Black Bear appoints commercial director

Netherlands-based tyre upcycling company Black Bear has named Richard Dikkers its new commercial director. Black Bear says he “brings extensive knowledge and experience” to his new position, where he will support the company’s circular economy-based business model.

Richard Dikkers (39) has a master’s degree in business administration, prior to joining Black Bear spent thirteen years at logistics service provider Oiltanking, most recently as director new business and market intelligence.

Every year, 1.5 billion tyres reach the end of their life worldwide. The vast majority are dumped or incinerated, releasing massive amounts of CO2 and destroying valuable resources. Black Bear has developed an environmentally friendly carbonisation process to transform used tyres into recovered carbon black and tyre pyrolysis oil, two valuable and sustainable materials which it sells to clients worldwide for use in tyres, technical rubber, coatings, plastics or inks. Black Bear is working towards setting up its first industrial scale plant at Chemelot Industrial Park in Limburg, the Netherlands, and Dikkers will have a key role in leading the company’s commercial strategy.

Next level of circular entrepreneurship

“Black Bear is ready to roll-out its technology for recovering carbon black from end-of-life tyres and realise a significant contribution to the circular economy. I can’t wait to help the company grow to the next level of circular entrepreneurship,” says Dikkers.

Victor Vreeken, chief executive officer of Black Bear, adds: “At Black Bear, we believe the future of carbon black is green. We have been working very hard to spread the word about our sustainable solution around the world and we are very happy to have Richard in our team. He is an extremely skilled professional that can seriously contribute to our company reaching the next level. We believe that we can save considerable amounts of CO2 in the carbon black market, solve the waste tyre problem and operate a profitable business at the same time.”