BOSTON, April 29,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Ginkgo Bioworks
(NYSE: DNA), which is building the leading platform for cell
programming and biosecurity, announced the nomination of
Myrtle Potter and Ross Fubini for election as independent
directors at Ginkgo's upcoming annual meeting, scheduled to be held
on June 13, 2024.
Marijn Dekkers, who has served on Ginkgo's Board since 2019 and
as Ginkgo's Board Chair from 2019 through 2023, and Reshma Kewalramani, who joined Ginkgo's Board in
2021 and serves as Nominating and Corporate Governance Committee
Chair, will not stand for reelection and will retire from Board
service at the upcoming annual meeting.
Jason Kelly, co-founder and
CEO of Ginkgo: "We are so excited as we look forward to having
Myrtle, who brings a wealth of experience across the pharmaceutical
R&D value chain, and Ross, with his deep knowledge of the
defense tech landscape, join our Board. And I could not be more
grateful to Marijn and Reshma for their leadership and guidance
over this truly evolutionary period for Ginkgo. It's an immensely
exciting time for the work of making biology easier to engineer,
and we look forward to working together through this next phase of
transformation and growth."
Myrtle Potter brings over
25 years of experience leading and advising global technology and
life sciences companies and serving on public company boards. She
is uniquely experienced at leveraging advanced technologies,
including AI, to accelerate the discovery and development of novel
biopharmaceutical assets. Until recently, Ms. Potter served as
President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chair of the board
of Sumitomo Pharma America. Prior to this, she served as the
Chief Executive Officer of Sumitovant Biopharma, the parent company
of five biotechnology companies, and as Vant Operating Chair at
Roivant Sciences where she provided financial and operating
oversight of Roivant's thirteen biotechnology companies. Prior to
this, she served as Chief Operating Officer, and later as
President, Commercial Operations and Executive Vice President at
Genentech. Prior to joining Genentech, she held various positions,
including President, U.S. Cardiovascular/Metabolics at
Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Vice President at Merck. While at Merck,
she started the company Astra Merck,
which later, through a series of transactions, became a part of
AstraZeneca PLC.
In her corporate work, Ms. Potter currently serves on the boards
of directors of Guardant Health (Nasdaq: GH) and Liberty Mutual
Holding Company, among others. Ms. Potter also serves on the board
of Trustees of The University of
Chicago. Ms. Potter previously served on the boards of
Amazon.com (Nasdaq: AMZN), Axsome Therapeutics (Nasdaq: AXSM), and
Express Scripts. Ms. Potter holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from
The University of Chicago.
Ross Fubini founded
XYZ Venture Capital, a venture capital investment firm, in 2017,
and serves as Managing Director. The firm invests in and supports
teams across enterprise, public sector, fintech, health tech,
climate, and more. Notably, Mr. Fubini was an early supporter of
defense tech leader Anduril, cloud-based building security breakout
Verkada, and modern insurance brokerage Newfront. In his venture
capital tenure, Mr. Fubini has advised and invested in over 200
companies across a range of stages and industries. Since 2010, Mr.
Fubini has been intimately involved with supporting executive teams
to grow and scale revenue into the hundreds of millions in a
capital-efficient and profitable manner.
Prior to XYZ, Mr. Fubini co-founded Village Global and was an
investor at both Canaan and Kapor Capital. He has held numerous
operating roles, including as the co-founder and CTO of CubeTree,
which was sold to SuccessFactors in 2010, as well as leading
engineering divisions at Symantec and Plumtree Software.
About Ginkgo Bioworks
Ginkgo Bioworks is the leading horizontal platform for cell
programming, providing flexible, end-to-end services that solve
challenges for organizations across diverse markets, from food and
agriculture to pharmaceuticals to industrial and specialty
chemicals. Ginkgo Biosecurity is building and deploying the
next-generation infrastructure and technologies that global leaders
need to predict, detect, and respond to a wide variety of
biological threats. For more information, visit ginkgobioworks.com
and ginkgobiosecurity.com, read our blog, or follow us on social
media channels such as X (@Ginkgo and @Ginkgo_Biosec), Instagram
(@GinkgoBioworks), Threads (@GinkgoBioworks), or LinkedIn.
Forward-Looking Statements of Ginkgo Bioworks
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the federal securities laws, including
statements regarding the potential election of new directors to our
Board. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by
the words "believe," "can," "project," "potential," "expect,"
"anticipate," "estimate," "intend," "strategy," "future,"
"opportunity," "plan," "may," "should," "will," "would," "will be,"
"will continue," "will likely result," and similar expressions.
Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other
statements about future events that are based on current
expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks
and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to
differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press
release, including but not limited to: (i) volatility in the price
of Ginkgo's securities due to a variety of factors, including
changes in the competitive and highly regulated industries in which
Ginkgo operates and plans to operate, variations in performance
across competitors, and changes in laws and regulations affecting
Ginkgo's business, (ii) the ability to implement business plans,
forecasts, and other expectations, and to identify and realize
additional business opportunities, (iii) the risk of downturns in
demand for products using synthetic biology, (iv) the uncertainty
regarding the demand for passive monitoring programs and
biosecurity services, (v) changes to the biosecurity industry,
including due to advancements in technology, emerging competition
and evolution in industry demands, standards and regulations, (vi)
the outcome of any pending or potential legal proceedings against
Ginkgo, (vii) our ability to realize the expected benefits from and
the success of our Foundry platform programs, (viii) our ability to
successfully develop engineered cells, bioprocesses, data packages
or other deliverables, and (ix) the product development or
commercialization success of our customers. The foregoing list of
factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the
foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties described
in the "Risk Factors" section of Ginkgo's annual report on Form
10-K filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the
"SEC") on February 29, 2024 and other
documents filed by Ginkgo from time to time with the SEC. These
filings identify and address other important risks and
uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ
materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements.
Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made.
Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking
statements, and Ginkgo assumes no obligation and does not intend to
update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a
result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Ginkgo does
not give any assurance that it will achieve its expectations.
Important Additional Information
Ginkgo, its directors, and certain executive officers may be
deemed to be participants in a solicitation of proxies from
Ginkgo's shareholders at its 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders in
connection with the director nominations disclosed above.
Information regarding Ginkgo's directors and executive officers and
their respective interests in Ginkgo, by security holdings or
otherwise, is set forth in Ginkgo's Definitive Proxy Statement for
its 2024 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, filed with the SEC on
April 29, 2024, and other reports
filed by Ginkgo and ownership forms filed by the directors and
executive officers with the SEC. Ginkgo urges its shareholders to
carefully read the Definitive Proxy Statement for its 2024 Annual
Meeting of Shareholders, and any other relevant documents filed by
Ginkgo with the SEC, when available because they will contain
important information. Shareholders may obtain free copies of the
materials referenced above at www.sec.gov or
www.investors.ginkgobioworks.com.
GINKGO BIOWORKS INVESTOR
CONTACT:
investors@ginkgobioworks.com
GINKGO BIOWORKS MEDIA
CONTACT:
press@ginkgobioworks.com
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