New appointments mark a milestone in the company’s continued expansion, propelling it towards its goal of ending destructive wildfires.
Berlin, Germany, December 20, 2023 – Dryad, the leader in ultra-early wildfire detection, today announced its expanded executive team with the addition of three key leaders: René Wienholtz as Chairman, Martin Kropat as Chief Operating Officer, and Pedro Silva as Chief Technical Officer. These new executive leaders cap off a year of tremendous growth and position Dryad to continue to scale its wildfire detection solution in 2024.
Dryad has developed a large-scale IoT network and solution called Silvanet that allows public and private forest owners to monitor, analyze and protect the world’s largest, most remote forests. The company’s first focus is wildfires and has built a system that can detect wildfires in the earliest smoldering phase.
René Wienholtz joins as Chairman. Wienholtz is the founder and CEO of LOOM IMPACT, a company that makes social and ecological impact tradable using blockchain technology. Previously he was Chief Technology Officer at STRATO, a leading IT hosting company. “Dryad is at the forefront of using high-tech to protect our forests and climate – the world’s greatest challenge right now,” Wienholtz said. “I’m excited to use my long-standing experience as a technologist and my knowledge in the impact and investment arena to help scale this company massively.”
Martin Kropat joins as COO. Previously, Kropat led the operations of two innovative German companies, Mitte and German Autolabs. In his role as COO, he will be responsible for procurement, manufacturing, logistics, and customer success and controlling. “Dryad’s mission resonates deeply with me as I witnessed the devastation of two wildfires while living in San Diego,” said Kropat. “I’m excited to create products at Dryad that will stop this devastation and contribute positively to the planet.”
Pedro Silva joins as CTO. Previously, Silva led technology teams at INFARM, Noa Technologies, and Kinemarix, developing expertise in IoT, AI, software, and hardware. In his role as CTO, he will be responsible for leading and overseeing product development and research. “Originally from Portugal, the European country most affected by wildfires over the past decade, I have witnessed firsthand the devastating social, economic and biodiversity impact of wildfires on our communities and environment,” remarked Silva. “I can’t wait to continue to develop our technology and products so Dryad can scale and help safeguard billions of trees from wildfires.”
“I am thrilled to welcome Rene, Martin, and Pedro to the Dryad executive team,” said Dryad co-founder and CEO Carsten Brinkschulte. “Their collective vision aligns seamlessly with Dryad’s mission of advancing innovative technology solutions to protect our forests. Their various expertise will undoubtedly propel Dryad to scale our ultra-early wildfire detection solution across the globe when it’s needed most.”
In the next year, Dryad will increase its production of its Silvanet solution, signaling the startup’s ability to meet the demand of large-scale deployments. The expanded executive team will play a pivotal role in executing on this exciting future and scaling Dryad’s solution to protect the world’s forest from devastating wildfires.
About Dryad
Dryad provides ultra-early detection of wildfires as well as health & growth-monitoring of forests through the Silvanet solution – solar-powered gas sensors deployed in a large-scale IoT sensor network. Dryad aims to reduce unwanted wildfires, which cause up to 20% of global CO2 emissions and have a devastating impact on biodiversity. By 2030, Dryad aims to prevent 3.9m hectares of forest from burning, preventing 1.7bn tonnes of CO2 emissions. To learn more about Dryad, please visit dryad.net.