Allonnia is a Boston-based environmental biotechnology company that uses biology and engineered systems to solve stubborn contamination and resource-recovery problems. Spun out of Ginkgo Bioworks' Ferment Consortium in 2020, it removes PFAS from water at scale using SAFF foam-fractionation technology and is commercializing biological methods to recover critical minerals and rare earth elements from ore. The company has raised more than $100 million to bring 'bio-ingenuity' to water treatment and mining.
Nicole Richards is the founding CEO of Allonnia, a Boston-based synthetic biology company that engineers microbes to destroy forever chemicals like PFAS and 1,4-dioxane, and to pull critical minerals out of ore and waste streams. A chemical engineer with nearly three decades in water, mining and specialty chemicals, she spun Allonnia out of Ginkgo Bioworks' Ferment Consortium in 2020 with a $40M Series A and has since raised more than $109M in total funding.
Daptic (formerly DiploAI) is a New York-based startup building AI-powered regulatory intelligence software for global manufacturers. Its platform monitors more than 10,000 regulatory sources across 200+ jurisdictions, flags relevant changes within 24 hours of publication, and turns them into product-specific compliance requirements - cutting the manual research that eats into engineering and compliance teams. Founded in 2023 by MIT alumni Baptiste Bouvier and Hannah Collins, the company got its start helping electric-vehicle and automotive makers keep pace with the roughly 1,000 regulatory updates issued worldwide each day, and has since broadened to manufacturers of all kinds.

Woodard & Curran is a 100% employee-owned environmental engineering and consulting firm founded in 1979 and headquartered in Portland, Maine. With roughly 1,300 employees across 30+ offices in 14 states, the firm integrates engineering, science, design-build, and operations to solve complex water and environmental challenges for municipal, industrial, and government clients. From treating 11.7 billion gallons of drinking water annually to cleaning up Superfund contamination sites, Woodard & Curran positions itself as the firm that takes on the hard problems in water infrastructure and environmental health — not as a contractor but as a long-term partner.
Alyson Watson is the CEO and Chair of the Board of Woodard & Curran, a Portland, Maine-based integrated science, engineering, design-build, and operations firm specializing in water and environmental challenges. A Stanford-trained chemical engineer and licensed PE, she became the firm's third CEO in 2021 — and its first woman to hold that title — after more than 20 years leading water resources projects and building environmental consulting teams across the western United States. A self-described 'water brat' with roots in the industry, Watson is a passionate advocate for clean water access, outcome-based contracting, and employee ownership, guiding a firm of 1,300 people across 27 offices nationwide.