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Steve Witt named CEO of OptiEnz Sensors to Accelerate Company To Commercialization
Steve Witt has been named CEO of OptiEnz Sensors, LLC, a spinoff from Colorado State University and an Innosphere Client Company. OptiEnz Sensors is a local startup company developing biosensors for continuous monitoring of organic chemicals in food and beverage processing, industrial fermentations, and water supplies. OptiEnz already has a prototype for continuous monitoring that is being tested in a variety of settings, and with a new CEO onboard, the company is immediately focusing on customer trials.
"Steve brings an ideal blend of technical and business expertise, along with experience in large and small companies. With Steve on board, we can really accelerate our progress toward commercialization," said Ken Reardon, CTO and co-founder of OptiEnz Sensors and a Colorado State professor of chemical and biological engineering. "Steve joins the company with extensive leadership experience and vast knowledge of the test and measurement industry." OptiEnz's prototype for continuous monitoring is in customer trials in two primary markets: industrial control processes and environmental water monitoring.
OptiEnz Sensors, LLC creates devices that allow users to continuously measure the concentration of organic chemicals in water, and the technology can be used in a wide range of applications such as monitoring for pollutants in a river, detecting contaminants in ground water, optimizing the production of pharmaceuticals, or tracking the level of sugar during fermentation processes. OptiEnz biosensors are placed directly in the stream or reaction vessel, so there is no need for someone to painstakingly remove samples, send them to a laboratory and wait hours or days for results. This allows their customers to get the information they need rapidly so they can optimize their process and quickly take corrective actions.
"OptiEnz is a great company and I'm excited to lead us toward commercialization," said Witt. "CSU Ventures has been very supportive of the company. They've enabled us to put two patents in place and we have six more pending. Being a client company of the Innosphere has also set up a great ecosystem for us. There's a lot of entrepreneurial energy that comes with being surrounded by other high-caliber startups. Working with the SAGE advisors and getting help from the Innosphere's access to capital have been especially important for us."
Witt has worked in several entrepreneurial roles including Vice President of Business Development for Constant Wave, an early stage company in Colorado Springs. Some of Witt's other positions have included President of Compressor Controls Corporation, a global business which delivers solutions for turbo-machinery control applications in the oil and gas industry, and Vice President and General Manager for Agilent Technologies in Colorado Springs, developing and delivering telecommunication test equipment.
For more information, contact Steve Witt, OptiEnz Sensors CEO at Steve.Witt@OptiEnzSensors.com or 719-200-4722.
