David J. Lee

David is passionate about transforming companies by creating consumer movements around technology-enabled, healthier food that is better for the planet.

David is the President and Member of the Board of AppHarvest, a leading AgTech company building some of the country’s largest indoor farms and combining conventional agriculture techniques with cutting-edge technology to grow affordable, nutritious fruits and vegetables at scale (Ticker APPH). In his role, David leads strategy, sales, finance, M&A, and marketing.

Previously, David was the COO & CFO of Impossible Foods, a Khosla, Horizons, and Bill Gates-backed company developing a new generation of delicious and sustainable meats and cheeses made entirely from plants. Its mission is to give people the enjoyment of food that comes from animals without the health and environmental drawbacks. From 2015-2019, he led the business functions to transform Impossible from pre-revenue to hyper-growth, with global sales and a complete commercial manufacturing and supply chain capability. David successfully grew Impossible from pre-revenue to over $300M of annualized revenue run rate with double-digit annual growth. David raised over $1.350 billion debt and equity to fund commercialization as its CFO from 2015-2021.

Prior to Impossible Foods, David was the CFO of Zynga ($2.3 billion public company, Ticker ZNGA), where he led the company’s finance and corporate development teams. David helped lead ZNGA from being majority web-based to mobile (in Q3 of 2015 69% of the business was mobile versus 36% when he started), driving mobile topline growth over 80% in one year (2014 vs. 2013). David delivered several quarters exceeding topline and bottom line guidance and delivered the first quarter of positive net income since 2013. Prior to Zynga, David led corporate finance for Best Buy during its turnaround in 2012-2014.

From 2004-2012, David had leadership roles at Del Monte Foods, including leading the take-private transaction of Del Monte Foods to KKR for $5.5 billion, resulting in over 40% return to shareholders. His prior experience includes leading the $2 billion-topline set of brands at Del Monte Foods as SVP of Consumer Products and various points led strategic planning, government relations, corporate communications and Financial Planning.

David is on the Board of Crew, a Greylock and Sequoia-backed technology startup empowering front-line mobile workers with software to connect them to each other and employees. He is also on the Board of AppHarvest and Benson Hill, innovative companies transforming food and agriculture.

David is a Fellow at the Council of Korean Americans (CKA), based in Washington, D.C. and a Fellow of the Network of Korean American Leaders (NetKAL). He received his MBA from the University of Chicago and a BA from Harvard College. He resides in San Mateo, California, with his wife and two daughters.