Dan Widmaier, CEO and Co-Founder, Bolt Threads

Dan is fascinated by finding the right conditions to grow things, whether he’s cultivating the broccoli in his vegetable garden, yeast in his microbrews or the people at Bolt Threads. He’s carefully tended our growth since 2009, using his passion and expertise to lead the company through technology development, expansion, and financing. He earned his Ph.D. in Chemistry and Chemical Biology from UC San Francisco, where his graduate research involved designing genetic circuits to control microbial organelles. He’s also passionate about the growth of something over which he has less control: the progress of the Seattle Seahawks.