Dr. Laureen Meroueh is the Founder and CEO of Hertha Metals, and the inventor of the world's first single-step, coal-free steelmaking process, making her the first woman inventor in steelmaking history to build a company around such a breakthrough. At 33, she is also likely the first solo female founder of a steel company in America, taking on a $1 trillion industry dominated by five major corporations.

Dr. Meroueh holds dual bachelor's degrees in Civil and Mechanical Engineering from the University of Florida, and earned her PhD in Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science from MIT, with a graduate minor in Entrepreneurship and Business. Prior to Hertha Metals, she served as CEO of Alchemr, a green hydrogen startup where she led the development and commercialization of anion exchange membrane water electrolysis.

Dr. Meroueh is a Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree, MIT Energy Initiative Fellow, World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer, and an inaugural member of the Breakthrough Energy Innovator Fellows program founded by Bill Gates. She is also Co-founder of MIT's Graduate Engineering Leadership program and her work at Hertha Metals is featured in Bill Gates' Netflix series 'What's Next?'

Hertha Metals' proprietary Flex-HERS process replaces coal-dependent blast furnaces with a single continuous reactor that uses natural gas or hydrogen, delivering 25% lower production costs and up to 98% emissions reductions using hydrogen. The company has secured a $133.65M Series A round co-led by Khosla Ventures and Doerr Capital, with participation from Gates Frontier, Toyota Ventures, Siemens Financial Services, and a $65M equity investment from the U.S. Government.

Hertha Metals operates a 360-ton-per-year pilot plant in Conroe, Texas, and is breaking ground on Hertha Chalyx, a new commercial facility targeting 10,000 tonnes of high-purity iron annually to address the U.S. domestic shortfall for rare-earth magnet manufacturers. The company is on track to become the first domestic producer of high-purity iron for rare earth magnets, positioning itself as both an industrial and national security asset.