We are experts from farm to table

Alan started working in a tiny cell-cultured fish lab in Long Island 17 years ago, back in the early days of cell-culture technology. He launched his first food tech company Joywell Foods (formerly Miraculex), where he commercialized protein sweetened foods. When he saw tension brewing between the huge demand for chocolate and the sustainable/ethical issues surrounding it, he knew he had to look towards something bigger and thus, California Cultured was born.

Formerly the CTO of Diana Plant Sciences and currently the world’s leading cocoa cell expert, Harry has worked in plant cell culture for 30 years. He has scaled numerous plant cell culture technologies, such as Paclitaxel, the most well-known natural-source cancer drug in the U.S. He's focused on making sure that our chemical engineering and plant cell culture scale-up is on track.

Debbie is a CPA who specializes in corporate taxation and financial planning/analysis. She is elegantly balancing the roles of CFO and HR. Debbie is a lifelong chocoholic.

Steve is a former chef of Copenhagen’s Noma, which has been ranked the world’s number one restaurant. He then attended UC Davis where he researched food chemistry and completed his MBA. Starting off in venture capital focused AgTech, Steve switched his focus to helping companies build their commercial innovation capabilities in business development, business strategy, and product development. Most recently he was Head of Innovation at Arcadia Biosciences.

Michael graduated from UC Davis with a B.S. in Plant Biology. He joined Bayer Cropscience in 2011 and BASF in 2016 where he contributed to research projects on vegetable crop production and plant tissue culture. Michael is very interested in the practical application of science and enjoys being a nerd about technology. He eats way too much chocolate on a regular basis.

Jyvina has worked in the Human Resources field for over 10 years. She holds a Master’s Degree in Psychology and is pursuing her doctoral degree in Organizational Leadership. She has managed Human Resources functions in small to mid-size companies in the biotechnology, food & beverage and manufacturing industries. Jyvina is definitely a chocolate lover and believes there are four basic food groups: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate and chocolate truffles.

Tyler graduated from the University of Illinois with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in 2012, and quickly moved west to work in the entertainment industry. After spending nearly a decade supporting executives across the film and television landscape, he decided it was time for a change. He wanted to take his skill-set to a company working to make the world a better place, and is thrilled to have found that in California Cultured.

Ken graduated with a B.S. in Soil and Water Science, and spent 10 years in research at the U.C. Davis campus working in analytical science and data analysis. He then moved into the Biotech industry starting in the analytical lab and then transferring to operations management and now has over 15 years of operations experience. Ken is really excited to help the team grow into the new facility, and beyond.

Neha has over 12 years of experience in the hospitality industry and holds a Bachelors in Hospitality Management. She has worked with several well known hotels such as, The Hilton Group (Chicago), Marriott International (Sacramento) and Taj Group (India). Neha is passionate about chocolate and is excited to bring her many years of chocolatier experience to California Cultured.

Merrell graduated from Brigham Young University-Idaho with a B.S. in Biochemistry and recently joined the workforce in 2021. She interned for her university developing water testing protocol in Idaho but was driven out by the snow and is excited to continue doing science in much better weather. Her specialties include bacterial culturing and never sugar crashing.

Rio was born and raised in southern New Mexico. He has always been fascinated by plants and began helping his mom in the garden at a young age. He started working in a plant biotech lab during his freshman year of college at New Mexico State University where he gained experience in plant pathology, micropropagation, genomics and analytical chemistry. For the last 6 years Rio worked in Davis CA as an industry scientist focused on plant pathology, protoplast based gene editing and transformation and cell biology.

After graduating from the University of Nevada, Reno's BS/MS biotechnology program in 2011, Amanda's industry career started in Synthetic Genomics' algal biology strain development team. Living in San Diego was fun for a kid who grew up in rural Nevada, but her love of family, mountains, & forests brought her to Northern California where her focus evolved to encompass plant protoplast culture and genome editing in fruit and vegetable crops. While Amanda used to think the best kind of chocolate was chocolate dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with more chocolate, she's excited to be part of a problem-solving team tackling the ethics and sustainability of the chocolate industry.

Hanh graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Psychology with an emphasis in biology. Life provided a detour that landed her in agricultural biotech. She was the Lab Operations Supervisor for Vegetable Quality at Bayer Crop Science. Her experience in sample processing, analytics and operations management improved dynamic workflows.

Erika was born and raised in the central valley and recently graduated from UC Davis with a degree in Biological Science. After college, she worked in a laboratory for analytical testing within the agricultural industry. She is ready to take part in the innovative work being done at California Cultured, so she can continue to enjoy all things chocolate in an ethical way.

Seung has over 35 years of experience in the field of analytical flavor chemistry and biochemistry in leading food industries and academia. He earned his MS degree in Food Science and a Ph.D. in Agricultural Chemistry at UC Davis. He is excited to bring his passion for developing innovative technologies for cocoa and coffee flavors to California Cultured.

Ryan was born in Sacramento, and graduated from UC Davis with a degree in pharmaceutical chemistry. Since graduating Ryan has worked in many different laboratory settings, most recently as part of Ginkgo Bioworks, improving workflows for downstream plant tissue processing and analysis. Ryan is very excited to improve the sustainability of cacao production via cellular biology.