Amyris appoints Charles Kraft as VP to lead manufacturing

Oct 9, 2012 - US renewable chemicals and fuels firm Amyris Inc (NASDAQ:AMRS) today said it had appointed Charles Kraft as vice president of global manufacturing and process development.

Kraft was previously vice president of operations and before that vice president of engineering at Dupont Tate and Lyle Bioproducts, a joint venture between US conglomerate Dupont (NYSE:DD) and UK food ingredients maker Tate & Lyle (LON:TATE). He has earlier spent almost 20 years holding various operational posts at Tate & Lyle's citric acid plant in the US.

Chief executive John Melo said that as Amyris was in the final stages of commissioning its first purpose-built farnesene plant in Brazil, Kraft would help bring the company's manufacturing to its next phase, namely operational improvements and process optimisation.

Amyris uses a synthetic biology process to turn plant sugars into hydrocarbon molecules. It is commercialising products based on Biofene, the company’s brand of renewable farnesene. Last week, law firm Wohl & Fruchter said it had started an investigation into possible securities laws breaches by the management of Amyris over statements about its ability to produce Biofene in commercial quantities.

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