Alex Rappaport

Alex Rappaport is an award-winning leader with a passion for innovation and sustainability.  He is the CEO and Co-Founder of ZwitterCo, Inc., a company that develops membranes that are immune to irreversible fouling and enable treatment and reuse of the world’s toughest wastewaters. At ZwitterCo, Alex drives strategic planning, organizational design, and the long-term vision for company growth.  

Alex and his team took first place in the Tufts Ideas Competition and the Tufts $100k New Ventures Competition when founding ZwitterCo, and the awards and opportunities kept coming.  

Under his leadership, the company was awarded $65k in the Water Catalyst Challenge through MassCEC, $225k in a Small Business Innovation Research grant through the National Science Foundation, and $1.25m in the Water Innovation Grand Challenge with the Department of Energy. Alex has also led the company through multiple highly successful rounds of financing with both institutional and strategic partners. 

ZwitterCo is an alumni of Boston’s climatech home: Greentown Labs Incubator. Alex led the company from the incubator stage into the Imagine H2O Accelerator program before the company expanded into their own space.  

Alex is a fierce supporter of his team. His strength is setting a culture of empowerment with a philosophy of “come as you are – love what you build.” He encourages the same entrepreneurial spirit, creativity, and resourcefulness in his team and has fostered a community that is dedicated to ZwitterCo’s mission to preserve and manage industrial and agricultural water and wastewater.   

Alex holds an M.S. in Innovation and Management and a B.S. in Environmental Engineering from Tufts University. While at Tufts, he was the chair of the entrepreneurship association and he founded Tufts Venture Lab, which was the first incubator at Tufts for venture companies. Alex continues to serve as a part-time lecturer at Tufts and provides additional support to emerging Tufts startups. 

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SESSIONS

Tuesday 9th May, 14:00 – 15:30: Water Technology Idol