Sublime Systems Appoints New Chief Executive Officer, an Executive Chair, and a Board Member as it Continues to Establish its Commercial and Industrial Footprint

Chief Operating Officer Rob Davies has been appointed as CEO, leveraging his decades of manufacturing leadership experience, complemented by the appointment of Bill Brady as Executive Chair and Dr. Brian Baynes as new Board Member. Dr. Leah Ellis, Sublime’s former CEO and Co-founder, will remain actively engaged with the company.

SOMERVILLE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sublime Systems, a U.S. manufacturer scaling clean, innovative cement production, today announced the promotion of its former Chief Operating Officer Rob Davies to the position of Chief Executive Officer, and added two other Board positions to accelerate the company’s growth to commercial manufacturing.

The role leverages Davies’ three decades of industrial leadership experience and recent period working with the Sublime team as advisor and COO. He succeeds Co-founder Dr. Leah Ellis, who transitions from the CEO role after successfully leading Sublime from its 2020 spinout from the lab of her Co-founder, MIT Professor Yet-Ming Chiang. Sublime has advanced to pilot operations, poured Sublime Cement^® in multiple construction projects, secured competitive funding, attracted cement majors as co-development partners to scale globally, and is now readying for its first commercial factory.

“Leah’s vision to reshape cement production brought together a remarkable team and ecosystem of partners, and is what first drew me to Sublime over a year ago,” said Rob Davies, new CEO at Sublime Systems. “I am honored to partner with the Sublime leadership to apply my manufacturing experience and realize the company’s vision through this next phase of commercial growth and industrial expansion.”

Davies started his career and spent 20 years in the cement industry, working for Blue Circle, Lafarge and Holcim—a current Sublime strategic partner—and led a network of nine cement plants across the UK. He then spent 12 years in the global chemical industry, leading networks of activated carbon plants and carbon black facilities before bringing his experience to startups, first in the battery materials sector and then to Sublime.

“I am excited for the next chapter for Sublime Systems, a company I had the great pleasure of leading over the last five years, in part due to Rob and the wonderful team of professionals we have assembled,” said Sublime Co-founder Dr. Leah Ellis.

Davies’ leadership at Sublime will be complemented by Bill Brady, current Sublime Board Member who has been appointed Executive Chairman. Brady has scaled multiple complex industrial and chemical manufacturing technologies and raised hundreds of millions in capital, for companies including Kula Bio and Monolith Materials. Joining Davies and Brady is new Board Member Dr. Brian Baynes, who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience as a successful chemical engineer, founder, VC, and current Chairman of Verdox.

About Sublime Systems
Sublime Systems is commercializing a breakthrough technology to manufacture cement in a more energy and resource efficient manner. Sublime’s ambient-temperature electrochemical process breaks down low-value rocks and industrial waste into its constituents: reactive cementitious ingredients and pure streams containing critical minerals. It avoids the emissions of portland cement manufacturing while producing an ASTM-compliant Sublime Cement^® that is more durable, more consistent, and whiter in color than portland cement. Sublime was spun out of MIT by Dr. Leah Ellis and Prof. Yet-Ming Chiang, both respected experts in materials science and electrochemical systems. The company has raised funding from leading tech investors, cooperative agreements with the U.S. Department of Energy, and three of the largest cement producers in the western world: Holcim, Amrize, and CRH. Sublime Systems operates a Somerville, MA-based 250 ton-per-year pilot, is developing its first commercial factory, and continues to sell offtakes of its cement and associated environmental attributes to infrastructure owners who value the ability of low-carbon cement in reducing corporate emissions. Learn more at sublime-systems.com or contact [e-mail] to inquire about working together.