Meet the Team

  • James Weltz

    CO-FOUNDER AND CSO

    Inventor of Cascade’s underlying technology to stabilize enzymes. With a decade of biocatalysis experience, he’ll take your enzymes to the next level. In his free time, he enjoys all things outdoors in colorful Colorado.

  • Alex Rosay

    CO-FOUNDER AND CEO

    Big believer in the enzymatic future. Industry experience from Zymergen and Bain and a ChemE background from Stanford. Avid traveler, beach volleyball player and board gamer based in Brooklyn, New York.

  • Andres Chaparro

    HEAD OF PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

    Andres builds and validates our biocatalysts, highlighting the benefits of our tech. As an early employee at Infinome, he is a start-up veteran. Also a beach volleyball player and board gamer based in Boulder, CO.

  • Laura Macdougall

    SENIOR SCIENTIST

    Laura is a polymer chemist who enjoys discovering how polymers can change the world. She takes Cascade’s underlying tech to the next level. When she is not in the lab Laura loves hiking and cycling around Colorado.

  • David Nunn

    SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR

    David brings decades of biomanufacturing experience to Cascade. Based in North San Diego County, he's shifted from the lab to the beach and can be found reading scientific papers and fermenting (figuratively and literally, just ask) while enjoying that SoCal sun.

  • John Warner

    SCIENTIFIC ADVISOR

    One of the founders of the field of Green Chemistry. With 330+ patents and 9 ongoing companies based on his inventions, he spends his time designing new molecules and materials while playing music and adventuring with his family outdoors and in Azeroth.

  • Ryan Cole

    RESEARCH ASSOCIATE

    Ryan brings 5+ years of molecular biology and biochemistry experience to help demonstrate the efficacy and robustness of our enzyme technology. He loves all things exercise and sports and can likely be found at the nearby gym or hockey rink.

  • Dipnath Baidyaroy

    BUSINESS ADVISOR

    Dipnath has >20 years of techno-commercial experience in biotechnology. He currently serves as Vice President and Head of Business at Inscripta. Before that, he was head of Alliance & Products Management at Codexis. His PhD is in Microbiology.

  • Tim Hitchman

    BUSINESS ADVISOR

    Tim has broad experience in bio-based products, with senior leadership roles in product development and operations. Living in Carlsbad, CA with his fiancé, son and two dogs, in his spare time he can be found out on local and far flung trails biking or hiking.

Founding Story

From his earliest days in academia, James was frustrated by the short operating lifetimes and narrow range of conditions under which enzymes remained active. He sought new and better ways to transform enzymes into rugged and long-lasting biocatalysts.

While enzyme stabilization by immobilization goes back over 100 years, success for a given enzyme and application remained a matter of luck. Motivated by a lack of rational, data-driven approaches, James developed new materials to capture and retain enzyme activity under the toughest conditions.

Alex was at (formally) one of the largest biomanufacturing companies, looking to use nature’s catalysts to create molecules more sustainably. At Zymergen, he saw the difficulty and cost of scaling microbial processes and became excited about the promise of enzymes. But currently, enzymes are too expensive because they do not last long enough and cofactors need to be regenerated. When he met James in May of 2022 through a mutual connection, he knew he had the right technology to solve these problems and further the biorevolution.

After 6 months of getting to know each other, they took the leap into entrepreneuership and started Cascade in December 2022.

Please reach out if you are interested in joining the Cascade team.