Roberto Armenta

Background

About Roberto Armenta

An accomplished Chief Scientific Officer (CSO) with 20+ years of prolific history in biotechnology. An effective people-driven, empathetic leader and communicator with deep experience at building and leading strategic, innovative, and commercially relevant research and development initiatives in bioproducts and bioenergy. A fruitful innovator in biotechnology, reflecting his work in numerous patents and publications, comprising extensive experience in industrial, government and academic sectors. An active contributor to technology and executive teams, a believer of the power of contemporary leadership for bringing something innovative to the table, building strength from being open-minded and by working together in unity. A co-founder of Mara Renewables Corporation (Mara), a global biotechnology company with a successful track record for commercializing microbial nutritional oils. Cemented foundation of the company’s highly skilled team, its technological know-how and intellectual property (IP) strength; played key role at transitioning Mara from a start-up to a medium size company. Proven leadership at developing technologies for making renewable, sustainable, responsible microbial products to help at alleviating pressure on climate change. Have led the science and technology development of commercial, patent protected, bioprocesses and bioproducts in the areas of precision fermentation (upstream), biomass processing (downstream processing/extraction), and microbial strains’ improvement via genetic approaches. In-depth experience encompassing all stages of entrepreneurial, dynamically paced, technological development from nature to beaker to commercial, passing through strain collection and discovery, laboratory, pre-pilot, pilot demonstration and industrial commercial scales. Also, thorough experience at building foundational IP and leading its strategic growth for maximizing enterprise value and technology protection. An international inventor on around 250 patents, including around 150 issued and over 100 pending, in addition to over 25 peer-reviewed scientific publications. Specialties: strategic biotech leadership; contemporary leadership; empathetic leadership; biotechnology; bioproducts; bioprocessing; bioactives, biochemicals; nutraceuticals; microbial oils; renewable oils; single-cell proteins; microbial proteins; precision fermentation; process biochemistry; scale-up/scale-down, biotech scouting; strategic high-value intellectual property.