As Chromatin’s CEO, Daphne Preuss has assembled a vertically integrated sorghum business with state-of-the-art technologies, a market-leading breeding team, and global sales and distribution networks. After joining the company in 2006, she led the transition from a research stage to a commercial stage, through a series of alliances with leading agriculture companies, acquisitions, and commercial product sales. Preuss previously spent 16 years in plant research, founding Chromatin to commercialize synthetic chromosome technology developed in her laboratory at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and The University of Chicago. She served as the chair of the international committee that oversaw the sequencing of the first plant genome and currently serves on the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization as a member of its Food & Agriculture Governing Section Board. She earned a Ph.D. from MIT and performed postdoctoral work at Stanford.

Ken Davenport has 30 years of chemical R&D and ag biotech business development experience and, at Chromatin, has headed activities in sorghum alliances and technology acquisition. Before joining Chromatin, at Hoechst Schering AgrEvo, Davenport led the strategy team and oversaw the implementation of what became Bayer CropScience's FiberMax® cottonseed business. He also served as the Business Director for Bayer CropScience's plant-made pharmaceutical initiative and prior to joining Bayer he served as the CEO of ArborGen LLC, a forestry biotech enterprise. He began his career with Celanese - later Hoechst Celanese - where he was the principal investigator for technologies that underpinned the commercialization of numerous fine and specialty chemicals, including acetaminophen and ibuprofen, which led to BHC Corporation (Boots Company-Hoechst Celanese) receiving the 1997 Presidential Green Chemistry Challenge Award. Davenport earned his Ph.D. in Physical Organic Chemistry from Texas A&M University.

Cathryn Taylor is strengthening the internal infrastructure and supporting growth at Chromatin as she oversees accounting, human resources, and information systems. She has over 25 years of experience in building accounting, information systems and operations for entrepreneurial, high growth middle market companies. Previously working as a consultant through Deloitte and independently, she developed projects and programs to achieve growth targets in a sustainable manner for clients such as Cartier, Amoco/BP, Hasbro/Wizards of the Coast, and the International Franchise Association. She has served as Chief Financial Officer for The Disney Stores in Europe and for Sheridan, a division of the largest textile producer in Australia.  She earned her CPA while gaining both audit and tax experience at Price Waterhouse. Taylor has an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and Bachelor of Science degrees in accounting and management from the University of Utah. 

Jeff Widder leads all of Chromatin’s seed operations, including crop production, sales, and distribution. Widder began his career in the seed industry over 20 years ago. Prior to joining Chromatin, he was the Marketing and Specialty Crops manager at Monsanto, where he led the sorghum, canola, sunflower, and alfalfa businesses. He also previously held positions managing seed production and distribution at DEKALB genetics and sales and marketing at Cargill hybrid Seeds, Mycogen Seeds, Garst Seed Company. Widder has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agronomy from Fort Hays State University.

David Woodburn has over twenty years of experience in life sciences industries.  At Chromatin, he is leveraging his investment and operations experience to guide and enable profitable growth for the company.  Before joining Chromatin, Woodburn was managing partner at bio-Growth, LLC, which he founded to help life science and biotechnology companies and their investors with market assessment, business planning, investment research, and business development. He has 10 years of experience as an equity research analyst at Prudential and ThinkEquity, publishing investment research in industries including pharmaceuticals, alternative fuels, and water. Prior to that, Woodburn held positions in corporate strategy, global marketing, business development and product design at Searle and Baxter Healthcare, and today remains a co-owner of a Midwestern grain operation. Woodburn is a graduate of the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Mike Battin continues to lead the rapid growth of Chromatin’s domestic sales force, leveraging his 20 years of sales experience in the agriculture industry. Over the course of his career, he has held positions with ADM, Garst, Syngenta, Producers Hybrids and Monsanto Company. Prior to joining Chromatin, Battin was a member of the Monsanto Crop Protection team.

Mario Carrillo leads Chromatin’s agronomy efforts and is bringing improvements in crop performance to the company’s seed customers. Prior to joining Chromatin, Carrillo held leadership positions at Monsanto as Product Development Manager for DEKALB corn germplasm and as Technology Development Manager for specialty crops, including sorghum. He holds degrees in agronomy and crop protection from the Pan-American School of Agriculture (El Zamorano) in Honduras, and earned a Ph.D. and performed postdoctoral research in Entomology at the University of Minnesota. Carrillo is currently accredited as a Certified Crop Adviser (CCA) and Certified Professional Agronomist (CPAg) by the American Society of Agronomy.

Otto Folkerts leads Chromatin’s team focused on bringing innovative gene stacking and trait technologies to sorghum. Over his career, he has concentrated on combining agricultural biotechnology and genomic technology, including implementing next generation sequencing technology as Associate Director of Technology Development at the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI). Folkerts also held senior leadership roles at CuraGen Corporation and senior science roles at Dow AgroSciences. He earned his Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology from Cornell University, and received a Masters’ degree in Enterprise Management from the Lally School of Business at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

John Fulcher is bringing his expertise in business and commercial development covering the chemical, agricultural and biofuels industries to develop Chromatin’s business in renewable fuels. Fulcher was the Grain and Biofuels business development and marketing lead at Nalco prior to joining Chromatin. He has led several commercial and project management teams at Renessen, an ag-biotech startup, and held various roles in strategy and business development and plant management at Cargill. Fulcher earned an MBA from the University of Chicago and qualified as a Baldridge examiner for the state of Illinois.

Larry Lambright has assembled a leading sorghum breeding team at Chromatin, focusing on grain, forage and sweet sorghum. He brings 35 years of commercial experience in the development and release of more than 100 improved sorghum hybrids to U.S. and international markets. While serving as the North American Sorghum Breeding Lead at Monsanto, he managed all US sorghum breeding programs, parent seed projects and production research efforts. Additional responsibilities have included Foundation Seed Manager and Plant Breeder/Site Manager for DEKALB genetics Corporation, where he managed and directed hybrid breeding programs for grain sorghum, silage sorghum and sorghum sudangrass for markets around the world. Currently, Lambright serves on both the Sorghum Foundation Board as well as the Sorghum Improvement Council of North America.

As Director of Field Operations, Larry McDowell brings over 42 years of sorghum operations, R&D, and management expertise to the Chromatin team. McDowell served as the owner and president of Sorghum Partners, Inc. prior to joining Chromatin. He has held various roles overseeing the production of sorghum, cotton, corn, and sunflower throughout US and International markets and is the owner and operator of Rio Blanco Farms and Wake Land and Cattle in Crosbyton, TX. McDowell is President-elect of the Texas Seed Trade Association.

Charles Miller leads Chromatins international alliances and brings extensive experience in international business development. Before joining Chromatin, he was a principal in the sorghum company, MMR Genetics/Richardson Seeds, and after its acquisition by NuFarm, became the Global Development Manager for the sorghum business. Prior to that, he worked for Mars, Inc. for many years where he gained deep experience in trading, logistics, and treasuries. In addition to his role with Chromatin, Miller is also serving in the American Seed Trade Association as Secretary of the Corn and Sorghum Division.

Scott Staggenborg leads Chromatin’s innovation and commercialization team that is customizing sorghum feedstocks for renewable energy. Staggenborg brings over 25 years of agronomic and crop physiology experience, most recently as the Co-Director of the Great Plains Sorghum Improvement Center and a Professor at Kansas State University. He previously managed the USDA grant panel that provided the NIFA Bioenergy CAP award, and has worked closely with farmers and extension educators to develop and adapt new cropping systems. Staggenborg received a Ph.D. in Agronomy and Crop Physiology from Texas Tech University.

John Steffens leads Chromatin’s trait development and discovery efforts, bringing broad experience in leading R&D groups from product concept to commercial release. Prior to joining Chromatin, Steffens led team at Syngenta focused on metabolic pathway engineering, was global head of output traits R&D, led the worldwide registrations of corn rootworm and herbicide tolerance traits and stacks, and was project manager and then R&D portfolio leader for Syngenta's efforts in biofuels. He served as an assistant and associate professor in the Department of Plant Breeding at Cornell University and currently serves as the vice-chairman of the board of the Biofuels Center of North Carolina.

David Thomas brings over 40 years of experience in the seed industry, previously serving as an owner and Secretary of Sorghum Partners, Inc. prior to joining Chromatin. His deep experience in seed company operations includes roles at Syngenta Seeds, Stauffer Seeds, Prairie Valley Hybrids, and Garst & Thomas Hybrid Seed Company. Thomas currently serves on the board of directors for the National Sorghum Producers and the National Grain Sorghum Producers Foundation.

Gregory Zinkl brings over 13 years’ experience in procuring meaningful protection of intellectual property (IP). At Chromatin, he manages the company’s IP portfolio and licensing activities. Previously, Zinkl worked as a patent agent and later as patent attorney at Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, SNR Denton, and Dykema Gossett. His experience includes advising a range of clients, from international pharmaceutical companies to start-up biotechnology companies, on issues such as patent protection throughout the world, due diligence, freedom-to-operate, and other IP matters. He has also co-authored articles on IP law for the American Bar Association. Zinkl earned his J.D. with a certificate in IP Law from Chicago-Kent, where he was also an IP Fellow in the Chicago IP Colloquium. He earned his Ph.D. at Harvard University in cell and developmental biology and pursued post-doctoral studies in plant cell and molecular biology at the University of Chicago. He is admitted to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, Illinois State Bar, and U.S. District Court-Northern District of Illinois.