Mark Whitacre is an Ivy League Ph.D. and is considered the highest-ranked executive of any Fortune 500 company to become a whistleblower in U.S. history, and was responsible for uncovering the ADM price-fixing scandal in the early 1990s. Whitacre’s story is an inspirational story of Faith, Hope, Redemption & Second Chances.
Since 2006, Mark is a top executive with Cypress Systems, Inc, a California biotech company involved with human clinical trials (cancer research), and he was promoted in 2009 to the position of COO & Chief Science Officer of the company.
His undercover work with the FBI during the ADM scandal was the inspiration for the 2009 major motion picture, “The Informant,” starring Matt Damon as Mark Whitacre, and the 2010 Discovery Channel documentary ‘Undercover” archived on Mark Whitacre’s website, www.markwhitacre.com . The recent book, “Mark Whitacre Against all Odds”, describes the rest of the story about how faith has molded Mark’s life since the ADM scandal. Drawing from his unique history, Mark provides one-of-a-kind insight into corporate ethics, corporate greed, and the warning signs of a flawed corporate leadership.
Mark Whitacre worked undercover with the FBI for 3 years wearing a wire every day in one of the largest white-collar crime cases in U.S. history. After his undercover tenure was completed, Mark went to federal prison for eight and a half years for a white-collar crime that occurred during his undercover tenure.
Mark completed his B.S. and M.S. degrees at Ohio State University, and then earned his Ph.D. degree at Cornell University in biochemistry (1983). After he completed his Ph.D., he worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies including Ralston Purina, Degussa (Evonik), and Archer Daniels Midland (ADM). Mark was hired at ADM, the 56th largest company on the Fortune 500 at the time, when he was 32 years of age. As the president of the BioProducts Division from its launch, he was the youngest divisional president in the history of the company. In just six years, his division’s fermentation complex became one of the largest in the world. At age 35, he became a corporate vice president of ADM and was the leading candidate to become the next company president.
Today, the four FBI agents involved with Whitacre’s case tout him publicly as a “national hero” for his substantial assistance with one of the most important white-collar cases in history. And Douglas Burris, chief of U.S. Federal Probation in the Eastern District of Missouri, has stated publicly, “The story about Mark Whitacre’s redemption and second chance is one of the most inspirational stories of our time.”
Mark and his wife of 35 years, Ginger, have three grown children and reside in Florence, Kentucky, a suburb of Greater Cincinnati. Mark & Ginger travel the country extensively speaking at national events.