Management

Dr. Kulkarni has served as President and Chief Executive Officer at Rigetti since December 2022. Dr. Kulkarni is a seasoned public company CEO with thirty-plus years of experience in the semiconductor industry and a track record of success in scaling and commercializing cutting-edge technologies. Prior to joining Rigetti, Dr. Kulkarni was President, CEO, and member of the Board of CyberOptics Corporation, a developer and manufacturer of high precision sensors and inspection systems for the semiconductor and electronics industry. He held these roles from 2014 until CyberOptics was acquired by Nordson Corporation in November 2022. Prior to CyberOptics, Dr. Kulkarni was CEO of Prism Computational Sciences, a developer of software tools for scientific and commercial applications in the semiconductor industry. Earlier in his career, he held additional leadership positions, including Chief Technology Officer and Senior Vice President of OEM/Emerging business, global commercial business, R&D and manufacturing at Imation, a global scalable storage and data security company. Dr. Kulkarni began his career in research and management positions with 3M Corporation and IBM. He received his B.S. in chemical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and later obtained a M.S. and Ph.D. in chemical engineering from MIT. Dr. Kulkarni currently serves on the Board of KeyTronic Corporation, a publicly traded electronics manufacturing services company, as well as Chairman of the Board for Prism Computational Sciences.

Mr. Rivas was appointed Chief Technology Officer of Rigetti in February 2023. Prior to this role, he served as Rigetti’s Senior Vice President, Systems and Services since March 2019. In this role he oversaw the engineering and operations of Rigetti’s Quantum Cloud Services platform. Mr. Rivas has also held executive roles at companies including Sun Microsystems, Nokia, Bolt Threads, and Stage 3 Systems. He holds a B.S. in electrical engineering and M.S. in computer engineering, both from the University of California, San Diego.

Mr. Jeffrey Bertelsen was appointed Chief Financial Officer of Rigetti in February 2023. Mr. Bertelsen has more than twenty-five years of executive accomplishments in the hi-tech industry. Previously, Mr. Bertelsen served as Chief Financial Officer and Chief Operating Officer for CyberOptics Corporation from 2005 until 2022. Prior CyberOptics, Mr. Bertelsen was Vice President, Finance, Corporate Controller, Treasurer and Assistant Secretary of Computer Network Technology Corporation (“CNT”), a provider of storage networking equipment and solutions. During his 10 years at CNT, Mr. Bertelsen held various finance positions starting as a controller in 1995. Prior to CNT, he served as a CPA with KPMG, LLP. Mr. Bertelson has a B.S. in accounting and finance from the University of Minnesota.

Dr. Bestwick has served as Senior Vice President, Quantum Systems since January 2024. Prior to this role, he worked in a variety of technical capacities at Rigetti beginning in August 2015, including chip fabrication, circuit design, cryo-RF hardware engineering, and system architecture. Dr. Bestwick began his career in management consulting at Bain & Company. He holds an A.B. in physics and mathematics from Harvard University and Ph.D. in physics from Stanford University.

Ms. Kaweck has served as Rigetti’s Senior Vice President, Human Resources since July 2021. Ms. Kaweck brings more than 20 years of experience in Human Resources and leadership development, working in the fields of technology, digital marketing, financial services, and consulting. Ms. Kaweck has a B.S. in finance from the University of Florida and an MBA from the University of Chicago.