Arzeda CEO and leadership

Alexandre Zanghellini is a co-founder of Arzeda and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Along with Arzeda’s management team, he is responsible for day-to-day operations and also leads Arzeda’s product and technology development and IP strategy. Alex is one of the inventors of Arzeda’s synthetic biology platform for novel enzyme and metabolic pathway design and is a keen believer in the power of biotechnology to solve some of our biggest societal challenges. Before founding Arzeda, Alex held positions in research and development both in academia and industry. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and a M.Sc. Eng. from ENSTA/ParisTech in Paris, France.

Daniela Grabs co-founded Arzeda and currently serves as its Chief Scientific Officer. Her responsibilities include overseeing the experimental validation and protein optimization lab in addition to her contributions to the core design technology. She has worked to enable an industrial strength research and development platform going from computational design through designer cell factories as efficiently as possible with minimal human intervention. Daniela believes that given enough time and resources, a bio-based economy will transform the chemical industry with better keystone building block molecules. Daniela holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Zürich and a Diploma from ETH Zürich.

Walter Rakitsky joined Arzeda to lead the business and commercial teams. His responsibilities include crafting Arzeda’s commercial strategy and working with the business team and technical team to source and execute partnerships that leverage Arzeda’s protein design platform and create long-term value for both Arzeda and our partners. Walt brings over 30 years of world-class technology and business development experience and a vast network in the food & feed ingredients, specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients markets. Prior to Arzeda, Walt was Vice President, Emerging Business at Corbion (CSNVF), a Dutch bio-based chemicals and ingredients company, Senior Vice President Emerging Business at Terravia, Vice President Strategy & Chemicals at Solazyme (a bay area based biotechnology company), and VP Commercial at Advanced Bio-Nutrition (an omega 3 based animal nutrition and health company). Walt is committed to building a high-performing company that creates superior value for all stakeholders – Arzeda, its industrial partners and customers, and its investors and employees -, while having a key role in making the world a better place with sustainable and health-improving products. Walt holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a PhD in organic chemistry from Penn State.

Sanjay Pal leads Finance & Administration at Arzeda, with a focus on developing the company's financial planning & analysis capabilities, supporting the business development teams, and overseeing the accounting & administrative functions. Sanjay's background includes a diverse, yet complimentary set of experiences over 20 years with venture-backed companies commercializing new technologies in wireless, and more recently new process technologies​ that address the environmental sustainability of commodity markets such as biofuels, hydraulic fracturing, wastewater treatment, ​and phosphoric acid production. Sanjay holds an MBA from Columbia Business School and a BS in Industrial Engineering & Operations Research from UC Berkeley.

Alexandre Zanghellini is a co-founder of Arzeda and serves as its Chief Executive Officer. Along with Arzeda’s management team, he is responsible for day-to-day operations and also leads Arzeda’s product and technology development and IP strategy. Alex is one of the inventors of Arzeda’s synthetic biology platform for novel enzyme and metabolic pathway design and is a keen believer in the power of biotechnology to solve some of our biggest societal challenges. Before founding Arzeda, Alex held positions in research and development both in academia and industry. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Washington and a M.Sc. Eng. from ENSTA/ParisTech in Paris, France.

Daniela Grabs co-founded Arzeda and currently serves as its Chief Scientific Officer. Her responsibilities include overseeing the experimental validation and protein optimization lab in addition to her contributions to the core design technology. She has worked to enable an industrial strength research and development platform going from computational design through designer cell factories as efficiently as possible with minimal human intervention. Daniela believes that given enough time and resources, a bio-based economy will transform the chemical industry with better keystone building block molecules. Daniela holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Zürich and a Diploma from ETH Zürich.

Walter Rakitsky joined Arzeda to lead the business and commercial teams. His responsibilities include crafting Arzeda’s commercial strategy and working with the business team and technical team to source and execute partnerships that leverage Arzeda’s protein design platform and create long-term value for both Arzeda and our partners. Walt brings over 30 years of world-class technology and business development experience and a vast network in the food & feed ingredients, specialty chemicals and nutritional ingredients markets. Prior to Arzeda, Walt was Vice President, Emerging Business at Corbion (CSNVF), a Dutch bio-based chemicals and ingredients company, Senior Vice President Emerging Business at Terravia, Vice President Strategy & Chemicals at Solazyme (a bay area based biotechnology company), and VP Commercial at Advanced Bio-Nutrition (an omega 3 based animal nutrition and health company). Walt is committed to building a high-performing company that creates superior value for all stakeholders – Arzeda, its industrial partners and customers, and its investors and employees -, while having a key role in making the world a better place with sustainable and health-improving products. Walt holds an MBA from the Wharton School and a PhD in organic chemistry from Penn State.