Mito’s board of directors changes

Leaving the board is Mito co-founder Kevin Keith. The common board seat will now be held by Mito COO Mahdi Ghazizadeh, PhD. Mahdi leads the Mito technical team in innovation and commercialization of new and existing products; he has nearly 20 years of experience with both large corporations such as Huntsman and start-up environments developing new materials for aerospace, defense, oil and gas, rail and automotive applications. Mahdi holds a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Nanoengineering – Polymer Composites from North Carolina A&T State University. 

Continuing with the board is Rich Diemer, a respected chemicals industry senior finance executive with a proven track record of working within leadership teams that created significant shareholder value. Rich is currently Co-Founder and Managing Director of CAV Angels. Rich has served as the CFO at two public (Albemarle and PolyOne Corporation) and one sponsor-owned (Trinseo LLC f/k/a Styron LLC) global materials companies. After 17 years in public accounting, Rich joined Allied-Signal Inc. He was VP-Corporate Controller during the merger with Honeywell, then became CFO of Honeywell’s Specialty Materials segment. During his tenure, Rich has played a key role in creating over $7bn of shareholder value. 

Also continuing with the board is Joel Neale, Global Commercial Director, Advanced Polymer Technologies at Ingevity;  Joel has been with Ingevity for 5 years. Prior to Ingevity Joel was Regional Business Manager with  Perstorp Group –  a world leading specialty chemicals company, focusing on the global resins and coatings, engineered fluids, and animal nutrition markets.  Joel is a graduate of The University of Liverpool with a Masters in Chemistry.

Joining Mito’s board is Miguel Galvez, Co-founder and CEO/President of NBD Nanotechnologies, a venture backed advanced chemical manufacturer. NBD’s main products included nanocoatings for the optical display market as well as UV cured resins for electronic grade plastics. Miguel was the inventor of one of the key products NBD developed called invisiPrint, and he holds several patents under his name. As CEO Miguel raised over $15M in equity venture financing from leading investors in the chemical industry including BASF and Henkel. He grew the company into a multi-million dollar manufacturer of chemical goods and was able to achieve gross margins of over 90% selling to leading OEMs in the electronics industry, including Lenovo and Microsoft. In 2022, NBD Nano was acquired by Henkel Corporation, a $20B global chemical manufacturer. After the acquisition, Miguel continued to run the InvisiPrint business while working in M&A strategy, co-leading a search into advanced coatings. 

Since leaving Henkel in late 2023 Miguel has worked as a Venture Partner at Republic Capital leading investments into Deep Tech startups. He works with founders across the advanced material and chemical industries. 

“We are excited to add Miguel to Mito’s board. As a fellow founder who successfully grew and exited a business, his experience in guiding this stage of Mito’s  growth is critical,” Haley Marie Keith, CEO of Mito, said. “Our entire board offers a depth of knowledge in chemical manufacturing which is unparalleled. We sincerely appreciate all of their efforts to help Mito succeed.” 

Cover photos: Mito – Haley Marie Keith, CEO of Mito, and Mahdi Ghazizadeh, COO of Mito