Joseph Pandolfino, MBA, President
Joseph founded 22nd Century in 1999 and has been its President ever since. He has over 15 years experience in all aspects of the tobacco industry, including 12 years with genetically-engineered tobacco. Joseph has been responsible for and has managed many products from conception through development and on to commercialization. He earned a B.S. in Business Administration from Medaille College in 1990 and an MBA from SUNY at Buffalo in 1992.
22nd Century has its roots in an earlier company Joseph founded in 1993, Alternative Cigarettes, Inc. (AC). During college Joseph was intrigued with the sale of herbal cigarettes in nutrition stores. In an early collaboration with a British manufacturer he acquired rights to manufacture tobacco-free herbal cigarettes and entered the business. The company quickly realized that consumers were using these nicotine-free herbal cigarettes to successfully quit smoking, however, the major disadvantages of these herbal products are their distinct taste and aroma characteristics. AC developed various processes to improve its herbal brands and although improvements were achieved, decided that the characteristics of herbal cigarettes would never resemble those of tobacco cigarettes. Joseph decided to investigate the feasibility of economically producing tobacco cigarettes that had virtually no nicotine. This led him on a journey to acquire and develop the know-how and technology, including intellectual property rights, to regulate nicotine biosynthesis of tobacco by genetic engineering.
Joseph's entire professional career has consisted of running AC and 22nd Century to bring quality of life improvements through novel products. The first genetically-engineered tobacco variety deregulated by APHIS (Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service) of the USDA resulted from the company's sponsored research agreement with a major university which Joseph initiated and managed. Cigarettes containing this globally-patented very low nicotine tobacco variety have been commercialized and used in many clinical trials involving smoking cessation, including a successful FDA-reviewed phase II trial. Joseph has continually expanded 22nd Century's technology platform and IP portfolio and expects other novel plant varieties for relevant and well differentiated products to be commercialized.
Michael R. Moynihan, Ph.D., Vice President of R&D
Michael has consulted for 22nd Century since 1999 and joined the Company in January 2007 as a partner and VP of R&D. He oversees a global network of research collaborations with leading universities. Michael has more than 20 years experience in plant biotechnology, and for the past 10 years has primarily been involved in the development and management of public-private research networks focused on genetic engineering of novel plant varieties.
Michael earned an Sc.B. in Biology from Brown University in 1974 and M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in Biology from Harvard University in 1979 and 1982. He was a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute for Molecular and Cellular Biology, Osaka University, Japan, a Postdoctoral Associate in the Section of Plant Biology, Cornell University, and a Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Agricultural Molecular Biology, Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.
Prior to joining 22nd Century, Michael held positions of Director of Biotechnology Development at Fundación Chile, Senior Project Director at InterLink Biotechnologies LLC, and Principal Scientist in the plant biotechnology laboratory of EniChem Americas.
C. Anthony Rider, CPA, Chief Financial Officer
Tony is CFO of 22nd Century and holds the same title with Locke Acquisition Group LLC. He has 35 years experience in public accounting and corporate finance. During his 27 year career with Ernst & Young he specialized in working with entrepreneurial growth companies. Prior to his departure from Ernst & Young in 2000 he was the partner responsible for developing and administering Ernst & Young's entrepreneurial services practice for Upstate New York and Western Pennsylvania. He assisted clients with the development, documentation and execution of their business plans. In addition to providing assurance services related to an entrepreneurial venture's financial statements, his activities included valuation and financial analysis services in connection with capital sourcing.
Tony joined a public company as its CFO in 2000. He led a reorganization resulting in the tax free spin-off of one of its major operating subsidiaries as a separate public company. In 2005, Mr. Rider became the CFO of a private-equity sponsored international manufacturing Company. In May of 2007 Tony became CFO of Locke Acquisition Group, LLC and, together with Mr. Tomasello, formed Locke Capital Partners to structure Real Estate joint ventures. He is recognized as an expert in corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions, and recently appeared as a panelist for Bank of America and the Florida Self Storage Association regarding the credit crises impact on corporate finance and real estate transactions. He is a member of the AICPA and the New York State Society of CPA's.
Angelo J. Tomasello
Angelo is an original investor and partner in 22nd Century. Since the Company's inception he has actively consulted on strategic matters, including assisting Mr. Pandolfino in the review and negotiation of various contracts. He is a CPA with most credits for his MBA. Angelo began his professional career with Ernst & Young in 1992. After four years, he joined Sovran Self Storage, a publicly traded Real Estate Investment Trust (REIT), as an Acquisitions Officer. Angelo joined The Locke Group as President in July 1998. The Locke Group specializes in real estate development and acquisitions, principally for the self storage industry. He has been responsible for developing and executing the Locke Group's methodology for selection, negotiation and preparation of the final term sheet for over $1 billion of self storage properties since 1998.
Angelo is also the principal owner and a managing partner of GB Locke Developers, LLC which developed a 100,000 square foot self storage facility in Houston Texas that opened in August 2007. Angelo together with Mr. Rider formed Locke Capital Partners in 2007 to structure Real Estate joint ventures.
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