Page 27 - CEMS News Summer 2020

ALUMNI NEWS
Alumni awards
Nick Halla (ChE ’05)
Nick Halla has received the 2020 U40 Alumni Leader award, which celebrates an exceptional individual who has excelled in a career and/ or public service and is 40 years of age or younger. Halla is Senior Vice President for International at Impossible Foods, overseeing the company’s growing presence around the world, and leading
Nick Halla its dramatic expansion in Asia.
Impossible Foods’ mission is to restore biodiversity and reduce the impact of climate change by transforming the global food system through
making the world’s most delicious, nutritious, affordable, and sustainable meat, fish and dairy foods – all directly from plants. This technological innovation represents
a crucial step towards solving one of the planet’s most pressing challenges: sustainably feeding a growing global population while consuming fewer of Earth’s natural resources.
Upon graduating from CEMS in 2005, Nick worked at General Mills for four years, where he became an expert in food commercialization by developing and launching several new product lines and designing large-scale food manufacturing systems.
Following his time at General Mills, Nick went on to receive an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business, and an MS in Environment and Resources from the Stanford School of Earth, Energy, and Environmental Sciences. It was during Nick’s graduate education at Stanford University where he met Dr. Patrick Brown, the Founder and CEO of Impossible Foods, who recognized Nick’s intelligence, creativity, and distinctly Minnesotan work ethic and hired him to help launch the company in 2011.
In his remarks at the CEMS Centennial & Jubilee Celebration Dinner in June 2019, Nick stated, “I’ve used every part of my background. The first year at Impossible Foods, I was 1/3 farmer, 1/3 engineer, and
1/3 a businessperson. My U of M chemical engineering training prepared me to understand that no challenge is too much, and I learned how to break through countless physical and psychological barriers. I’m proud to be part of such a great institution and network of brilliant, driven, successful alumni.”
Lee Jones (ChE ’79)
Lee Jones has been selected as the 2020 University of Minnesota Entrepreneur of the Year to recognize her entrepreneurial success and her significant contributions to the University and broader business community.
Her entrepreneurial
journey began when Lee
left Medtronic to lead the
turnaround of Inlet Medical,
a medical devices firm that
specializes in minimally invasive
surgery. The firm had two employees and no funding, but she led the fundraising for $6 million while increasing revenue by more than 50% annually for a decade. Inlet Medical was acquired by Cooper Surgical in 2006.
In 2011, Lee co-founded and served as CEO of Rebiotix, a biotech company that develops and plans to commercialize a proprietary drug platform that delivers healthy, live, human-derived microbes into the gastrointestinal tract. In 2018, Rebiotix was acquired by Swiss drugmaker, Ferring Pharmaceuticals. Lee continues to lead the company as it develops a global platform for this emerging drug therapy.
Through her support in various University programs such as volunteering as an original MN Cup mentor, supporting the development of the Women’s Entrepreneurship Program, serving as Chief Administrative Officer for the Schulze Diabetes Institute, advising the Technology Commercialization Office, and speaking regularly and mentoring students, Lee has generously given her time to lead the entrepreneurial community in the Twin Cities.
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Lee Jones
CEMSnews Summer 2020 27