About Us

IngredientWerks is a leading molecular farming developer of plant-based ingredients for food and nutritional alternative proteins.

Our plants become protein manufacturing systems, pioneering a new era of food production.

Our plant-based ingredients provide a sustainable solution for superior taste, quality, and dramatically-reduced costs for the rapidly expanding alternative protein market.

Management Team

The IngredientWerks team comprises the most experienced professionals in plant engineering and commercial development.

Matt Plavan

Chief Executive Officer

Matt Plavan

Matt has more than 30 years of experience in executive leadership for both public and private companies. Prior to joining IngredientWerks, he was CEO and Board Member at Arcadia Biosciences (NASDAQ: RKDA). At Arcadia, Matt led the team that introduced the first high fibre wheat, GoodWheat™ 2018. He also led the the co-development of the HB4 drought tolerant soybean. In addition, Matt has served in leadership roles at Cesca Therapeutics, McKesson, and Ernst & Young.

Bio

Michael Raab, PhD

Chief Technology Officer

Michael Raab, PhD

Prior to joining IngredientWerks, Michael co-founded Agrivida in 2002. Michael served the company in various capacities ranging from fundraising to strategic development to finally as Presdient. As the R&D lead, Michael leads technical product development, operations, and regulatory. He invented intein switch technology, which regulates enzyme behavior and has led to breakthroughs in animal nutrition, industrial enzymes, and sugar production. Previously, Dr. Raab worked in process research at Merck Research Laboratories, National Starch and Chemical, and Johnson Wax. He holds a Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a B.S. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, both in chemical engineering.

Bio

Jeremy Schley-Johnson, PhD

VP of Strategy and Operations

Jeremy Schley-Johnson, PhD

Jeremy Co-founded Agrivida along with Michael Raab. As Vice President, Jeremey oversees process development and helps lead operations. An expert in strategic decision-making in the design of chemical processes, Jeremy also manages human resources and finance. Prior to Agrivida, he worked at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and served as a process engineer at Black and Veatch. Jeremy earned a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Kansas, where he is a member of the advisory board for the chemical and petroleum engineering program. He earned a Ph.D. in chemical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bio

Philip Lessard, PhD

Director, Plant Analysis & Biochemistry

Philip Lessard, PhD

Philip has 25 years of experience in crop engineering. He has been instrumental as both a product development and regulatory science leader for companies like Agrivida and Monsanto.

Bio

Oleg Bougri, PhD

Director Plant Engineering

Oleg Bougri, PhD

Oleg has 25 years of experience in crop engineering. He created Agrivida’s commercial expression cassettes for the companies first and second generation products TIGR and Simplot. Oleg held similar roles at Monsanto.

Bio

Vladimir Samoylov, PhD

Director Plant Transformation

Vladimir Samoylov, PhD

Vladimir has 25 years of experience in crop engineering. He was critical in creating Agrivida’s commercial corn events for phytase and glucanase. Vladimir held similar roles at Syngenta and Monsanto.

Bio

Years of combined crop engineering experience

Years working as a team in crop engineering

Transformation efficiency over industry average

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Inventions patented in crop engineering

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Board of Directors and Advisors

Ron Meeusen, PhD

As Chairman of the Board of Directors at IngredientWerks, Ron Meeusen is a pioneer in crop innovation. He has over 30 years of experience bringing new technologies and products to market. He also currently serves as the Managing Director of Cultivian Sandbox and co-founder and Managing Partner of Cultivian Ventures.

Bio

Jim Schultz

Jim is the Founder and Managing Partner of Open Prairie. He is a fifth generation agriculture investor and entrepreneur with over 30 years of investment experience. Jim has been instrumental in starting and providing capital to companies throughout the country.

Bio

Steve Snyder

Steve is CEO of Schuman Cheese, a privately owned leader in high-end, retail, food service and gourmet cheese based in Fairfield, NJ. An accomplished CEO with experience in start-up, middle market and large multinational companies in a range of industries including food, personalized nutrition, pharma, biotechnology, digital transformation, e-commerce and agriculture.

Bio

Clint Bybee

Co-founder and Managing Director of ARCH Venture Partners, Clint Bybee has helped organize and finance numerous companies, including MicroOptical Devices, Innovalight, and Intelligent Reasoning Systems.

Bio

Matt Plavan

Bio

Jonathan McIntyre, PhD

Jonathan is scientist, consultant, and former food industry executive who held leadership roles at companies like Motif FoodWorks, Indigo, and PepsiCo. He has a deep understanding of both the science and business of the industry, and his experience across both small tech startups and big CPGs affords him a unique perspective on how to successfully lead teams.

Bio