Peter Castelli

Senior Vice President and General Counsel @ POET

About

As a Senior Executive and General Counsel, I have 20+ years of international experience as a commercially-minded leader with specialization in management of global commercial, legal, regulatory, compliance and M&A matters for public and private companies. I have served as a member of the Senior Leadership Team worked to facilitate cohesive, innovative and legally sound business strategy to support organizational growth and long term goals. As lead counsel and business strategist I have led or assisted in organizational restructurings, turnarounds, divestitures, mergers and acquisitions to improve profitability, enable growth and increase shareholder value. I am a trusted C-suite advisor and business partner providing expertise and insight to address complex and difficult business problems. As a tested leader, I deliver insights to deliver innovative commercially-driven business models, facilitate strategic partnerships, and inspire team members to achieve peak performance. My achievements & specialties include: ✔ EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP: Provided counsel to the board of directors, key stakeholders, and cross-functional, international legal teams facilitating innovative business plans and delivering cohesive legal strategy. ✔ CORPORATE STRATEGY: Analyzed and weighed business, commercial, and legal implications as part of the Senior Leadership Team to conceptualize, set and execute international business strategy resulting in competitive advantages. ✔ INTEGRATED LEGAL & COMMERCIAL BUSINESS STRATEGY: Created diverse, approachable and highly functional commercially-minded legal team to enable business capabilities. ✔ CRISIS MANAGEMENT: Developed and led reputation management programs and crisis management activities. ADDITIONAL SPECIALTIES: Business Development International Business Public Companies Domestic & International Trade Mergers & Acquisitions Government Affairs Regulatory Affairs Governance & Compliance Litigation & Arbitration Management Legal Department Development & Oversight Occupational Safety IP Strategy & Management

Country

United States

City

Greater Chicago Area

Industry

Renewables & Environment

Skill

Joint Ventures, Mergers & Acquisitions, Licensing, Corporate Governance, Mergers & Acquisitions (M&A), Intellectual Property, Employment Law, Commercial Litigation, Patents, Corporate Law, Business Strategy, Litigation Management, Restructuring, Due Diligence, Securities Regulation, Start-ups, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Trade Secrets, Legal Writing

Experience

Senior Vice President and General Counsel

POET

2020-2 - Present · 6 yrs 8 mos

Senior Counsel

Winston & Strawn LLP

2019-5 - 2020-2 · 10 mos

Chicago, IL

Senior Vice President/Global Head of Legal (2016–2019) | Group Vice President/General Counsel (2010)

Tate & Lyle

2009 - 2019-5 · 10 yrs

Greater Chicago Area

Headed Global Legal and Compliance functions, Insurance, Corporate Security and Facilities with 4,000+ employees and operations in 25 countries worldwide. Led legal practice that handled corporate risk and mitigation matters including confidential internal investigations, managing and evaluating cyber-readiness activities, mitigating public security risks, conducting union negotiations and orchestrating strategy and response to IP disputes. Selected Professional Highlights: ✔ BUSINESS STRATEGY & DEVELOPMENT: Advised and designed business restructure with a strategic commercial partner. ✔ LEGAL INFRASTRUCTURE: Built new legal and compliance departments that swiftly provided optimal management and support for commercial enterprise. ✔ COST REDUCTION & CONTROL: Controlled Company legal costs by through mindful, strategic hiring and innovative legal structure.

Vice President – Food Ingredients (North America)

Tate & Lyle

2008-11 - 2009-4 · 6 mos

Greater Chicago Area

Held full P&L responsibility with annual revenues of $300M and led a team of 95+ employees. Headed product margin improvement initiatives resulting in $3M+ in additional sales by evaluating volume and cost of product portfolio, reducing low profitability SKUs and marking up low-cost, higher margin products. ✔ OPERATIONAL EXCELLENCE: Completed a restructure of the North American sales, product and P&L management from a national organization to a global distribution schema. ✔ ORGANIZATIONAL EFFICIENCY: Redesigned organizational reporting and realigned talent to support new, global sales structure.

Director – Global Strategy & Business Development, Food & Industrial Ingredients

Tate & Lyle

2005 - 2008 · 3 yrs

Greater Chicago Area

CORPORATE STRATEGY: Developed the 5-year business strategy with the Senior Leadership Team. Approved by the Board of Directors. MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS: Conducted negotiations and closed deals for 4 international deals, totaling $750M in deal valuations.

President – Tate & Lyle Joint Venture Company (Astaxanthin Partners)

Tate & Lyle

2005 - 2007 · 2 yrs

Greater Chicago Area

Held P&L responsibility for the global carotenoids business with $10M in annual revenues. ✔ BUSINESS TURNAROUND: Executed business turnaround from losses to profitability in under 2 years resulting in a successful sale and exit of the business. ✔ BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT: Commercialized new-to-the-world technology resulting in efficient, natural product production and a natural, healthy and sustainable ingredient.