Andrew Murray-Watson started at Malaysia-based Petra Group as V-P of communications last week.
The tech multinational, owned by tycoon Vinod Sekhar, is readying its Green Rubber subsidiary for a London Stock Exchange listing.
The company has developed a technology that reverses the vulcanization process to recycle tyre rubber, and is expected to carry a valuation of £200m.
Murray-Watson, based in London, will be charged with comms around the company’s pre-IPO fundraising. He is the sole comms contact at the Petra Group, but will be supported by M: Communications.
‘There are a lot of different elements to the Petra Group,’ said Murray-Watson.
‘There is the biofuels business, and the biotech business, which is developing a treatment for HIV.’
Murray-Watson moved to The Independent on Sunday in 2006 from The Sunday Telegraph, where he was city and media correspondent.
n August, Murray-Watson interviewed Petra Group head Sekhar for The Independent on Sunday, calling him ‘a flamboyant Richard Branson-type figure’.
