Ep. 48: Mike Shaw - From Accidental Chemist to PFAS Destruction CEO
Taking the reins at a company is no small thing, especially when your predecessor in the CEO role was someone as exceptional as Julie Mullen. Julie had built the basis for Aclarity, and following her was not for the faint of heart.
Mike Shaw is not faint of heart. He is an exceptional technical and product leader with fascinating experiences at Evoqua and Nanostone, and he has been leading the development of the Aclarity product up to its first commercial deployments late last year. Now officially in the CEO role - congratulations, Mike - I wanted to hear how he reflected on his journey, the transition from a technical leader to a company leader, and talk about the development of the PFAS market, among many other things, including a certain Manchester United manager. Please enjoy my conversation with the CEO of Aclarity, Mike Shaw.
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Full show notes and links to mentioned content below.
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Mike Shaw has two decades of water industry expertise across product management, engineering, and R&D. Before joining Aclarity, he was VP of Product at Nanostone Water, leading global application engineering and innovation strategy. Mike also spent 12 years at Evoqua Water Technologies, most recently as Director of Process and Technology, where he managed international teams to integrate advanced technologies into the company’s portfolio. A specialist in global water treatment implementation, Mike holds a chemical engineering degree from the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
00:00 - Introduction
00:49 - Taking Over as CEO at Aclarity After Julie Mullen
01:50 - Aligning Technical and Commercial Teams Around the Real Customer Problem
04:21 - Using Techno-Economic Analysis to Prove Product–Market Fit
12:25 - Shifting From Engineering Leader to CEO
16:14 - Building a Water-Tech Career Path
22:02 - Why Startups Win for Speed
24:17 - Iterating Toward Breakthroughs
29:13 - Solving PFAS Destruction
32:09 - How PFAS Customers Decide
35:47 - Where the PFAS Market Is Headed
45:35 - Water Entrepreneur Advice
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