Angie Ackroyd, Climate Tech and Advanced Manufacturing Executive, Joins Sora Fuel as VP of Engineering
BOSTON, August 11, 2026 — Sora Fuel, a climate technology company that makes jet and diesel fuel from just air, water, and renewable energy, today announced that Angie Ackroyd has joined the company as Vice President of Engineering.
Ackroyd will lead Sora Fuel’s engineering organization as the company moves its Direct Air Conversion™ technology from initial field validation toward pilot-scale production. Her initial priorities include refining and improving the balance of plant that surrounds the company’s core capture and electrolysis technology, establishing the engineering processes required to move from pilot to commercial scale, and expanding the engineering team.
She brings more than 40 years of experience developing and commercializing complex technologies across climate technology, hydrogen infrastructure, industrial automation, robotics, and advanced manufacturing. Ackroyd previously founded and served as chief technology officer of LIFTE H2, a hydrogen infrastructure company that grew from six to 54 employees in 18 months without seed or venture funding. During that period, the company commercialized products including hydrogen tube trailers, fueling stations, export systems, mobile refuelers, and digital asset-monitoring technology.
Ackroyd later served as president of Powertech USA following its acquisition of LIFTE H2 assets. Earlier in her career, she held several engineering and product-development leadership roles at Shell, including leading hydrogen product development. At Kiva Systems, a successful Boston startup (later acquired by Amazon) that pioneered mobile robotic fulfillment systems, she was responsible for defining and roadmapping the worldwide safety system. Most recently, she served as Vice President of Engineering at Found Industries, where she directed the development of commercial-scale reactor and critical-metals extraction systems.
“We designed Sora Fuel’s system to eliminate much of the cost and complexity that has held other approaches back. The next challenge is turning that design into hardware and instrumentation that can operate safely, reliably, and continuously at scale,” said Gareth Ross, CEO and co-founder of Sora Fuel. “Angie has spent her career doing exactly that. Just as importantly, she knows how to build engineering teams that can solve difficult problems together over the long term.”
“Over the past two years, we have demonstrated the core science behind our process,” said Patrick Sarver, Chief Science Officer and co-founder of Sora Fuel. “Now we have to bring each part of the technology together into a commercial-scale, integrated system. That transition requires rigorous systems engineering, and Angie brings deep experience delivering complex hardware across hydrogen, automation, and energy.”
Ackroyd will also oversee a significant expansion of Sora Fuel’s engineering organization over the coming year.
“What stood out to me about Sora Fuel was the fundamental simplicity of the system and how much the team has already demonstrated,” said Ackroyd. “The opportunity now is to translate that work into a system that performs reliably outside the lab. That takes strong engineering, disciplined execution, and a team that trusts one another. I’m excited to help build that team and give it the structure and support it needs to succeed.”
Ackroyd joins Sora Fuel following the company’s recent $14.6 million oversubscribed financing led by Spero Ventures and Inspired Capital, with strong follow-on investment from existing investors including Engine Ventures, Wireframe Ventures and Standish Spring. The company also recently appointed Steve Bolze, former president and CEO of GE Power & Water, to its board of directors.
About Sora Fuel
Sora Fuel makes jet and diesel fuel from just air, water, and renewable energy. The company's proprietary Direct Air Conversion™ process – the only complete, closed-loop capture-and-conversion system in the world – captures atmospheric CO₂ and converts it directly into syngas. This process bypasses the most expensive step in conventional direct air capture and delivers carbon at one-tenth the cost of existing approaches. The result is a drop-in, carbon-negative sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and diesel fuel with a realistic pathway to price parity with fossil fuels. Headquartered in Boston, Sora Fuel is backed by leading climate and infrastructure investors. Learn more at www.sorafuel.com.