Leadership

John Bissell co-founded Origin Materials in November 2008 and has served as its Chief Executive Officer and a member of its board of directors since inception. Mr. Bissell has extensive experience in R&D, engineering, and business development in the chemical industry. In 2008, Mr. Bissell received the People, Prosperity, and the Planet Award from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Bissell holds a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Rich Riley has served as Co-Chief Executive Officer and a member of the board of directors of Origin Materials since October 2020. Mr. Riley has been an advisor to and investor in Origin since 2010. From April 2013 to January 2019, Mr. Riley was the Chief Executive Officer of Shazam Entertainment Ltd, a leading mobile music application that was acquired by Apple Inc. in 2018. Mr. Riley served as an industry advisor to KKR & Co. L.P., a leading global investment firm, from 2013 to 2022. Mr. Riley was an executive at Yahoo! Inc. from Jan 1999 to Sept. 2012 with roles including EVP, Americas and SVP & MD, EMEA Region. He joined Yahoo! when it acquired Log-Me-On.com, where he was the Co-Founder and Managing Member. Mr. Riley began his career as an investment banking analyst at Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette. Mr. Riley was a finalist for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur of the Year Award, Featured in Forbes 40 under 40 Ones to Watch and included three times in Billboard Magazine's Power 100 list. Mr. Riley is a Trustee at St. Luke's school, a member of the advisory Board for the Entrepreneurship Department at the Wharton School and a member of the Executive Board of Boy Scouts of America, Connecticut Yankee Council. Mr. Riley received a B.S. in economics with concentrations in finance and entrepreneurial management from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Plavan brings 30 years of successful leadership and board governance experience in public and private companies in the ag-tech, medical device, cell therapy, and healthcare industries. Prior to joining Origin, from May 2022 to October 2023, Mr. Plavan served as Chief Executive Officer and currently serves in the board of IngredientWerks, Inc., a leading molecular farming company specializing in the development of plant-based animal protein ingredients for the $6B alternative protein and food ingredient markets. Previously, Mr. Plavan held executive roles, including CFO for publicly traded Arcadia Biosciences during their transformation from an agricultural biotechnology research firm to a revenue generating, on-trend consumer food products company. Prior to joining Arcadia, Mr. Plavan spent a decade in the executive suite with publicly traded Cesca Therapeutics, Inc. where, during his stint as CFO, he led the financing for the development, manufacture and commercial introduction of the Res-Q stem cell therapy device into the spinal surgery market. Previous to that, Mr. Plavan held positions as VP of Finance within McKesson and manager, audit & advisory at Ernst & Young. He is a California certified public accountant and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Economics from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Ms. Haley, age 53, is an experienced financial professional with a demonstrated history of working in the biotechnology industry and extensive expertise in budgeting, accounting, corporate financial planning and analysis, and internal controls. Prior to her appointment as Interim Chief Financial Officer, Ms. Haley served as the Company’s Senior Vice President of Accounting and Finance since January 2023. Prior to joining the Company, Ms. Haley held several financial leadership roles at Arcadia Biosciences Inc., an agricultural biotechnology company, including Chief Financial Officer from September 2019 to January 2023, Controller from November 2014 to August 2019, Director of Accounting from 2010 to 2014, and Accounting Manager from 2005 to 2010. Ms. Haley received a B.S. in Accounting from the University of Arizona.

Ryan Smith co-founded Origin Materials in 2008 and has served as Chief Technology Officer since inception. Mr. Smith has deep expertise in intellectual property protection, chemical and materials technology strategy, business development, and new product development within the chemical industry. Mr. Smith received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of California, Davis.

Mako Masuno has over 9 years of experience with Origin Materials and over 20 years of experience in the chemistry industry. Dr. Masuno has strong expertise in natural product biosynthesis and biomimetic synthesis, pathway development and optimization, and structure/property relationships which Dr. Masuno developed during his time as a professor in the chemistry department at Sacramento and Westmont colleges in California. Dr. Masuno was a significant contributor to the development of Origin Materials’ furanic platform process and scale-up to para-xylene production. Dr. Masuno currently has 14 publications, 4 pending patents, and 5 provisionally filed patent applications. Dr. Masuno is responsible for the overall research and development of Origin Materials’ technology. Dr. Masuno has a Ph.D. in Organic Chemistry from UC Davis, and a B.S. in Chemistry from Westmont College.

David Ballow has over 20 years of experience in the chemical processing industry. He is a Chemical Engineer originally from the Baton Rouge, Louisiana area and is a graduate of Louisiana Tech University. He has experience leading teams on capital projects of many sizes and stages of development including international and domestic projects. Prior to joining Origin, he was a Process Technology Manager at Burns & McDonnell where he focused on developing successful capital projects from concept to front end design often evaluating many options to develop an optimized project scope.

Joshua Lee joined Origin Materials as its Corporate Counsel in February 2018 and has served as General Counsel since December 2020 and Secretary since February 2020. Prior to joining Origin Materials, Mr. Lee was an attorney at Miller Barondess, LLP from September 2016 to February 2018, and at Irell & Manella LLP from August 2009 to September 2016. Mr. Lee received a B.A. in Economics and German from the University of Southern California, an M.A. in Economics from the University of Southern California and a J.D. from Yale Law School.

Ben Freireich has more than a decade of experience in the chemical and process industries. Dr. Freireich is a leading industry expert in both product and process research and development for solid materials. Prior to Origin Materials, Dr. Freireich served as the Technical Director of Particulate Solid Research, Inc. (PSRI) where he led applied process research efforts for a consortium of over thirty multinational corporations. He was previously a Research Scientist in Core R&D at The Dow Chemical Company, where he served as subject matter expert responsible for product and process development over a wide range of businesses, products, and technologies. Dr. Freireich is a specialist in particle technology with expertise in particle design, powder flowability, mixing, fluidization, size enlargement, attrition, and other areas of solids engineering, and has authored sections of Perry’s Chemical Engineering Handbook. He obtained his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue University studying manufacturing processes involving solid materials. Dr. Freireich also holds a Master of Science in Engineering from Purdue and graduated from the Milwaukee School of Engineering with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.