Michael Saltzberg

Mike Saltzberg spent more than 36 years in leadership positions in the biomaterials and specialty chemicals industries, mainly with DuPont and later as CEO of Covation Biomaterials, which formed as a spinout of DuPont Biomaterials. 

He now heads his own consulting firm, MA Saltzberg Consulting, with a focus on helping companies and investors in the sustainable materials industry to succeed. 

He holds a Ph.D. in Materials Science & Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a B.A. with Honors in Chemistry from Oberlin College. After completing his Ph.D. at Penn, he joined DuPont’s Central Research group. 

Over the next 34 years he held increasingly responsible positions in R&D, Sales & Marketing, and General Management across a diverse group of DuPont businesses, including Electronic Materials, Corian®/Surfaces, Titanium Technologies and, from 2006 onwards, as head of DuPont’s world-leading Biomaterials business. 

When DuPont sold its Biomaterials business to the Huafon Group in 2022, as CEO he led the spinout and set it up as an independent wholly-owned subsidiary headquartered in the US. He retired from CovationBio in March 2024. At CovationBio, Mike was responsible for the ~$250M Sorona® polymer and Bio-PDO™ (Susterra® and Zemea®) global businesses, with manufacturing plants in the United States and China and sales/R&D personnel in 15 countries, including a strong presence in China. 

In his career, he has also led a number of programs from the research phase through to commercialization. Some examples include Zodiaq® quartz surfacing, Designed Enzymatic Biomaterials (launched by IFF), and FDME monomer/PEF polymer. 

Over the years, Mike has had the opportunity to sit on Boards in the USA, Japan, China, and Chile for companies manufacturing a wide variety of products.