Rob AriasIn this edition of our Semi-Monthly Emeryville Newswire, we share 6 stories relevant to Emeryville that you may have missed, including:
- Emeryville Man Convicted of “Pimping” gets 6 years
- Emeryville Company among nine awarded state funding to help “accelerate manufacturing”
- Peet’s CEO Replaced Ahead of Scheduled Merger
- Man Sentenced to 6 Years for DUI Crash that Killed Emeryville Resident
- Waymo inching closer to East Bay Launch?
- Emeryville AI biotech company raises $106 million
Emeryville Man Convicted of “Pimping” gets 6 years
An Emeryville man has been sentenced to six years in prison for pimping.
40-year old Christopher Lee Card pleaded no contest to charges stemming from a 2021 incident where Card “lured” a woman to the area based on the promise of a modeling job. He then held her against her will and forced her to have sex with strangers.
Card has already served 4 years of the sentence. Human trafficking charges were dropped as part of the plea deal.
Emeryville Company among nine awarded state funding to help “accelerate manufacturing”
California Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the state is investing nearly $100 million via California Competes Tax Credits to help nine manufacturers expand operations.
Among these companies is Atomic Machines located in the General Cable Building on 62nd Street. Atomic Machines identifies themselves as a “stealth mode startup” on their rather sparse website.
Atomic Machines will use some of these tax credits to expand micro-electromechanical manufacturing (MEMS) in the region — creating roughly 305 new jobs.
According to the State, the full funding is expected to create 2,752 well-paying jobs and attract more than $370 million in private investment statewide.
Peet’s CEO Steps Down Ahead of KDP Acquisition
Emeryville-based Peet’s Coffee this week announced that Eric Lauterbach — who has worked for the company for 15 years and served as CEO since 2022 — is stepping down. “Now it is the right time for me to move on and create space for the next leader,” Lauterbach shared on LinkedIn.
The move comes ahead of the planned acquisition of Peet’s by Keurig Dr Pepper (KDP), a multibillion-dollar deal expected to close in 2026. The new entity will be headquartered in Burlington, MA leaving questions on the company’s future in Emeryville that nurtured it into the beloved coffee brand it is today.
Lauterbach will be replaced by Stuart Heflin who most recently worked for the Quest Brand of the Simply Good Foods Company.
Man Sentenced to 6 Years for DUI Crash that Killed Emeryville Resident
A San Pablo man was sentenced to six years in state prison for the wrong-way DUI crash that killed a 60-year-old Emeryville resident.
Sean O’Brien, a nurse and caregiver to his elderly parents, was driving home from a late shift early on Sept. 6, 2021 when his vehicle was struck by a vehicle driven by Erik Steverson near the I-80/I-580 interchange. Steverson fled the scene but was apprehended.
Steverson pled no contest to a vehicular manslaughter charge. At the sentencing, he apologized to the family saying “I pray for God for forgiveness.”
Waymo Closer to East Bay Expansion with DMV Approval
Waymo took another step forward to expanding into the East Bay. Back in May, we reported that they had expanded testing into Emeryville based on a report by EnergyWire. This report was a bit misleading as testing with a driver was already allowed but deployment of the driverless technology was not exactly imminent.
On November 21, their use was approved by DMV in long list of Northern and Southern California cities. The East Bay as it turns out, is not next on their list.
“We appreciate the DMV’s approval of our expanded fully autonomous operations,” provided a spokesperson for Waymo. “We’re proud to provide over one million safe, reliable, magical rides every month in San Francisco and Los Angeles, and we’re looking forward to opening our service to more Californians. Our next stop in the Golden State will be San Diego, where we’ll welcome our first riders in mid-2026.”
Their entry in the San Diego market is already stirring debate. Waymo still needs additional regulatory approval from the California Public Utilities Commission to begin carrying paying customers in these newly permitted zones.
Emeryville AI biotech Company Raises $106 million
Emeryville-based Profluent Bio has raised $106 million to accelerate its use of artificial intelligence to design novel proteins for medicine, agriculture and other applications.
The three-year-old company — the first to prove large language models can generate functional proteins — attracted backing from Altimeter Capital and Jeff Bezos’ investment firm. Profluent has already created OpenCRISPR-1, the first AI-designed CRISPR system built from scratch, and is working with partners including Revvity, Corteva and the Rett Syndrome Research Trust.
The new funding aims to push its AI-generated genome editors toward real-world therapies, including correcting mutations that cause Rett syndrome.
