Donald Danforth Plant Science Center Names Cortex Board Member Derek Rapp Chief Operating Officer

The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center today announced the appointment of Derek Rapp as Chief Operating Officer. Rapp joins the Danforth Center from RiverVest Venture Partners, where he served as a managing director focused on investment strategy, operations, and life sciences innovation. He will assume his new role this summer.

Rapp brings more than four decades of executive leadership spanning nonprofit management, venture capital, entrepreneurship, and mergers and acquisitions. From 2014 to 2019, he served as president and chief executive officer of JDRF International (now known as Breakthrough T1D), the world's largest private nonprofit funder of type 1 diabetes research, overseeing more than 700 employees and approximately 70 chapters nationwide. During his tenure, he drove the organization to its strongest financial performance in more than a decade, with operational revenues exceeding $200 million annually, and led the creation of the T1D Fund, the world's largest disease-specific venture philanthropy fund.