Rigetti Computing Announces COO and CTO Appointments

What Happened

• Rigetti Computing announced leadership changes in an 8-K filed Aug 20, 2026: on Aug 18, 2026 the Board appointed David Rivas to a newly created role of Chief Operating Officer, effective that date, and appointed Andrew Bestwick as Chief Technology Officer, also effective Aug 18, 2026. A press release on Aug 19, 2026 was furnished as Exhibit 99.1.

Key Details

• David Rivas (age 65) was promoted from Chief Technology Officer (since Feb 2023) to COO; his annual base salary was increased to $440,000 by the Compensation Committee.
• Rivas previously served as Senior Vice President, Systems and Services (since Mar 2019), overseeing engineering and operations of Rigetti’s Quantum Cloud Services platform.
• Andrew Bestwick was promoted from Senior Vice President, Quantum Systems (since Jan 2024) to Chief Technology Officer; he has worked at Rigetti since Aug 2015 in chip fabrication, circuit design, cryo‑RF hardware engineering and system architecture.
• The filing states there are no reportable related-party transactions or special arrangements concerning Rivas’s selection.

Why It Matters

• These are material executive-level changes that affect Rigetti’s leadership team and operational oversight, including a formal COO role and a new CTO responsible for technology direction.
• The salary increase for the COO is a concrete compensation change investors can note; otherwise the filing contains no financial results or other corporate actions.
• Investors tracking management continuity, technology execution, or operational scaling of Rigetti’s quantum services should view these appointments as developments in the company’s leadership structure.