Page Text: Rick Danis
General Counsel
Mr. Danis has served as Rigetti’s General Counsel and Corporate Secretary since July 2019. Prior to joining Rigetti, Mr. Danis served as Chief Legal Officer and corporate secretary at Kymeta Corporation from May 2018 to July 2019. Mr. Danis also served as Senior Vice President and Assistant General Counsel at Funko from December 2017 to May 2018 and as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at publicly traded Rightside Group, Ltd. from August 2014 until August 2017. In addition, Mr. Danis has served as a director on the board of F3 Nation, Inc. since January 2020. In all, Mr. Danis has over 25 years of experience practicing law, almost exclusively in-house at technology companies. Mr. Danis received a B.B.A. in accounting from Ohio University and a J.D. from DePaul University College of Law.
Mike Harburn
CTO
Mr. Harburn has served as Rigetti’s Chief Technology Officer since January 2022. Previously, from June 2018 to January 2022, Mr. Harburn served as Senior Vice President, Fabrication Operations and QPU Engineering at Rigetti. Mr. Harburn has more than 25 years’ experience in the semiconductor, MEMS, and OLED industries, previously leading teams in operations, manufacturing, and R&D engineering. He served as VP of Global Operations at Kateeva from 2011-2018. Prior he was Director; Advanced Development and NPI at FormFactor from 2004-2010. From 1999-2003 he served as Director; MEMS Processing & Foundry at Optical Micro Machines. Mr. Harburn has a B.S. in metallurgical engineering from Michigan Technological University and M.S. in materials engineering from Purdue University.
Taryn Naidu
COO
Mr. Naidu has served as Rigetti’s Chief Operating Officer since March 2019. He has nearly 20 years of entrepreneurial and executive experience through a number of successful organizations. Prior to Rigetti, Mr. Naidu served as Chief Executive Officer at publicly traded Rightside Group, Ltd. from 2014 to 2017 where he led the company through its inception to its ultimate sale. Mr. Naidu also served as an Executive Vice President at Demand Media where he led their services business from 2008 to 2014. Mr. Naidu joined the advisory board of Reskill Americans in 2021. He has a B.Sc. in computer science from the University of Regina.
Chad Rigetti
Founder and CEO
Dr. Chad Rigetti is a quantum computing entrepreneur and physicist and the founder and CEO of Rigetti. Since founding the company in 2013, Dr. Rigetti has led the company to become a preeminent global leader in quantum computing. He has raised more than $200M in venture funding, built a world class leadership team and board, and institutionalized the company’s pioneering innovation capabilities. Prior to Rigetti, Dr. Rigetti worked in the quantum computing group at IBM Research. Dr. Rigetti’s research focused on the development of novel silicon-based chip architectures, control schemes, and system-level designs for practical quantum computing systems. He is an inventor of 38 issued U.S. patents and author of more than 20 peer reviewed scientific publications with more than 4,000 citations. He holds a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Yale University and a B.S. in Physics with Honors from the University of Regina.
Brian Sereda
CFO
Mr. Sereda has served as Rigetti’s Chief Financial Officer since August 2021. Prior to joining Rigetti, Mr. Sereda served as Chief Financial Officer at Energous Corp., from July 2015 to August 2021, a public company trading on the NASDAQ. Mr. Sereda also served as Chief Financial Officer at ActiveVideo Networks, Inc., Virage Logic Corp., and Proxim Wireless Corp. Mr. Sereda has over 25 years of senior level finance experience in technology companies including 15 years as CFO of both public and private companies. Mr. Sereda holds a Diploma of Technology in Petroleum Engineering from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, a BBA from Simon Fraser University, and an MBA from St. Mary’s College of California.