electron production scale-up.

Damian Butters brings over 20 years of experience spanning research and development, engineering architecture and executive leadership to his role overseeing operations at Ternary Kinetics. His particular expertise lies in translating complex technological ambition into scalable, high-performing organisations.

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Before joining Ternary, Damian served as CTO of Integrated Control Technology for nearly two decades, leading the company's growth from startup to a global operation of more than 300 staff across six countries. In that role, he directed an $8 million staff budget across R&D, IT and factory automation, navigated export to 36 countries, and developed OEM relationships with global partners including Schneider Electric and GE. 

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Most recently, as CEO and Technical Founder of TDRI Solutions, he took breakthrough asset management technology from concept through to global market entry via a venture studio model.

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