A new approach to biomanufacturing combining AI, cheminformatics and scalable, sustainable raw materials

Patrick is a seasoned entrepreneur with a proven track record building technology companies centered around open-access APIs. He has scaled two successful businesses from 3 employees to over 300. As the first employee and senior vice president for a decade, Patrick helped to form and launch Ripple Inc., one of the largest blockchain companies globally. Prior to Ripple, Patrick was the first employee at Jumio, Inc., an Andreessen Horowitz-backed business developing online identity software solutions. His core business expertise centers around sales, partnerships, acquisitions, operations, and fundraising. He has raised over $100M in early stage financing from some of the highest performing VC funds in Silicon Valley. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania, Patrick started his career at a technology and media investment fund before working in the business development group at Universal Music Group, where he co-designed the first streaming media deals. Patrick’s next career chapter is dedicated to alleviating the impact of climate change through the proliferation of biomass in global supply chains.

Danièle has been working in the agri-food sector for over 35 years. She completed her Ph.D. in Food Science & Technology at Ohio State University and has held global leadership roles in R&D, Product Development, Quality and Operations with multinational companies such as Nestlé and Cargill, across all continents. She has been based in the USA, Belgium, and France. Danièle was instrumental in the launch of a flavored water at Nestlé, of a novel soy protein isolate (Prolisse™), a number of fat replacement/texturizer solutions and in the rationalization of cocoa and malting ingredient product lines, at Cargill. She holds patents and scientific publications in proteins, fermentation, structured fats and emulsions. Since her early start in France, Danièle’s passion lies in driving meaningful impact through strategic product development, innovation and operational leadership.

Spencer is a seaweed chemical and regulatory compliance expert. He completed his PhD in chemistry in 2016 (University of British Columbia, Canada) and has developed seaweed products and market research for 7 years covering a range of applications - food, agriculture (methane-reducing ruminant feed additive and plant biostimulants), and marine chemical extracts. In 2021, he co-founded Spoitz Enterprises which has provided scientific consulting services to a range of industry and government clients across North America before being acquired by Marine Biologics in 2024. His primary speciality is seaweed bioactive characterization, chemical extraction, and agri-food regulatory compliance.

Sally has 20 years of experience executing go-to-market initiatives and strategies in ingredient biotech start-ups (Evolva, Sweegen) and established corporations (Cargill). During her career she has launched a wide variety of new-to-the-world products and technologies in oils, nutraceuticals, sweeteners, flavors, fragrances, personal care and protection. Sally’s commercial expertise spans marketing, sales, product management; partnerships between start-up ventures and large companies; sustainability, carbon footprint and life cycle assessment; and execution of government funded development projects. She received her MBA from Harvard Business School and BA from University of Virginia.

Andreana is a machine learning scientist focused on sustainable innovation. She brings deep knowledge of chemical discovery processes and structure-function relationships from her time as a cheminformatics scientist at AI-enabled drug discovery company Numerion Labs, where she improved pose prediction performance by employing state-of-the-art deep learning models, creating rigorous benchmarks, and incorporating explainable AI into the R&D workflow. Most recently, Andreana worked as an independent data science consultant in biotechnology and materials science, and she kickstarted computational chemistry data collection and management at AI-driven materials-discovery startup Materia Chemistries. Previously as a software engineer at Enel X she built energy storage pre-sales tools. She has a PhD in Physical Chemistry from the University of California-Berkeley, is a Fulbright Scholar, and has co-authored 8 scientific publications, including one cited over 100 times.

Anisha is an entrepreneur and innovator with 20+ years of experience in application science and culinary R&D. Her dual background in engineering and hospitality has played a pivotal role in developing proprietary technologies and ingredient systems for leading organizations including The Alinea Group, ThomaBravo, Airbnb, and Mission Barns. At Marine Biologics, Anisha’s passion for fostering human connection through product design anchors the company’s expertise in both user experience, and materials innovation.

Ryan Hunt is a scientist, entrepreneur and engineer focused on commercializing algae as a renewable resource in consumer products. Over the past 20 years, Ryan has conducted research, development, scale up, and commercialization of algae-based materials for consumer products such as footwear, accessories, and sporting good products. Ryan has co-founded 5 companies and has helped bring hundreds of algae-infused consumer products to market over the past 10 years in collaboration with global brand leaders such as adidas, Yeezy, Dr Scholls, Merrell, Black Diamond Equipment, and Firewire Surfing and over 100 other brands. Ryan led the design, capitalization and operational scale up of lean manufacturing factories for producing BLOOM foam and converting it into finished goods for in-house brand BLKSWN ("Black Swan") Footwear. Ryan holds a deep passion and enthusiasm for creating value from aquatic feedstocks for consumer product companies to help improve their sustainable metrics, circular designs and deliver new value creation from novel biomaterials.

Dr. Fraser Pick is the Vice President of Research and Development for Marine Biologics, a biomaterials business that develops products from macroalgae. Dr. Pick leads the strategic upstream development of seaweed supply, processing, and stabilization, working with the commercialization team to ensure sustainable product development.

Prior to joining Marine Biologics, Dr. Pick was the Co-Founder and Chief Operational Officer at Spoitz Inc., a technology and product development consultancy focused on agriculture, supply chains, and process management.

Dr. Pick has a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from the University of British Columbia and completed postdoctoral studies in Whisky Maturation at the University of Windsor.

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Ismael is passionate about driving sustainable innovation through science and technology. As a co-founder of Black Sheep Foods Inc., he played a key role in creating and patenting the world’s first vegan lamb flavor profile using data-driven insights. Afterward, he served as Program Manager at UC Berkeley’s Alt-Meat Lab, where he contributed to agricultural research initiatives and guided students in developing sustainable technology startups.

Outside of work, Ismael can often be found rock climbing, hiking, running, or pursuing other activities that immerse him in the outdoors.

Driven by a commitment to sustainability and innovation, Chet Russell builds data-driven solutions that bridge machine learning and environmental impact. With hands-on experience in predictive modeling, geospatial analysis, and data engineering, he has contributed to research and industry projects in marine biology and aquaculture. His background in computer science and passion for clean technology guide his work across cloud platforms and ML systems.

I am a French phycologist working on the metabolomic composition and the ecophysiology of seaweed. More particularly, I am focusing on the optimisation of the macroalgal biomass in a valorisation perspective. I pay particular attention to the preservation of macroalgal biomass, using sustainable and environmentally-friendly extraction protocols, and taking into consideration the potential impacts of global change. Before to join Marine Biologics, I did a master’s degree in Biotechnological valorisation of marine resources at the University of Western Brittany (France), followed by a PhD intitled « Ecological and metabolomic responses to environmental constraints of brown and red macroalgae from the intertidal zone” at the Laboratory of Environmental Sciences (LEMAR, Brest, France). I also worked at the University of Galway (Ireland) for 3 years, where I carried out cultivation experiments to assess the seasonal effects of increasing temperature on the composition and the productivity of Irish macroalgae, in the context of a macroalgal biorefinery project.

Danni is an experienced project manager who is motivated by connecting people and building impactful teams. Most recently she worked at a digital agency leading an Agile team to success building digital projects. Before that Danni led a university-based program to get more women and girls into STEM fields. Over the past decade she has lent her professional skills to her community by serving on a variety of non-profit boards. Danni has a Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Environmental Science and is passionate about sustainable technologies. Outside of work, Danni enjoys hiking, oat lattes, and playing video games.