NutraCea Announces Appointment of David Hutchinson and Robert Smith

After 4 years at NutraCea in various operations, quality assurance and technical services positions, Mr. Hutchison has been appointed Senior Vice President - Operations.

16 April 2012 --- NutraCea, a global leader in the production and marketing of value added products derived from rice bran, announced the appointments of David Hutchinson as Senior Vice President - Operations and Robert Smith, PhD as Senior Vice President - Business Development.

After 4 years at NutraCea in various operations, quality assurance and technical services positions, Mr. Hutchison has been appointed Senior Vice President - Operations. In his new capacity, he will have management responsibility for all of NutraCea's US plant operations, quality assurance and technical services as well as operational oversight of the Company's Brazilian rice bran bio-refinery, Irgovel.

Dr. Smith joined NutraCea March 19th as Senior Vice President - Business Development. His primary responsibilities include providing technical sales support, managing third party technical sales support providers, leadership of NutraCea's research and development activities and management of the Company's intellectual property portfolio.

Mr. Hutchinson and Dr. Smith will both join NutraCea's Senior Management Committee and will co-manage NutraCea's participation in the previously announced Joint Development Agreement with DSM, which is aimed at developing technologies to enzymatically extract and concentrate protein from rice bran.

W. John Short, Chief Executive Officer of NutraCea, stated, "I am pleased to announce the promotion of David Hutchinson to SVP - Operations. Hutch has been with NutraCea for 4 years and brings a wealth of general industry and NutraCea-specific knowledge to his new responsibilities. In his new role, he will provide strong leadership and solid management continuity to our critical operational activities in both the US and Brazil."

"I am equally pleased to welcome Robert Smith to our senior management team. Robert comes to us with a wealth of product and industry-specific knowledge that will support sales activities in all areas of our business including human ingredient sales, animal nutrition sales and functional foods. Robert's deep knowledge and background in research and development make him ideally suited to head both the Technical Sales Support and R&D efforts at NutraCea."