Alumna Julie Willoughby (Ph.D. ‘07) has been appointed TerraSafe CEO to lead the global transformation of the packaging industry. She joined TerraSafe as CTO in 2024 and in her new role she will lead the company’s next phase of growth–scaling its portfolio of bio-based packaging materials into global commercial markets. 

TerraSafe has rapidly advanced under Willoughby’s technical leadership. They have:

• Established a 60,000-sq-ft R&D and manufacturing facility in Youngsville, NC
• Developed 10+ patent families of high-performance bio-based materials
• Launched two commercial products leveraging TerraSafe’s polysaccharide film technology
• Raised $13.3M to date, included a new $2M Series A lead investment from Big Idea Ventures’ Generation Food Rural Partners Fund

“I grew up in the chemicals industry,” said Willoughby. “That experience gives me a deep respect for its power to shape the world—and a conviction that it must evolve. My work is about creating a new generation of materials that perform better because they’re designed with people and the planet in mind.”

Willoughby is a chemical and biomolecular engineering, polymer scientist, and serial entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience across the chemicals, coatings, pulp & paper, packaging, textiles, life sciences, and fashion industries. Her cross-disciplinary expertise bridges hard science with market-ready innovation. 

Before joining TerraSafe, Willoughby served as Chief Scientific and Commercialization Officer at Circ®, where she scaled its textile-to-textile recycling technology from lab to semi-commercial production, helping earn recognition as a 2023 Earthshot Prize finalist and 2024 Fast Company Most Innovative Company. She previously led materials and manufacturing innovation at Nike, served as faculty at NC State’s Wilson College of Textiles, and held senior R&D roles at Dow Corning (now Dow Silicones) and MeadWestvaco (now Smurfitt WestRock)–laying the foundation for her deep understanding of industrial manufacturing and circular material systems. 

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