SDA Ventures LLC

Mr. Dubin is a Principal in SDA Ventures LLC, a firm focused on assisting emerging growth, middle-market and multi-national companies, primarily in the health & wellness, nutritional products and food services markets, on matters including corporate development, business acquisition, customer relations, growth strategies and corporate finance. Mr. Dubin, in conjunction with SDA Ventures, LLC, acts a Senior Advisor to Paine Schwartz Partners, a global private equity investment firm located in New York, and San Francisco, helping Paine to identify and execute investment opportunities in the global human and animal food and nutritional products industries. In addition, Mr. Dubin is a member of the boards of Alcresta, Inc., Triton Algae Innovations, Adicet Bio, Inc., and Phytolon Ltd.

 

Mr. Dubin was the Chairman of Enzymotec Ltd (Nasdaq:ENZY), a leading global supplier of specialty lipid-based products and solutions technologies from January 2014 until its acquisition by Frutarom Industries in January 2018. Enzymotec developed, manufactured and marketed innovative bio-active lipid ingredients, as well as final products, based on sophisticated processes.

 

From July 2006 until October 2011, Mr. Dubin served as the CEO of Martek Biosciences Corporation (NASDAQ: MATK), a leader in the innovation, development, production and sale of high-value products from microbial sources that promote health and wellness through nutrition. The Company's technology platform consisted of its core expertise, broad experience and proprietary technology in areas such as microbial biology, algal genomics, fermentation and downstream processing. This technology platform resulted in Martek's development of a number of products, including the company's flagship product, life'sDHA™, a sustainable and vegetarian source of algal DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) important for brain, heart and eye health throughout life for use in infant formula, pregnancy and nursing products, foods and beverages, dietary supplements and animal feeds.

 

Mr. Dubin played a key role in developing Martek’s business from an R&D company to a fully integrated, profitable, commercial organization with over $470 million in annual sales. He served in a variety of positions with Martek over the 14 years before his election as CEO in July 2006, including President, CFO, Treasurer, Secretary, General Counsel and Senior VP of Business Development. He also led Martek's initial round of institutional financing in 1986. During his tenure as CEO, annual revenues rose from $270 million to over $470 million; gross margins increased from 36% to over 53%; annual pretax income grew from $24 million to $91 million and annual cash flow from operations went from $36 million to $146 million. Other accomplishments include Martek’s 2010 acquisition of Amerifit Brands, Inc., a developer, marketer and distributor of branded consumer health and wellness products focused on women’s and digestive health benefits with annual revenues of $80 million at the time of acquisition, and the sale of Martek to Royal DSM N.V. in 2011 for close to $1.1 billion. Mr. Dubin served as a Senior Advisor to DSM Nutritional Products (Basel, Switzerland) for a year after Martek’s sale to DSM, advising DSM Nutritional Products on mergers, acquisitions and other corporate business opportunities.

 

Mr. Dubin's other experience includes working with and financing a variety of early-stage technology companies and spending 12 years in various positions at Suburban Bank, now part of Bank of America, including Vice President and Treasurer of its venture capital subsidiary, Suburban Capital Corporation. Mr. Dubin also co-founded, in 2001, the Chesapeake Emerging Opportunities Club, LLC, an angel investing fund based in Columbia, MD. He graduated from the University of Maryland, College Park in 1974, where he studied business and accounting. He received his Juris Doctor Degree in 1980 from the National Law Center at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Mr. Dubin is a licensed CPA and a member of the Maryland Bar. Mr. Dubin is a former Chair of the Maryland Economic Development Commission, having been appointed to that role by Governor Martin O’Malley.

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