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Rigetti Computing, Inc. (NASDAQ: RGTI) announced that Dr. Subodh Kulkarni will join the Company as President and Chief Executive Officer, effective December 12, 2022. Dr. Kulkarni succeeds Dr. Chad Rigetti in the CEO role, and the Company expects that Dr. Kulkarni will be appointed to its board of directors following Dr. Rigetti’s previously announced departure from the Company’s board of directors on December 15, 2022. Following the appointment of Dr. Kulkarni, Mr. Rick Danis, who held the interim CEO role during the transition period, will resume his primary role of General Counsel for the Company.

“Subodh’s accomplishments as a public company CEO and a technologist constitute the type of leader whom we believe will best serve Rigetti and its exciting opportunities in quantum computing,” said Cathy McCarthy, Chair of the Company’s Board of Directors. “With thirty-plus years of spearheading innovation in the semiconductor industry, Subodh has the unique ability to speak the language of engineers, physicists, and businesspeople alike. We have full confidence in Subodh as he works to lead Rigetti into its next stage of growth and commercialization.”

“Rigetti’s mission to build the world’s most powerful computers to help solve humanity’s most important and pressing problems greatly inspires me,” commented Dr. Kulkarni. “Quantum represents the first paradigm change in computer technology in the seventy-five years since the transistor was created. I am humbled and honored by the opportunity to support Rigetti’s brilliant technologists and build upon its many achievements so far. I look forward to working with this exceptionally talented team to further develop, scale, and commercialize Rigetti’s full-stack hybrid quantum computing offering.”

Dr. Kulkarni was most recently 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 (NASDAQ: KTCC), an electronics manufacturing services company, as well as Chairman of the Board for Prism Computational Sciences.