Zymergen CEO Josh Hoffman leaves

  • Push-out Score determined
  • After almost seven years in the position
  • Thanks and good wishes for Hoffman
  • Jay Flatley taking over temporarily
  • Search for a successor

(exechange) — Emeryville, California, August 3, 2021 — Josh Hoffman, chief executive of Zymergen, leaves — by “mutual decision.” As announced by Zymergen Inc. in a news release and in a regulatory filing published on Tuesday, August 3, 2021, Joshua J. (Josh) Hoffman has left his post as chief executive officer at the biofacturing company after almost seven years in the role, effective August 2, 2021.

Zymergen will undertake a search for a successor.

Josh Hoffman’s duties as CEO will be taken over temporarily by Jay Flatley, a former Chief Executive Officer at Illumina, Inc., as Acting Chief Executive Officer.

“Issues with its commercial product pipeline”

Josh Hoffman’s departure from the CEO post is explained as follows. Zymergen said: “Zymergen Inc. (“Zymergen” or the “Company”), today provided a business update regarding its commercial product pipeline and financial forecast.

Zymergen recently became aware of issues with its commercial product pipeline that will impact the Company’s delivery timeline and revenue projections. Accordingly, the Company no longer expects product revenue in 2021, and expects product revenue to be immaterial in 2022.

During the quarter, several key target customers encountered technical issues in implementing Hyaline into their manufacturing processes typical of new product and process development learnings. The Company has made significant progress towards addressing these challenges and believes there are no intrinsic technical issues with Hyaline. However, this issue has resulted in a delay in the Company’s commercial ramp. Zymergen is working to strengthen its commercial team to ensure the reliability and robustness of the sales pipeline qualification and forecast processes.

The Company is also evaluating emerging data on the total addressable market for foldable display applications, which indicate a smaller near-term market opportunity that is growing less rapidly than anticipated, as well as its impact on Zymergen’s sales forecast. The Company will conduct a full re-examination of Zymergen’s target markets confirming our past views or altering them if the data indicate a shift in market focus is appropriate.”

Precise information regarding Josh Hoffman’s future plans was not immediately available.

“Step down/separated”

Zymergen said: “Flatley’s appointment follows the mutual decision by Zymergen and Josh Hoffman that Hoffman will step down as CEO and as a member of the Board, effective immediately.”

Zymergen further said: “On August 2, 2021, Josh Hoffman separated from his position as Zymergen’s Chief Executive Officer and resigned as a member of the Board.”

Share price decline since May 2021

The announcement follows a decline in Zymergen Inc.’s share price of 21% since May 2021.

In the position of CEO since 2014

Josh Hoffman became CEO of the Company in 2014.

Josh Hoffman co-founded Zymergen and has served as the Company’s Chief Executive Officer since September 2014 and as a co-founder and a member of the Company’s board of directors since April 2013.

Prior to co-founding the Company, Hoffman was a partner at Norcob Capital Management LLC, a private equity firm, from January 2009 to April 2013, and a managing director in Merchant Banking at Rothschild, a multinational investment bank, from February 2005 to December 2008.

He holds a M.A. in international relations and a MPPM from Yale University, as well as a B.A. from University of California, Berkeley.

Push-out Score determined

The Push-out Score™ determined by exechange gauges the pressure surrounding Josh Hoffman’s move on a scale of 0 to 10.

exechange reached out to Zymergen and offered the company the opportunity to comment on the score.

Read the full story in the exechange report 32.2021 ($).