The Team
Chris Somogyi, Founder and CEO
Chris Somogyi has over 35 years’ experience in management and operations with an emphasis on commercialization of innovation from lab to market. His background includes technology commercialization, new company launching, product engineering, corporate partnership crafting and management, and venture capital investment portfolio management across a broad range of product areas, technologies, and markets globally. His broad ranging career, includes:
- Business Development lead at Xerox PARC.
- Executive chairman and founder of lab grown seafood company Blue Nalu Inc.
- Senior Vice President of Investments at Xinova.
- Co-founder and Chairman and CEO of Etaphase Inc.
- General Manager of Accelerator Services, Callaghan Innovation, Auckland New Zealand.
- Senior strategist and Futurist at Intellectual Ventures.
- Partner at Pacific Rim ventures limited.
- President and CEO of Lucent medical systems.
- Licensing associate at Stanford University office of technology licensing.
Chris has a degree in Biomedical Engineering from Purdue University; a Master of Science in Biomedical Engineering from Tulane University and an MBA in Strategy, Finance, and Marketing. He is a sought-after speaker, and a board director on both corporate and not for profit boards.
In addition, Chris is an inventor for 24 issued and in process US patents and several foreign patents involving electronics software processes mechanical systems from medical instrumentation sensing methods biotechnology tissue engineering and supercooling. Supercooling is the technology a the heart of the business that is EverCase.
Charlotte Guyman, Member Advisory Board
Charlotte Guyman currently serves as a Director for Berkshire Hathaway Corporation is Chair of the Governance Committee and has been a member of the Finance & Audit committees.
She serves on the advisory board for Brooks Running. She is a Director for the Space Needle Corporation where she has served as Chair of the Governance committee. Guyman was the independent director for the internet based construction company, Pro.com which was successfully sold to OpenDoor Technologies for which she is now an advisor. Guyman was a Trustee for Save the Children from 2007 through 2020 where she served as chair of the Program Quality committee and was also on the Executive and Audit committees. She is the independent Director for two start up companies--Landings and Evercase. Guyman is on the advisory board for the University of Washington Brotman-Baty Institute for Precision Medicine. In addition, she is a founding partner of the not-for-profit BoardReady which focuses on increasing diversity in the boardroom.
From 2000 through 2010 Ms. Guyman served, most recently as Board Chair, on the Advisory Board for University of Washington Medicine. UW Medicine includes the School of Medicine and the hospitals of UWMC, Harborview and Northwest. From 1987 until 1999 Ms. Guyman worked at Microsoft Corporation where she held several marketing and general management positions.
Her experience includes development of learning software for adults and children and the pioneering internet application, Expedia. She has been General Manager of Kids and Games software for Microsoft, MSN Sales & sales marketing, as well as Director of International Marketing and Director of Consumer Division Marketing. Ms. Guyman began her career in the early 1980s in computer sales and then systems engineering management at the Hewlett Packard Company. She earned a B.S. in Zoology and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington. Ms Guyman has been married to Doug Guyman for 35 years and they have three children aged 33, 31, and 25. She is an avid skier, cyclist, runner, swimmer, and sailor.
Dr Soojin Jun, Co-Founder and Chief Scientific Adviser
Dr Soojin Jun is an internationally recognised expert in emerging food processing and packaging technologies, food nanotechnologies, pulsed electric field treatment, ohmic heating and biosensors. He is an author in over 85 published papers and has been awarded 7 patents. His work in Supercooling (the technology behind EverCase) is the subject of 12 major publications and 7 years of research.
He is Professor at the Department of Human Nutrition, Food, and Animal Sciences,University of Hawaii. He holds a Ph.D. in Agricultural & Biological Engineering University: Penn State University, USA and Masters of Science degree. in Food Science & Technology University, Seoul National University, Korea. He is the recipient of many honors, and awards including the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, CTAHR Dean's Award for Excellence in Research, 2015 Academic Plaza (AP) Prize in Food Machinery Manufacturers' Association (FOOMA) JAPAN 2015; a NASA Tech Brief Certificate; and the American Society of Agricultural Engineers Honorable Mention Paper Award, 2005.
He is a Member of the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT), the Korean Society for Industrial Food Engineering (KSIFE) and a former member of the American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers (ASABE)
Dr Jon McIntyre, Strategic Adviser
Dr. Jonathan McIntyre is an accomplished scientist, leader and entrepreneur with extensive experience leading large, multi-national corporations and early-stage startups. He has a strong track record of achievement as a CEO and CSO with deep knowledge of food, food ingredients, nutrition, consumer products, culinary design, biotechnology, packaging, bioprocess, fermentation, regulatory and quality. Most importantly, he is a servant leader respected for building high-performing teams and developing talent.
Most recently, Dr. McIntyre served as Chief Executive Officer and member of the board of directors at Motif FoodWorks, a Boston-based food technology company unleashing the promise of plant-based foods by improving taste and nutrition. During Jon’s tenure at Motif, the company raised $345M from top-line investors. In just over three years, the company discovered, developed, and commercialized three novel ingredients and four fully optimized food products by pioneering a ‘whole science’ approach that combines design thinking and novel technologies to uncover insights benefiting consumers, customers and our planet. Immediately prior to joining Motif, Dr. McIntyre served as Head of Research and Development at Indigo Agriculture, Inc. In this capacity, Dr. McIntyre developed microbial seed treatments to replace or reduce chemical inputs and increase crop yields.
Before this, at PepsiCo, Dr. McIntyre served as SVP of Research & Development, innovating and developing products across global categories. As head of beverage R&D he transformed the product portfolio, redesigned packaging, launched new fountain equipment, and shifted to lower sugar formulations. As SVP of Global Snacks R&D, Dr. McIntyre advanced sustainability programs and developed compostable thin film packaging technology, reduced salt and fat in snacks, and introduced veggie and protein forward snacks.
Prior to PepsiCo, Dr. McIntyre served as SVP of Technology & Innovation at Solae, LLC, a DuPont Foods & Nutrition company, where he led R&D, quality, regulatory and technology licensing for the world’s largest plant protein company.
Previously, Dr. McIntyre served as the Chief of Development & Operations at Auxeris Therapeutics Inc. and served as Chief Scientist, Director of Product Development and Discovery Researcher for Monsanto.
Dr. McIntyre earned his B.S. in Chemistry from Grove City College and his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He completed post-doctoral training in Cell Biology at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine. He is a Commissioner on the Council of Competitiveness and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Paul Levins, Co-Founder
Paul has an extensive career as a founder, senior executive and adviser. He co-founded Xinova, a global innovation company with a network of 12000 innovators solving problems for companies including PepsiCo, Honda, Hyundai, Gates Foundation and many more. He also co-founded SousZen a software company focused on the management of commercial kitchens (with PepsiCo). Previously he was APAC Manager for a $700 million private equity fund focused on invention creation. Paul was also EVP at the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), an organisation tasked with coordinating the Internet’s system of unique identifiers globally. He was based in Los Angeles and was asked to establish ICANN's Washington DC office where he was a key architect of the "Affirmation of Commitments“, an internationally recognised accountability agreement between key Internet stakeholders including the US Congress and the Executive Branch. Before ICANN, Paul was General Manager, Operations and Corporate Affairs at Bilfinger Berger, a German company in the infrastructure and services sector and an executive at Telstra, a major regional telecommunications provider and ISP based in Australia. Paul also has substantial public sector policy experience. He was a Chief of Staff to Australian Federal and State Government Ministers in portfolios including Higher Education, Employment, Health, Housing, Water, and Infrastructure. He’s an Honorary Associate at the Graduate School of Government, University of Sydney, holds a Bachelor of Arts from Macquarie University, in Education, History and Literature, is an adviser to Investible and a number of startups.