Speaker:
Steve Stearns - Head of Commercial, California Cultured
Steve is a former chef of Copenhagen’s Noma, which has been ranked the world’s number one restaurant. He then attended UC Davis where he researched food chemistry and completed his MBA. Starting off in venture capital focused AgTech, Steve switched his focus to helping companies build their commercial innovation capabilities in business development, business strategy, and product development. Most recently he was Head of Innovation at Arcadia Biosciences.
Alan Perlstein - CEO, California Cultured
Alan started working in a tiny cell-cultured fish lab in Long Island 17 years ago, back in the early days of cell-culture technology. He launched his first food tech company Joywell Foods (formerly Miraculex), where he commercialized protein sweetened foods. When he saw tension brewing between the huge demand for chocolate and the sustainable/ethical issues surrounding it, he knew he had to look towards something bigger and thus, California Cultured was born.