Bula, who helped launch Big River Steel in the U.S. and later worked as chief commercial officer for Sweden’s H2 Green Steel, will lead Blastr’s strategic development, capital-raising and project execution.

“Mark’s strategic vision, leadership skills and proven clean steel track record will be invaluable assets as we continue to develop our projects and strategic platform together with customers, partners, and investors,” said Blastr chairman and co-founder Lars-Eric Aaro.

“Mark has delivered commercial development that has unlocked significant financing for startup projects while developing go-to-market strategies in the Nordics, Europe, the Middle East, and the U.S. This experience makes him ideal to lead Blastr into the next development stages, building upon the foundation laid by the Blastr team and partners to date,” he added. 

Bula, who will be based in Finland, succeeds Hans Fredrik Wittusen, who led Blastr through a project maturation and pre-feasibility stage. 

“I am thrilled to join Blastr and its talented team in realizing the vast potential for carbon emission reductions at global scale and enable significant long-term value creation,” Bula said. 

“Global steel production needs to transform at scale to provide customers and end users with decarbonized green steel. We are in the infancy of this transition which will fundamentally change how we make the world’s most important engineering and construction material,” he added.