Sortera Technologies names chairperson

Kenneth Leet will serve as the company’s first chairperson of the board.

Sortera Technologies Inc., a Markle, Indiana-based material sorting company, has named Kenneth Leet as the first chairperson of its board of directors.

Sortera says Leet’s three decades of experience and leadership in the financial sector, as well as his experience working with industrial companies, will play a key role as Sortera ramps up for its next phase of growth.

“Kenneth is a well-regarded leader who has an outstanding reputation with vast experience in investing and advising some of the world’s largest blue-chip companies from various industries to success,” Sortera CEO Michael Siemer says. “We are deeply honored and enormously pleased that he recognizes Sortera’s potential and has agreed to join our board and assume the role of chairman.

“In three short years, Sortera has transformed the recycling industry with its cutting-edge technology and has established itself as a key player in the $1 trillion metals and recycling markets. We are excited for Sortera's growth prospects, and I am confident that Ken's track record, strong leadership and wealth of experience in the industrial sectors will contribute to establishing Sortera for success for decades to come.”

RELATED: Sortera Technologies ‘owning and operating’ aluminum sorting plants

Sortera’s flagship facility in Markle, Indiana, which broke ground in 2023, is expected to be fully operational by the end of 2025, sorting 220 million pounds of aluminum. In 2025, Sortera expects to expand its sorting capabilities and establish additional operations in North America, which it says will further accelerate the company’s growth within the more than $1 trillion metals and recycling markets.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to serve as Sortera’s chairman at this important time in the company’s history,” Leet says. “I have had the opportunity to work with Sortera’s leadership team and have come to appreciate the level of sophistication of its technology platform and the potential application for the industrial sector. I have deep respect for their thoughtful and strategic approach to building Sortera into a world-class materials sorting company that can benefit many industries across the U.S. and beyond.”

Leet previously was a partner at Goldman Sachs in London and New York, where he was responsible for the firm’s global business efforts with industrial companies and played a leadership role in its mergers and acquisitions and principal investing efforts. Additionally, Leet served as president of Cerberus European Capital Advisors, president of the Pritzker Organization and special advisor to the board of the Ford Motor Co.

Mr. Leet serves as trustee of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, trustee of Rush University System for Health, trustee of the Rush University Board of Governors and advisory board member of Park Square Capital. He is a graduate of Brown University and Harvard Business School.

Sortera recently had the final close of an additional $28.8 million of its Series C funding round, which began in 2023. The total amount raised was $59.3 million from investors RA Capital Management-Planetary Health with participation from certain funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc.; the Mineral Resources Group, which is a part of Mitsubishi Corp.'s Business Incubation Unit; and Macquarie GIG Energy Transition Solutions (MGETS). Additional existing investors in the round include Assembly Ventures, Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Chrysalix.

Sortera also was named to the 2025 Global Cleantech 100 list by the CleantechGroup, which recognizes companies committed to developing solutions to address the climate crisis.