Career
Whitacre was a Ph.D. scientist at Ralston Purina after he graduated from Cornell University in early 1983. He then was a top executive, Vice President, at Degussa from 1984 to 1989 prior to joining ADM. In late 1989, Whitacre became the President of the BioProducts Division at ADM. In 1992, he was promoted to Corporate Vice President of ADM, in addition to being President of the BioProducts Division. On August 9, 1995, Whitacre was terminated for conducting a $9.5 million fraud after ADM learned that he was an FBI informant for three years, where Whitacre wore a wire for the FBI assisting in one of the largest price fixing cases in U.S. history against ADM.
After leaving ADM in August of 1995, Whitacre was hired as the CEO of Future Health Technologies (FHT), which soon thereafter was renamed Biomar International; he worked at Biomar until his incarceration began during early 1998.
In December 2006, after his release from federal prison, Whitacre was hired by Cypress Systems Inc., a California biotechnology company, as the President of Technology and Business Development. In March 2008, Whitacre was promoted to the company's Chief Operating Officer (COO) and President of operations.
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