Our Team
Unparalleled Industry Leadership
With hundreds of combined years of industry experience, our leadership team is relentlessly focused on driving our mission of solving some of today’s biggest challenges through protein design innovation.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Alexandre Zanghellini
PhD – Co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and VP Research
Alexandre Zanghellini co-founded Arzeda and leads the team as CEO and Vice President, Research. Alexandre is an internationally recognized protein design expert and was the early developer of Arzeda’s protein design software Archytas™ for enzyme design, as well as Arzeda’s metabolic pathway design software Scylax™. Before Arzeda, Alexandre led bioinformatics at Cellectis (NASDAQ: CLLS), a publicly traded protein engineering and gene editing company.
Alexandre strongly believes the convergence of big compute, machine learning, DNA synthesis and lab automation represent an inflexion point in human history, and that the rationale design of new proteins will play a key role in solving some of humanity’s biggest societal challenges – from improving human well-being to combating climate change. Alexandre holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from University of Washington, a M.S. in Computer Science (Artificial Intelligence) and B.S. in Applied Mathematics, both from University of Paris, and a M.Eng. from ENSTA/ParisTech.
Daniela Grabs
PhD – Co-founder, VP Strategic Projects
Daniela Grabs co-founded Arzeda and currently serves as its Vice President, Strategic Projects. Her responsibilities include developing next-generation lab workflow automation at Arzeda, as well as supporting the development of some of Arzeda’s new product portfolio opportunities. Previously, Daniela played a pivotal role in devising and implementing Arzeda’s precision lab testing infrastructure, including workflow optimization and robust analytics method development.
Daniela believes that the combination of advanced software with precision lab testing is poised to change the way we do biotechnology and create tremendous value for Arzeda and its partners. Daniela was a Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Washington. She holds a Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Zürich and a Diploma from ETH Zürich.
Ken Barrett
MBA, MS – Chief Business Officer
Ken Barrett entered the industrial biotech sector when he joined Diversa’s BD team in August 2006, responsible for supporting Diversa’s commercialization strategy with a focus on developing internal capabilities and launching new products. At Diversa/Verenium, he led several commercialization projects and partnerships, including those in bioenergy, oilseed processing, animal feed, detergents, and oilfield services. After the BASF acquisition he continued managing the BD team. Upon the creation of the BASF Enzymes business unit in 2018, Ken was tapped to lead 3rd Party Business Management and Collaborations, with a specific focus on managing 3rd party collaborations in animal feed enzymes that had to be “firewalled” from the BASF animal nutrition business. Ken’s general focus in industrial biotech has been to translate cutting edge science into profitable commercial business opportunities, either through organic development or via external partnerships.
Prior to BASF, Ken was a co-Founder and Managing Director of Trident Partners, LLC, a private equity and management firm focused on small and medium sized businesses. Before that, he served as a consultant at Bain & Company. He began his career at Mitsubishi Motors Corporation in 1989 in Japan, where he spent five years and learned Japanese.
Ken received a M.S. in Applied Biosciences from the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona, a M.B.A. degree from Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts and a B.A. in Engineering Sciences from Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
Scott Fabro
Senior Vice President of Business Development & Food Ingredients
Fabro has three decades of experience working in commercial strategy and operations for specialty ingredients. Most recently, Fabro served as the Vice President of Business Development at biotechnology ingredient company, Geltor, Inc. There, Fabro led commercial execution of bioactive ingredients into the food, beauty and personal care industries. Fabro, who has extensive experience with Rebaudiosides – a key component of sugar replacements, also spent eight years at Cargill, serving as Global Business Director for High Intensity Sweeteners. During his time at Cargill, Fabro also served as Global Product Director for two other functional ingredient businesses and represented the company as a board member of the International Stevia Council. In addition, Fabro spent three years with Evolva Group, SA, where he was Chief Operations Officer and before that, Chief Commercial Officer. He has also held a number of other senior level positions with companies in the global ingredient space including Sweet Harvest Foods and Kerry Inc., among others.
Sanjay Pal
MBA - Chief Financial Officer
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.
SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR
David Baker
Scientific Advisor & Co-Founder, Arzeda
David Baker is a globally recognized pioneer in protein design and a co-founder of Arzeda, one of the first spinouts from his lab at the University of Washington. In 2024, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for his revolutionary work in computational protein design.
As the Director of the Institute for Protein Design, David has spearheaded innovations that are reshaping industries from medicine to sustainable manufacturing. He is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator, the Henrietta and Aubrey Davis Endowed Professor in Biochemistry, and a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.
With over 600 publications, 100+ patents, and the co-founding of more than a dozen biotech companies, David's groundbreaking work laid the foundation for Arzeda’s mission to transform industries through tailor-designed proteins.
Invest in the Future of Protein Design
Our investors provide unparalleled expertise in life sciences, computational design, materials, food, and beyond. Join us as we pioneer enzyme design and uncover the endless possibilities of proteins together.
