Pivot Bio, the nitrogen innovator delivering sustainable, self-fertilizing grain crops, announced today that Susan Kim, CFO for PacBio and Monica McGurk, former chief growth officer of Kellogg, have been appointed to the company’s board of directors.
“Monica and Susan bring tremendous expertise and expand the range of strategic voices in our boardroom,” said Karsten Temme, Pivot Bio co-founder and CEO. “Their unique insights and dedication to Pivot’s mission will help accelerate delivering better nitrogen to more farmers faster.”
Kim is an experienced finance and operations executive in the technology and life science sectors. She brings deep expertise working with start-ups and multi-billion dollar, public, and Fortune 100 companies. Kim, recognized as one of the Most Influential Women in Bay Area Business by the San Francisco Business Times, has a strong track record of achieving high returns with her inspiring leadership and keen ability to address key strategic issues that companies face throughout their lifecycle.
“Pivot Bio has developed an elegant solution to solve the problems associated with synthetic nitrogen fertilizer. The company’s products provide farmers an attractive alternative as global supply of fertilizer is coming under pressure, with the ability to have a lasting positive impact on agriculture,” said Susan Kim. “The emerging convergence of technology and biology has created new opportunities for us to become better stewards of our planet. I am thrilled to be joining Karsten and the rest of the Pivot Bio executives and board members at a key time in the company’s journey towards a healthier and more sustainable future.”
McGurk, an executive with broad experience building global brands Kellogg, Tyson, and Coca-Cola, brings a combination of strong commercial instincts, technological savvy and consumer and customer centricity to Pivot’s board, skills she has used to help food and beverage players navigate ambiguity and chart a path to sustainable growth. As a C-suite leader at Kellogg, maker of iconic brands such as Frosted Flakes, Morningstar Farms, Pringles, Cheez-It and RXBar, McGurk most recently led all commercial functions globally spanning Insights & Analytics, R&D, Category Strategy, Global Brands, Marketing, Revenue Growth Management, Sales and Channel Strategy, Digital and eCommerce.
“Pivot Bio’s focus on the farmer and its mission to improve the global food value chain with a better nitrogen inspires me. Having dedicated my career to the food and beverage industry, I am honored to help advance the company’s objectives and revolutionary technology,” said Monica McGurk. “We need more solutions that can transform our end-to-end food system to feed billions of people in a sustainable way, at a time when our planet’s resources are more constrained than ever. We need to do so with tools that support and empower the world’s farmers. I look forward to working closely with the Pivot Bio executives and the entire board as they make this a reality.”
McGurk and Kim join the Pivot Bio board at a time of explosive growth for the company. It raised $430 million in Series D funding and launched its second-generation nitrogen product, PROVEN 40, to increase farmer productivity and deliver improved sustainability. The company tripled its revenue in 2021, providing farmers with a breakthrough product now used on more than one million acres of farmland. As the 2022 planting season gets underway, Pivot Bio will be used on exponentially more corn and sorghum acres across the U.S.
