Derek Greenfield is Co-Founder and CEO of Industrial Microbes (iMicrobes), a pioneering biomanufacturing company engineering microbes to produce sustainable, cost-competitive chemicals from renewable feedstocks.

Derek holds a Ph.D. in Biophysics from UC Berkeley and an A.B. in Chemistry and Physics from Harvard, and previously worked at LS9, a biofuels startup, where he met his co-founders.

Derek is a published researcher cited over 1,200 times in fields spanning synthetic biology, metabolic engineering, directed evolution, and microbiology, reflecting his deep scientific expertise.

He co-founded Industrial Microbes in 2014 alongside Elizabeth Clarke and Noah Helman, leading the company through a Y Combinator Winter 2015 batch and a $10M+ seed round led by First Bight Ventures.

Under Derek's leadership, iMicrobes has secured 22 patents, partnered with global chemical producers, and received grants from the EPA, USDA, DOE, and NSF to accelerate the transition to net-zero industrial materials.