People.
For your convenience, we have consolidated headshots and bios of our thought leaders.
Luke Haverhals, Ph.D.
Founder
Luke’s professional mission is to collaborate with and empower material scientists, manufacturing workers and engineers, investors, change-makers, creators, and brands around the world to create a fully circular, holistically sustainable, low-carbon material economy from the ground up.
Luke earned a Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Iowa before going on to explore all-natural alternatives to petroleum-derived synthetic plastics as an Assistant Research Professor at the US Naval Academy. His vision to develop bioneutral, high-performance materials from renewable natural nutrient inputs has become the foundation for NFW’s ecosystem of patented, paradigm-shifting material technologies. Luke has given dozens of invited international presentations on the intersection of materials science with fashion, footwear and other related trillion-dollar consumer industries.
In an industry awash with incremental solutions, Luke is leading NFW to drive a moonshot systems-level shift away from petroleum-derived products and toxic chemistries. Luke was named IPOEF Inventor of the Year in 2022. Luke is a Fortune+Salesforce Ecopreneur, an Unreasonable Group Fellow, Forbes Council Member, and World Economic Forum (WEF) Technology Pioneer, and graduate of The Circulars Accelerator, Fashion for Good Scaling Programme, and the Nation Science Foundation I-Corps Program.
In October of 2024, Luke resigned his role as CEO.
Steve Zika
Co-Founder, CEO
Appointed to the role of CEO in October of 2024, Steve brings decades of leadership experience from across cutting-edge tech companies and social impact ventures to NFW. As both a veteran founder and seasoned C-suite corporate exec, Steve applies his operational expertise and pragmatism to scale NFW’s material platforms growth and steward long-term profitability.
A Peoria native, Steve returned to his hometown with his family several years ago after a 16-year career at the multinational semiconductor company Advanced Micro Devices, where he served as director of product management and chief of staff to the president.
Having spent time in both Silicon Valley and Austin, Texas, Steve has helped foster Illinois’ own blossoming startup ecosystem as director of Startup Peoria and co-founder of an investment firm that sparks the creation and growth of sustainable, mission-driven businesses.
Steve earned a BS and MS at Stanford University where he studied Material Science and Engineering. He joined the NFW leadership team in 2016 to put his unique blend of material science-savvy, social entrepreneurship, and corporate management to work to transform lives in Peoria and all over the world.
Aaron Amstutz
Chief Technology Officer
Aaron Amstutz is a passionate material scientist and serial innovator redefining circular design. As NFW’s chief technology officer, his favorite days are spent in the lab alongside his team—sharing their excitement, getting dirty, and pursuing the next breakthrough. With nearly two decades at Caterpillar designing new materials and exploring patents, he brings a wealth of practical experience and knowledge to NFW’s technical team.
Named IPOEF Inventor of the Year, Aaron specializes in tailoring the morphology of polymeric materials through novel formulations and groundbreaking processing methods. Amstutz leads R&D on MIRUM® and the rest of NFW’s breakthrough material platforms. With a deep belief in the importance of high-performance, bio-neutral materials, he is excellent at imagining categorically new approaches to material science and encouraging those around him to think outside the box.
As a triathlete in his spare time, he tests NFW’s performance textiles firsthand. Aaron is married and has four adult children.
