SPACECOOL INC. hereby announces that Masahiro Suemitsu appointed the position of CEO as of April 1st, 2024. In conjunction with this, the outgoing President & CEO Takayuki Hoshuyama appointed the position of the Board Director. SPACECOOL will continue to be managed in a manner that allows it to contribute to all stakeholders under this new management structure.

*Chief Sales Officer

After completing his studies at the Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka University, Suemitsu joined Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. in 2012, where he planned and worked on projects across multiple research themes at the same time by drawing on his wide range of experience from basic research to joint development with manufacturers and universities. In 2013, he launched research and development in the field of photonics (optical engineering), which was a new domain for Osaka Gas, and conducted research on thermophotovoltaics power generation (TPV) in collaboration with Prof. Susumu Noda from the Department of Electronic Science and Engineering at Kyoto University’s Graduate School of Engineering. Through optical control using photonic crystals, he achieved a TPV efficiency that far exceeded the world record held by MIT at the time, and his research results were featured in Nature Photonics and various other media. While continuing his work, he attended a graduate program Kyoto University’s Graduate School and in 2019 obtained his Ph.D. in Engineering. The research and development of radiative cooling materials that gave rise to SPACECOOL INC. was independently launched by Suemitsu at Osaka Gas in 2017. In April 2021, he established SPACECOOL as a startup aimed at product commercialization with investment from WiL LLC. and Osaka Gas and was transferred to SPACECOOL as its CTO. He resigned from Osaka Gas in December 2023 and appointed the position of CEO in April 2024.

Awards include the SPIE Green Photonics Award (2016), the Japan Society of Applied Physics Honorable Mention (2019), the Kinki Chemical Society Award for Environmental Technology (2021), and the Climate Change Action Award (2023), among others.

SPACECOOL was founded in April 2021 as a startup in the deep tech field and originated from the radiative cooling material developed by Suemitsu, who was a researcher at the Osaka Gas Co., Ltd. Energy Technology Laboratories at the time. SPACECOOL has since taken on the challenge to create a sustainable and carbon-neutral society through research, development, production, and utilization of this material. One of the founding members of SPACECOOL was Hoshuyama, the outgoing President & CEO, who was involved in the launch of SPACECOOL as a professional corporate manager and has sought to widely communicate the existence of SPACECOOL as a novel material to the world, tackled heat-related issues across various industries, and developed the company into an autonomous and self-sufficient organization.

In view of this being the right moment for SPACECOOL to embark on further business expansion and take a major step forward as a startup in the deep tech field, it has been decided that the management structure will be shifted to one with Suemitsu, who developed the core technology of SPACECOOL, as CEO.

My name is Masahiro Suemitsu, and I have been appointed as the new CEO of SPACECOOL. I deeply appreciate the efforts of my predecessor Hosyuyama as the previous President & CEO, and I sincerely promise that our team will continue to strive towards the realization of SPACECOOL’s vision and mission.

In April 2024, SPACECOOL will celebrate its fourth year since its founding as a startup. What we have today is thanks to the support of our customers, partner companies, shareholders, employees, families, and all other stakeholders who have supported SPACECOOL from its inception. I am deeply grateful for their support.

Radiative cooling material is a technology that I began researching and developing at Osaka Gas in 2017. The first demonstration test of the material I designed was conducted on August 3 on the laboratory rooftop.

I remember as if it were yesterday the exhilaration I felt when I first touched the material. It was cold.

Initially, it was neither durable nor practical. However, imagining what this technology might grow to be and believing strongly that it could contribute to the world, I established SPACECOOL as a startup. With internal and external comrades’ support, along with that of numerous partner companies and users, we have been able to develop the radiative cooling material “SPACECOOL” as an extraordinary technology.

Having sowed the seeds of this technology myself, I am honored to be appointed as CEO. It is my highest priority to accelerate our innovation and growth towards the realization of a sustainable and carbon-neutral society, leading SPACECOOL to the next stage of its development.

Under a new structure, SPACECOOL will progress with its mission to “improve the temperature of the environment for people, objects, and society through the application of radiative cooling materials.” In doing so, we strive to realize our vision of “Bringing the coolness of shade trees to the world” and contribute to the actualization of a sustainable and carbon-neutral society.