CHICAGO, Dec. 14, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Fast Radius, Inc. (“Fast Radius”), a cloud manufacturing and digital supply chain company, today announced four nominees to the board of directors (the “Board”) of ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp. (NASDAQ: ENNV) (“ENNV”), a publicly-traded special purpose acquisition company, in anticipation of the previously announced proposed business combination between Fast Radius and ENNV. The Board nominees will serve on the Board of the combined company following the consummation of the business combination, subject to ENNV stockholder approval. The business combination is expected to be completed in the first quarter of 2022.
The following individuals have been nominated to serve on the Board:
- Matt Maloney, Former CEO and Founder of Grubhub
- Betsy Ziegler, CEO of 1871
- Matt Flanigan, Board Member at Jack Henry & Associates and Performance Food Group; and
- Steve Koch, Managing Director of Bowline Group and Managing Partner of mHUB Product Impact Fund I
Commenting on the Board nominees, Lou Rassey, Co-Founder and CEO of Fast Radius said, “These highly-qualified leaders bring decades of knowledge across global manufacturing, technology, financial services, corporate development, governance and M&A. We expect their ability to innovate and disrupt industries, along with their expertise using software and technology to scale organizations, will support our growth as a public company. I would like to thank the director nominees for their confidence in Fast Radius’ future and business strategy, and I, along with the entire Fast Radius team, look forward to working with them.”
The nominees are expected to serve on the Board of the combined company following the business combination, along with the following previously announced director nominees: Lou Rassey, CEO and Co-Founder of Fast Radius; Tyler Reeder, President and Chief Executive Officer of ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp.; Nick Solaro, General Partner at Drive Capital.
Additional Information on Board Nominees:
Matthew Maloney
Matthew Maloney served as Chief Executive Officer and director of GrubHub Inc. (NASDAQ: GRUB) (“GrubHub”) from August 2013 to December 2021, and as GrubHub’s President from August 2015 to January 2018. Prior to August 2013, Mr. Maloney served as CEO and a member of the board of directors of GrubHub Holdings, a company he co-founded in 2004. Mr. Maloney led GrubHub Holdings through five rounds of investment funding, the acquisition of DotMenu, its merger with Seamless Holdings Corporations in April 2013, and GrubHub’s initial public offering in April 2014. Mr. Maloney currently serves as an advisory board member for The University of Chicago Booth School of Business Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship. He is a member of ChicagoNEXT, an organization dedicated to driving growth and opportunity in the Chicago business community. Mr. Maloney holds a B.A. from Michigan State University and an MBA and MSCS from the University of Chicago.
Betsy Ziegler
Betsy Ziegler is the CEO of the Chicagoland Entrepreneurial Center (DBA 1871), a private incubator serving founders and innovators, a position she has held since joining 1871 in April 2018. Prior to joining 1871, Ms. Ziegler served in two different Associate Dean roles at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management. Most recently, Ms. Ziegler served as Associate Dean, Chief Innovation Officer, from April 2016 to March 2018. Prior to that, she served as Associate Dean of Degree Programs and Dean of Students from June 2011 to April 2016. Previously, Ms. Ziegler spent 12 years at McKinsey and Company where she was a partner in the Chicago office, spending most of her time serving financial institutions at the intersection of operations and technology. Ms. Ziegler is an active civic leader in Chicago, and serves on the boards of Chicago’s Museum of Science and Industry, Choose Chicago, and Stanley Manne Research Institute at the Ann and Robert H Lurie Children’s Hospital. Ms. Ziegler received her MBA from Harvard Business School and her B.A. in Economics from The Ohio State University.
Matthew Flanigan
Matthew Flanigan retired in May 2019 from his role as Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer of Leggett & Platt, Incorporated (NYSE: LEG) (“Leggett”), a leading manufacturer of engineered components, where he also served on the Board of Directors for nine years. Mr. Flanigan served as Chief Financial Officer of Leggett from 2003 to May 2019. He previously served Leggett as Executive Vice President from 2013 to 2019, Senior Vice President from 2003 to 2005, Vice President and President of the Office Furniture Components Group from 1999 to 2003, and in various capacities since 1997. Prior to joining Leggett in 1997, Mr. Flanigan was employed in the banking industry for 13 years, the last ten of which as First Vice President and Manager for Societe Generale S.A. in Dallas. Mr. Flanigan currently serves as a director of Performance Food Group Company (NYSE: PFGC), one of the nation’s largest food distribution businesses and as the lead director of Jack Henry & Associates, Inc. (NASDAQ: JKHY), a SaaS, cloud-based solutions provider primarily for the financial services industry. Mr. Flanigan holds a degree in finance and business administration from the University of Missouri.
Steven Koch
Steven Koch is the Managing Director of Bowline Group and a Managing Partner of the mHUB Product Impact Fund I, positions he has held since 2018 and 2020, respectively. Previously, he served as the Co-Executive Chairman and interim Chief Executive Officer of Motivate, a leading bike share company in North America, from January 2018 to November 2018, at which point Lyft acquired Motivate. From September 2012 to August 2017, he served as the Deputy Mayor of Chicago. Previously, Mr. Koch spent 27 years at Credit Suisse serving in various capacities, including co-chairman of the global mergers and acquisitions business. Mr. Koch currently sits on the boards of the Chicago Community Trust, mHUB, the Greater Chicago Food Depository, Navy Pier Inc., The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Naturally Chicago, The Southland Development Authority, The James Beard Foundation and the visiting committee of the University of Chicago Law School. He helped develop and teaches in the Directors’ Consortium, a training seminar for directors of public companies, sponsored by the University of Chicago and Stanford University. Mr. Koch received his BA from Hampshire College, his MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business and his JD, cum laude, from the University of Chicago Law School.
Information on Other Director Nominees:
Lou Rassey
Lou Rassey has served as Chief Executive Officer and co-founder of Fast Radius since 2017. Mr. Rassey has a 20-plus-year career driving innovation in the manufacturing sector and is a recognized leader on matters related to manufacturing, industrial innovation and competitiveness. Prior to co-founding Fast Radius, Mr. Rassey was a Partner at McKinsey & Company from 2003 to 2015 where he co-led the firm’s global research and advisory efforts on the “Future of Manufacturing.” Mr. Rassey has helped Fortune 100 executives, start-ups and government leaders in developing and executing strategies to compete in the digital industrial age. He also founded in 2016 and is a managing member at Two Roads Group, LLC, an industrial-tech-focused advisory and investment firm and spent the first chapter of his career in engineering and manufacturing in the auto industry. Mr. Rassey has an MBA and MS in Mechanical Engineering from MIT where he was an LFM Fellow, a MS from the University of Michigan-Dearborn, and BS from the University of Notre Dame.
Tyler Reeder
Since October 2020, Tyler Reeder has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of ENNV and as a member of the ENNV Board. Mr. Reeder is a Managing Partner of Energy Capital Partners Holdings LP (“ECP”) and serves on ECP’s Partnership Committee, Investment Committee, Strategy Committee, Operating Committee, ESG Committee and Valuation Committee. Mr. Reeder participates in overall investment management, strategic planning and operations of ECP and its funds. He is involved in all areas of the firm’s investment activities, with a particular emphasis on power generation, renewables and environmental infrastructure. Mr. Reeder led the recent take-private acquisition of Calpine and currently serves on the boards of Calpine, Gopher, EnergySolutions, Convergent, Heartland Generation and Liberty Recycling, LP. Prior to realization, he served on the boards of Wheelabrator, ADA Carbon Solutions, LLC, Dynegy Inc., EquiPower Resources Corp., Broad River Power Holdings, LLC, CE2 Carbon Capital, LLC and Empire Gen Holdings, Inc. Prior to joining ECP in 2006, Mr. Reeder was a Vice President of Power and Fuel Markets of Texas Genco, LLC. Mr. Reeder was an advisor on the acquisition of Texas Genco, LLC by a consortium of private equity firms and became a member of the management team until the sale of the company to NRG Energy in 2006. While at Texas Genco, LLC, Mr. Reeder was the head of the asset optimization desk and was responsible for managing the power and fuel positions for their large generation portfolio. From 1998 to 2002, Mr. Reeder was a Director for Energy Markets and a Finance Manager at Orion Power Holdings, Inc., where he was responsible for acquisitions, power marketing, transaction analysis and execution. From 1996 to 1998, Mr. Reeder worked at Goldman Sachs. Mr. Reeder received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Colgate University.
Nick Solaro
Nick Solaro has served as General Partner at Drive Capital since 2014. Prior to joining Drive Capital, Mr. Solaro served as a manager at Google, where he helped lead the Global Android Strategic Partnerships team, from 2010 to 2014. During Mr. Solaro’s tenure at Google, the Android ecosystem grew from a few devices in a few markets to one of the world’s most dominant mobile operating system running on billions of handsets worldwide. Prior to joining Google, Mr. Solaro was a co-founder of PetWave.com, an online veterinary health startup based in San Francisco, which he co-founded in 2007. Mr. Solaro has also previously spent time as a technology investor at Technology Crossover Ventures, as well as an Equity Research Analyst at Goldman Sachs where he covered large cap enterprise technology companies including Apple, IBM, Hewlett-Packard, EMC, Sun, and Dell. Mr. Solaro graduated from Columbia University with a B.A. in Economics and Philosophy.
About Fast Radius, Inc.
Fast Radius, Inc. is a leading cloud manufacturing and digital supply chain company. The Cloud Manufacturing Platform™ from Fast Radius is a first-of-its-kind solution that integrates design, production, and fulfillment operations through a common digital infrastructure to make manufacturing easier, more accessible, and more sustainable. Founded in 2017, Fast Radius, Inc. is headquartered in Chicago with offices in Atlanta, Louisville, and Singapore and microfactories in Chicago and at the UPS Worldport facility in Louisville, KY. Fast Radius announced on July 19, 2021, the intent to merge with ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp. (NASDAQ: ENNV), a special purpose acquisition corporation, which would result in Fast Radius becoming a public company.
About ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp.
ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp. is a special purpose acquisition company formed by Energy Capital Partners Management, LP for the purpose of entering into a merger, stock purchase, or similar business combination with one or more businesses. The strategy of ECP Environmental Growth Opportunities Corp. is to identify and acquire businesses located in North America that concentrate on combating climate change by decreasing the carbon intensity of energy production, increasing the efficiency of industrial and consumer-related activities, expanding electricity storage and distribution, and improving the overall sustainability of the economy through efforts to lower pollution and increase beneficial reuse. For more information, visit ecpennv.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws with respect to the proposed business combination (the “Transaction”) between Fast Radius and ENNV. These forward-looking statements generally are identified by the words “believe,” “project,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “intend,” “strategy,” “future,” “scales,” “representative of,” “valuation,” “opportunity,” “plan,” “may,” “should,” “will,” “would,” “will be,” “will continue,” “will likely result,” and similar expressions. Forward-looking statements are predictions, projections and other statements about future events that are based on current expectations and assumptions and, as a result, are subject to risks and uncertainties. Many factors could cause actual future events to differ materially from the forward-looking statements in this press release, including but not limited to: (i) the results of ENNV’s special meeting of stockholders to approve, among other things, the election of the director nominees, (ii) the risk that the Transactio may not completed in a timely manner or at all, which may adversely affect the price of ENNV’s securities, (iii) the risk that the Transaction may not be completed by ENNV’s business combination deadline and the potential failure to obtain an extension of the business combination deadline if sought by ENNV, (iv) the failure to satisfy the conditions to the consummation of the Transaction, including the requisite approvals of ENNV’s and Fast Radius’ stockholders, the satisfaction of the minimum trust account amount following any redemptions by ENNV’s public stockholders and the receipt of certain governmental and regulatory approvals, (v) the lack of a third party valuation in determining whether or not to pursue the Transaction, (vi) the risk that ENNV’s proposed private offering of public equity is not completed, (vii) the occurrence of any event, change or other circumstance that could give rise to the termination of the agreement and plan of merger (the “Merger Agreement”) relating to the Transaction, (viii) the effect of the announcement or pendency of the Transaction on Fast Radius’ business or employee relationships, operating results and business generally, (ix) the risk that the Transaction disrupts current plans and operations of Fast Radius, (x) the risk of difficulties in retaining employees of Fast Radius as a result of the Transaction, (xi) the outcome of any legal proceedings that may be instituted against Fast Radius or against ENNV related to the Merger Agreement or the Transaction, (xii) the ability to maintain the listing of ENNV’s securities on a national securities exchange, (xiii) changes in the competitive industries in which Fast Radius operates, variations in operating performance across competitors, changes in laws and regulations affecting Fast Radius’ business and changes in the combined capital structure, (xiv) the ability to implement business plans, forecasts, and other expectations after the completion of the Transaction, and the ability to identify and realize additional opportunities, (xv) risks related to the uncertainty of Fast Radius’ projected financial information, (xvi) risks related to Fast Radius’ potential inability to become profitable and generate cash, (xvii) current and future conditions in the global economy, including as a result of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, (xviii) the risk that demand for Fast Radius’ cloud manufacturing technology does not grow as expected, (xix) the ability of Fast Radius to retain existing customers and attract new customers, (xx) the potential inability of Fast Radius to manage growth effectively, (xxi) the potential inability of Fast Radius increase its cloud manufacturing capacity or to achieve efficiencies regarding its cloud manufacturing process or other costs, (xxii) the enforceability of Fast Radius’ intellectual property rights, including its copyrights, patents, trademarks and trade secrets, and the potential infringement on the intellectual property rights of others, (xxiii) Fast Radius’ dependence on senior management and other key employees, (xxiv) the risk of downturns and a changing regulatory landscape in the highly competitive industry in which Fast Radius operates, (xxv) the risk that Fast Radius may require additional funding for its growth plans and may not be able to obtain any additional financing on terms that are acceptable to Fast Radius or at all and (xxvi) costs related to the Transaction and the failure to realize anticipated benefits of the Transaction or to realize estimated pro forma results and underlying assumptions, including with respect to estimated stockholder redemptions. The foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. You should carefully consider the foregoing factors and the other risks and uncertainties which will be more fully described in the “Risk Factors” section of ENNV’s Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, the registration statement on Form S-4 and the proxy statement/prospectus discussed below and other documents filed by ENNV from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”). These filings identify and address other important risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events and results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. Readers are cautioned not to put undue reliance on forward-looking statements, and Fast Radius and ENNV assume no obligation and do not intend to update or revise these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Neither Fast Radius nor ENNV gives any assurance that either Fast Radius or ENNV, or the combined company, will achieve its expectations.
Additional Information and Where To Find It
This press release relates to the proposed Transaction between ENNV and Fast Radius. ENNV filed a registration statement on Form S-4 relating to the Transaction with the SEC on September 3, 2021, as amended on October 8, 2021 and November 24, 2021 (the “Registration Statement”), which included a proxy statement/prospectus that will be sent to all ENNV stockholders. ENNV will also file other documents regarding the Transaction with the SEC. Before making any voting decision, investors and security holders of ENNV and Fast Radius are urged to read the Registration Statement, the proxy statement/prospectus and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC in connection with the Transaction as they become available because they will contain important information about the Transaction. Investors and security holders will be able to obtain free copies of the Registration Statement, the proxy statement/prospectus, and all other relevant documents filed or that will be filed with the SEC by ENNV through the website maintained by the SEC at www.sec.gov. The documents filed by ENNV with the SEC also may be obtained free of charge upon written request to ENNV at 40 Beechwood Road, Summit, New Jersey 07901.
Participants in the Solicitation
ENNV, Fast Radius and their respective directors and executive officers may be deemed to be participants in the solicitation of proxies from ENNV’s stockholders in connection with the Transaction. A list of the names of such directors and executive officers and information regarding their interests in the Transaction will be included in the proxy statement/prospectus when available. You can find more information about ENNV’s directors and executive officers in the final prospectus relating to ENNV’s initial public offering, which ENNV filed with the SEC on February 10, 2021. You may obtain free copies of these documents as described in the preceding paragraph.
No Offer or Solicitation
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or exchange or the solicitation of an offer to buy or exchange any securities, nor shall there be any sale or exchange of securities in any jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation, sale or exchange would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction.
Contact
Morgan Scott
Senior Director, Public Relations
(312) 465-6345; PR@FastRadius.com
