James B Boyd
President & CFO
Marrone Bio Innovations, Inc.
2014 - 2021
NASDAQ Listed: MBII
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Negotiated complex financial restructuring of company which included conversion of $45M of debt to equity and $30M of new equity (PIPE). Negotiated innovative warrant restructuring reducing the number of warrants outstanding by 79.1% at the end of the first year and 99.6% by the end of the second. This restructure significantly accelerated warrants expiration dates, eliminating the overhang (which was holding down the stock) and provided $22.4M in funding, as needed, to take the company to a cash breakeven level of operations.
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Conducted roadshow and follow-on offering led by Jefferies that was three times oversubscribed, raising $40M in net proceeds. Raised additional $40M in promissory notes from company’s largest public shareholder during difficult restatement period, raised $10M in USDA guaranteed loan to finance new manufacturing facility, taking manufacture of three products in-house which resulted in greatly improved margins. Negotiated favorable $3M AR line of credit to finance growth in working capital, increased to $7M in year two and $21M in year three when we also added a $3M inventory line (total of $24M), completed $8M confidential marketed public offering (CMPO) with regional investment bank.
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Discovered pre-existing (pre-IPO) side-agreement leading to Audit Committee investigation, restatement, and departure of 7 of 10 sales staff including COO/VP Sales. Managed restatement effort centered on new revenue recognition methodology, complex re-quantification exercise, and implemented new controls. Filed “super 10K” which included eight restated quarters for 2013/2014, and three new 10Qs for 2015, bringing the company’s SEC filings current. Dealt with several resulting loan defaults, and testified before SEC and NASDAQ. This entire process spanned one and a quarter year, requiring the coordination of several law and audit firms, costing approximately $17 million. Advised Board and Audit Committee throughout process. With CEO, devised and delivered critical communications with shareholders and employees to keep their support through a very difficult crisis for the company.
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Developed and managed bottoms-up budget and four-year financial plan process to ensure we met our expense numbers. During my tenure, through very difficult times, we hit all expense and cash budgets.
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Emphasized importance of cash conservation with Board, thus, immediately after investigation began, we restructured to operate the company for one-and-a-half years with existing cash resources. Restructure included 23% headcount reduction and 30% op ex reduction while preserving core assets of company. Restructured downward again after $40M secured debt raise. The company successfully executed for several years with almost half the headcount of its post IPO high.
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Together with CEO created very positive, employee involved, culture setting a high bar for company, management, and employees. Through the demonstration of high ethics, commitment and team philosophy, the company experienced very low turnover and very high productivity producing many achievements and an extended period of sustained positive growth when all (customers, investors, employees) thought the company would not survive.
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Played major role in creating new strategy to focus all company resources on growth while drastically reducing expenses. Specifically, reduced and focused new product pipeline, streamlined R&D accordingly, reduced and closely managed manufacturing resources and inventory, helped devise new go-to-market strategy focused on new territory sales plans. Helped identify and hire key employees to ensure success of plan. The result: company grew steadily, consistently introduced new products, executed to plan and attracted new investment capital. Company is now considered a leader in the field of biological inputs in the agriculture industry, a though leader, and a platform for consolidation of other emerging ag technologies as it now has established its own unique channel to the market.
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Led negotiations, due diligence and documentation of significant acquisition of East European company with a significant organic plant health technology that is currently growing faster than our base business and resulted in a significant relationship with one of the world’s largest ag inputs companies.
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Created multidiscipline swat team and lead effort to roll out a new formulation of a key product to rekindle Company’s brand name and growth during the restructuring period. Effort included deciding among four alternative formulations, accelerating field trials, running risk production to achieve deadlines and prudently investing very scarce cash resources. Success rekindled pride, demonstrated management integrity and instilled team philosophy at a critical juncture.
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Led operations team effort to solve critical manufacturing problem that caused quality, consistency and cost issues in a second product. Costs were reduced from $200/kilo to $75/kilo within one year through development of new manufacturing process.
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Championed push in sales and marketing — objective was to restore credibility and brand identity of MBII and its products with distributors and growers. Convinced management/Board of need to create/hire strategic VP of Marketing position.
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Assumed responsibility for manufacturing and supply-chain management, installed process to match supply with sales forecast to reduce inventory levels and meeting demand forecasts while minimizing working capital.
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Improved finance function and team morale. Took over responsibility for executive staff meetings and Board presentations. Displayed a high level of personal achievement and contribution in an extremely difficult business environment that was due to start-up nature, public stature and investigation/restatement which strained all elements of company’s ability to execute.