Benjamin Reed Email & Phone Number

Denver, Co, Us

- PhD in Pharmacology / Yeast Metabolic Engineering- Technical experience in Metabolic Engineering, Precision Fermentation, Enzyme Production.- Corporate Expertise in Strategy, Business Operations, CMO oversight, and Program Management & Standup.- Industry experience in Bioethanol, Bioagriculture, Wastewater, Human Health, Drug Development (at Novonesis), Oil & Gas, Mining, Renewable Energy (at Cemvita), Fermented Foods and CPG (At Meati). Experience in companies sized 80 to 8000 people working on fermentation or biochemical production.

Denver, Colorado, United States

Series C Startup CPG company, focused on the sustainable production of alternative protein food products through fermentation.- Worked with C-Suite to define short-term and long-term business strategy, and translate it into executable strategy and KPIs. Provided monthly executive-level summary reports on progress.- Advised C-suite on optimizing customer experience, operational efficiency, and sustainability initiatives, acting as a strategic partner to create programs that delivered on strategy.- Led the creation and mobilization of a new PMO to enable agile decision making, problem solving, and critical escalation for key projects delivering on executable strategies: - Established and led 4 programs/94 projects governed by the Meati strategy. - Go-To-Market program, which launched 5 Retail products in 2023/2024. - Cost Reduction program, with $10M in savings in 2023/2024. - Capacity program, which tripled production volumes in 2023/2024.- Managed the delivery of project components for marketing, consumer experience, and manufacturing components required for production during retail launches.- Acted as point of escalation for all programs and projects to CEO and C-Suite.

Denver, Colorado, United States

Series A Startup focused on carbon neutral fermentation of chemicals for renewable energy, including Gold Hydrogen (conversion of depleted oil reservoirs), Sustainable SAF (through waste and/or CO2 conversion to SAF or SAF precursors) and Endolith (extraction of minerals from low-grade ores via biological catalysts)KEY ROLES:Business Development for Cemvita's BioManufacturing PlatformPMO for Cemvita and Affilliates, including the stand up of new PMO at Cemvita.Strategic Planning and Execution- Owner of parent level product portfolio board to oversee product strategy within R&D and Cemvita affiliates.Operational Efficiency- Built PMO from ground up using hybrid (Waterfall + Agile) framework to govern projects from initation through launch.Business Development and Partnerships:- Lead business development efforts, including negotiating contracts, managing key accounts, and fostering long-term relationships with customers and stakeholders for Cemvita and its affiliates.Financial Management:- Built cross-collaborative strategy to forecast, oversee, and monitor product development budgets.- Guided COGS, TEA, LCA discussions.Team Leadership and Management:- Supported short to long term organizational growth strategy- Culture, Team and Professional development, & Mentorship advocate

Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill Area

Product Strategy and Planning:- Product range and lifecycle management of 250 microbial SKUs across 6 production sites (+ CMOs) for NA, SA, EMEA and APAC with diverse regulations. - Market research & analysis for how to expand/shrink production portfolio to maximize efficiency across all 6 production sites.- Product Portfolio was key driver of growth within Novozymes.- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define product roadmaps, prioritize initiatives, and allocate resources effectively for rapid commercialization.Product Development and Management:- Lead and manage the end-to-end product development lifecycle strategy, ensuring timely delivery in line with growth strategy.- Work closely with R&D teams to guide the development of new biotechnology products based on scientific research and market demand.- Key focus on fastest paths to MVP and short development cycles.- Establishment and oversite of global quality strategy for product portfolio.- Reviewed and managed product line profitability, COGS, and production site efficiency, and business line budget.Portfolio Optimization and Growth:- Evaluate the performance of existing products, identify gaps, and recommend strategies to enhance the portfolio's profitability and market positioning.- Develop and implement pricing strategies, product positioning, and marketing plans to drive sales growth and market share.- Identify opportunities for product line extensions, product enhancements, or new product - introductions to expand the portfolio.- Responsibilities representing and understanding ‘voice of the customer’ and reviewing all related contractual information relating to customer expectations.- Active role maintaining customer satisfaction and relations Cross-functional Collaboration:- Active and routine communication across all stakeholders to optimize paths to launch for new products.- Oversaw establishment of global platform to manage and prioritize new product concepts in 2021.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

Research Strategy and Planning:- Developed and implement the overall research and hiring strategy and vision for the Assay and Analytical Development Department in line with broader growth strategy for the company.- Identified and priotized emerging trends, technologies, and methodologies in the field and propose innovative approaches to advance research initiatives.Team Leadership and Management:- Head of team (10 SMEs –Scientists and Data Scientists) responsible for validation and implementation strategy for analytical methods & assays, equipment, and data management for quality operations for NA, SA, EMEA, and APAC.- Grew team from 3 to 10 in 2017-2018. Established a data scientist team, an automated liquid handling team, and created a project management/agile role.Assay and Analytical Development:- Lead the design, development, optimization, and validation of robust and reliable assays and analytical methodologies.- Drive the implementation of new technologies and platforms to enhance assay performance and data quality.- Establish and maintain standard operating procedures (SOPs), protocols, and documentation for assay development and validation processes.- Created an automated liquid handling program and supporting data platform (LIMS, Python, Tableau), which was onboarded to two world-wide operations sites in 2018-2019.Quality and Compliance:- Ensure adherence to regulatory guidelines, industry standards, and best practices for assay and analytical development.- Develop and implement quality control measures to ensure accuracy, precision, and reliability of assay results.- Lead implementation of ISO 9001 in 2020.- Supported broad industries and regulations, including Bioenergy, Bio-Agriculture, Animal Health and Nutrition, Human Health, and Wastewater.

Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina Area

- Drove market research and customer profiling with quality focus to develop analytical strategy for product novel to Novozymes.- Developed performance methods and analytical strategy for successfully launched products, including Innova® Force and Fit.- Worked cross-functionally to link customer experience to internal product performance for above products by - developed communication strategies based on Novozymes’ performance and quality data to win over key customers.

Lynch Lab, Bme, Durham, Nc

Pre-Seed precision fermentation startup company focused around creating high value products through tailored microbial metabolic engineering.- Lead DARPA-funded project within ‘start-up’ environment to establish S cerevisiae as bio-engineered backbone for high-cost commodity and pharmaceutical chemical production.- Created risk-managed strategy to evaluate parallel genetic and molecular biology routes to meet established deliverables.- Leveraged a suite of high-throughput strategies, including technology (automated liquid handlers & parallel approaches in scalable fermentation systems), biology (CRISPR), and data (metabolic flux via Python)- Employed agile ‘build fast, fail fast’ strategy. Successfully met DARPA goals within 1 year.

Department Of Pharmacology, University Of Washington

- Dissertation focus on the pharmaceutical intervention of neural protein quality control to treat neurological disorders.- Experienced in evaluating protein order/disorder and protein/protein interactions to create high-throughput strategies for drug development.- Utilized synthetic and molecular biological approaches to evaluate 1000s of genes and protein interactions in parallel to uncover links between gene expression and pharmacodynamics.- Broad study of post-translational modifications (sumoylation, ubiquitination, methylation, acetylation) in neurological disorders.

Department Of Medicine, University Of Washington

- Research focus on understanding pharmacodynamics of insulin production by Islets of Langerhans.- Live microscopy and a range of in-vivo methods to understand the highly energetic coupling of metabolism and calcium flux to regulation of insulin secretion in isolated Islets of Langerhans and cultured cells.

Seattle, Wa

Screening and enrollment of patients at Harborview Medical Center (UW) into clinical research study investigating clinical outcomes of Continuous Positive Airway Pressure on Obstructive Sleep Apnea patients.

Phd, Pharmacology

Activities and Societies: Pharmacological Sciences Training Grant (2010-2012), 2011 Mentor for Northwest Association for Biomedical.

B.S., Psychology; Behavioral Neuroscience