Ran Sharon and Melvin Jones arrived at the YPO Global Business Summit looking for
investment. But a chance encounter at the Deal Tank led to an entirely unexpected
partnership — and a lesson in why the greatest value of GBS may be in the opportunity
you never saw coming.
Walking the floor at YPO’s 2025 Global Business Summit in Los Angeles, you could be
forgiven for taking little interest in the object displayed at Clariter CEO Ran Sharon’s Deal
Tank presentation. It’s a small glass container, two-thirds filled with what looks like water
and a small piece of plastic floating beneath the surface.
But for chemical engineers like Proconics CEO Melvin Jones, we’re assured that this really is
exciting stuff.
What may look to the rest of us like a piece of Lego floating in a fish tank is, to Jones,
considerably more interesting. The object inside is a piece of computer circuitry, running
smoothly while fully submerged. The clear liquid surrounding it is not water. It’s a new form
of cooling oil manufactured by Clariter from recycled plastic.
Jones stops for a closer look. The two men get talking. They soon discover common ground
beyond a mutual interest in the technology in front of them. Clariter’s proof-of-concept
facility is in South Africa, where Jones’ engineering projects company, Proconics, is also
based.
Both men have come to Los Angeles with business investment firmly in mind. Sharon is at
GBS seeking capital to support Clariter’s international expansion. Jones, too, has arrived
looking for investment.
Instead, this chance conversation unfolding beside a fish tank is about to lead both men
somewhere else: into an unconventional strategic partnership between their two
companies that neither had predicted.
Speaking the same language
Eight months later, watching Sharon and Jones bouncing off one another during our Zoom
call, it’s easy to understand why both they and their businesses have clicked so well. The
banter starts almost as soon as Jones joins the call. “I cannot believe it, but Melvin is
dressed up,” Sharon jokes, taking in Jones’ suit.
“It happens, Ran, it happens,” Jones shoots back.
Jones then brings us up to speed. In the months since GBS, their encounter has developed
into a unique collaboration between their two companies, with Proconics supporting
Clariter’s proof-of-concept facility in South Africa.
Clariter has spent more than 20 years developing proprietary technology that transforms
hard-to-recycle plastic waste into high-value oils, waxes and solvents to replace traditional
fossil-based petrochemicals. But presenting the company posed a practical challenge: How
do you showcase something like that on the floor of a business summit?
— Melvin Jones, Proconics CEO share
“I cannot bring my 150,000-square-foot facility to GBS,” Sharon says. “So, I got a small fish
tank.”
The makeshift display did its job. It caught Jones’ attention, but the conversation soon
moved beyond cooling oil. “We had a click between us,” Sharon recalls. Despite having only
just met, the two began talking openly about how their businesses could support each
other.
And those conversations soon turned into something tangible. Sharon opened up Clariter to
Jones in a way that went far beyond a conventional business pitch. That openness extended
to Clariter’s facility in South Africa. Jones visited the plant, brought in his team and began
creating detailed 3D views of the facility, allowing engineers to zoom in on technical
drawings down to individual pipes.
The aim is to give the facility what Jones calls “a new lease of life” through further
experimentation, while exploring opportunities to deploy the technology across sub-
Saharan Africa.
Character and credibility
The speed with which the relationship developed reflects something distinctive about doing
business at a YPO event like GBS. As Jones describes it, there is already a degree of trust in
place: a “filter on character and credibility” that “lets you shortcut to having the proper
conversations quickly.”
Sharon puts it rather more bluntly. When two members meet through YPO, he says, there is
less need for the usual posturing that can accompany a new business relationship. “It’s two
YPOers,” he says. “No bull.”
That trust helps explain the openness that followed. When members of Sharon’s own team
questioned why they were sharing so much with their new partners, his response was
simple: “Why not?”
Plan for possibilities
Both men arrived in Los Angeles with clear objectives. But their experience illustrates the
value of GBS beyond the deals you came for. Sharon’s advice is simple: Come with a
clear aim but remain open to the people and possibilities around you. “I think the
networking is a big part of the success of GBS,” he says.
Jones agrees. Looking back, he says he would approach GBS with a more open mind about
where the opportunities might come from.
Like Sharon, he also pitched at the Deal Tank. “I was looking for USD5 million to do a proof
of concept on a stranded gas conversion plant,” he recalls. “Ran made top 20. I was trying to
make top 20 with my slide deck as well, but I didn’t have a water bath and a computer chip,”
he jokes. “So, I wasn’t as impressive.”
He points to the event’s speed dating and roundtable sessions, where his focus on raising money
meant “you weren’t talking about a lot of things that you could be talking about.”
This is where the conversation turns to the upcoming GBS in Istanbul. Sharon won’t be there
this time. Clariter, however, will still have a presence. “I’ll have an ambassador in Turkey,”
he points out. “His name is Melvin Jones.”
It’s perhaps the clearest indication yet of how far this relationship has come. Less than a
year after meeting beside a fish tank in Los Angeles, Sharon now trusts Jones to speak for
Clariter at the next GBS.
And Jones? This time, he plans to cast the net even wider. He’ll still arrive ready to talk
business, but he’s deliberately leaving more room for the conversations and opportunities
he can’t anticipate.
“I prepared presentations and pitches for Los Angeles,” he says. “I’m going to Turkey to
participate in the roundtables, in the networking sessions, to be talking to as many people
as I can about as many things as I can.”
That’s not to say he’ll arrive empty-handed. Jones is considering taking along a pitch for his
Proconics Earth project, as he puts it, “just to break the ice.”
Sharon immediately jumps back in. “Melvin, I’ll coach you for being in the top 20,” he says,
and our interview briefly gives way to an impromptu Deal Tank strategy session.
Ultimately, the return from GBS shouldn’t be measured “only by numbers,” Sharon tells us.
“We made a deal,” he says. “But it’s not a regular deal, and it’s definitely not the deal that I
intended.”
Much of that value, Jones believes, comes back to the environment GBS creates between
YPO members: the character, credibility and openness that allow those conversations to get
somewhere meaningful quickly. Or, as he puts it a little more succinctly: “It shortcuts a lot of
the bull.”
YPO members: Ran Sharon and Melvin Jones joined us for the 2025 YPO Global Business Summit in LA. If you’d like to make meaningful connections, explore unexpected opportunities and see where the conversations can lead, register for the 2026 YPO Global Business Summit here.
