Speakers

Matt Crisp is a serial entrepreneur, company builder, and investor with a proven track record of launching and scaling high-impact ventures at the intersection of biotechnology, agriculture, and sustainability. As co-founder and Executive Chairman of Quercus Biosolutions, he helps to lead the company’s mission to redefine crop protection through a generative AI-driven protein design platform, unlocking a faster, more targeted path to novel bioherbicides. Quercus is a manifestation of Matt’s deep belief that breakthrough science – when combined with sound strategy and disciplined execution – can fundamentally reshape outdated input systems and advance resilience in global agriculture.

Matt previously co-founded and served as CEO of Benson Hill, where he led the company from concept through R&D, commercial scale-up, and a successful public listing on the NYSE in 2021. Under his leadership, Benson Hill secured over $500 million in equity capital and built one of the first AI-driven predictive breeding platforms in food and agriculture. He also led a vertically integrated business model with five acquisitions in three years and launched a proprietary soy ingredient portfolio based on market-leading genetics. After going public, Matt led the organization to deliver eight consecutive quarters of ‘meet or beat’ forecast financial performance, consistently achieving aggressive KPIs across revenue, gross margin, and strategic growth.

Prior to Benson Hill, Matt served as the Founding President of the AgBio Division at Intrexon Corporation, where he launched and scaled its agricultural biotechnology business. He built the synbio-focused division from scratch into a 30+ person unit, delivering critical milestones across multiple crop species. His leadership at Intrexon followed nearly a decade at Third Security, a $2 billion venture firm and family office focused on life sciences and synthetic biology. There, he served as Managing Director, led the firm’s West Coast operations, and played a central role in deploying over $300 million across companies spanning biomanufacturing, gene-and cell-based therapeutics, advanced materials, synthetic biology and agbiotech. He served on the boards of multiple deep-tech companies, often taking operational roles to accelerate development and commercial strategy.

Today, Matt advises a range of early-stage companies and investor groups across agriculture and adjacent bio-based value chains such as health, industrial materials, and sustainable fuels. With a rare blend of technical fluency, entrepreneurial grit, and investment discipline, he continues to be a driving force in advancing biological solutions that create lasting value. At Quercus for crop protection, he is once again working to help assemble the people, partnerships, and platform needed to reshape the future of the category.