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John Nicols joins ZYMVOL’s board of directors
 09.05.2025

John Nicols joins ZYMVOL’s board of directors

The biotechnology company specialized in developing synthetic enzymes, ZYMVOL, located at the Barcelona Science Park, has announced that John Nicols, former CEO of Codexis, has joined its board of directors. Nicols brings decades of experience in biotechnology, with a distinguished career at Codexis and Albemarle Corp. With this addition, the company expands its board, which already includes Maria Fátima Lucas (CEO and founder of ZYMVOL), Sébastien Lefebvre (Elaia Partners), and Pierre Monsan (former TWB and Cell-easy).

Thanks to his extensive business leadership experience in the protein engineering market, Nicols will help ZYMVOL strengthen its position as a computational enzyme innovation partner. Through his guidance, the company looks forward to expanding their business, exploring new avenues for growth and increasing their client base.

“I am thrilled to join Maria and the other directors as a member of Zymvol’s Board. After an extensive advisory engagement with the Zymvol team, it has become increasingly clear to me that its suite of computational platform technologies is uniquely positioned to enable enzyme discoveries and advancements that will bring significant value to a range of the world’s most important industries and companies. I am super excited to be a part of making that happen”, affirmed Nicols.

“The opportunity to add John to our board arrived just at the right time. Our company is now ready to expand and to tackle new challenges that need to be steered in the right direction. With John’s guidance, we’re confident we can make our shared vision for reliable enzyme innovation a reality”, explained María Fatima, CEO of ZYMVOL.

Top protein engineering executive

As its CEO from 2012 to 2022, John Nicols led the turnaround and subsequent growth of US Nasdaq-listed Codexis Inc, a leading protein engineering company, driving its enterprise value from <$50 million to multiple successive years exceeding $1 billion, quintupling sales to exceed $100m, commercializing dozens of products into pharmaceutical, food & nutrition, and life science tool verticals.

Most recently, Nicols launched Organicols, LLC, an advisory practice dedicated to helping generate sustained growth and value creation to a select group of mission driven enterprises who are inspired and poised to bring significant benefits to the planet and its people. Previously, he held various executive roles spanning 22 years at Albemarle Corp, a leading specialty chemicals company, where he grew their largest Catalysts business unit to exceed $1 billion in global sales. John earned an MBA from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Sloan School, and a BS Chemical Engineering degree from the Polytechnic Institute of New York University (now NYU).

The addition of John Nicols to ZYMVOL’s board of directors is a testament to the company’s bet to maintain its sustainable growth, securing ties with some of the most seasoned professionals in the field.

Just over a year ago, in 2023, ZYMVOL also incorporated as an independent board member Pierre Monsan, emeritus professor at the National Institute for Applied Sciences (INSA), University of Toulouse.

» Link to the news: ZYMVOL website [+]