Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer 

Dr Mary Ellis, MBA

Mary has 20+ years’ experience working with innovators, entrepreneurs and scientists in early-stage start-ups. She was a founding member of a technology commercialisation fund investing in health care start-ups, and is a board member for not-for-profit and for-profit organisations.

Co-founder and Director of Operations

Daniel Bahia

Formerly a Synthetic Chemist at Rothamsted Research; Daniel is a specialist in chemical synthesis to produce and identify insect pheromones and has led the business development. Daniel is now responsible for leading the operational activities of the business.

Lead Development Chemist

Dr Stephen Mills

With over 30 years’ experience in chemical synthesis, Steve is responsible for the routes and synthesis of the insect pheromones and daily running of the chemistry laboratory.

Development Chemist

Dr Rajendra Gosain

With degrees from Imperial and King’s College London, Rajendra has 26+ years’ experience both in academia and industrial settings in a number of med-chem roles including research and development and scale-up production.  These have included roles in Pfizer, Sygnature Discovery and CatSci.

Finance and Legal Consultant

Adrian Watson

A Chartered Accountant with over 20 years’ experience as Chief Finance Officer in various leading technology businesses. Adrian is currently CFO for a number of VC backed companies.

Board Member

Dr David Lawrence

Dr David Lawrence is a former Non-Executive Director at Syngenta, after retirement as the Head of Research & Development from 2002 to 2009, and a variety of previous scientific and management roles in ICI and Zeneca. Whilst at Syngenta he was a member of the investment panel for the joint venture fund established with Life Science Partners, and was then instrumental in the creation of Syngenta Ventures.

He graduated in Chemistry from Oxford University, where he was also awarded a D. Phil.

Past public-sector roles include: Chair of the KTN, Council Membership and Chair of the BBSRC Industrial Biotechnology Strategy Advisory Panel; Member and Interim Chair of the UKI2S advisory Committee; Deputy Chair of the Science Advisory Board of the Nottingham Synthetic Biology Centre; Directorship of Rothamsted Research; Membership of the Lead Expert Group for the “Global Future of Food and Farming” Foresight project, the AgriTech Food Council, the Industrial Biotechnology Leadership Council and the Nuffield Council for Bioethics.

Currently he is Chair of Agrimetrics Ltd, an Independent Director of Tropic Biosciences and MoA Technology, a Trustee of the John Innes Foundation and a Member of the Ceres Investment Committee. In addition, he consults for and advises number of early stage start-up companies including CropBio, HuntBio and Norfolk Healthy Produce.

Board Member

Tina Lawton

Ms. Lawton has more than 30 years of experience across the food value chain in both multinational and start-up environments. She began her career at ICI Agrochemicals which later became Syngenta, spending 30 years in positions of increasing responsibility across Sales, Marketing, Business Development, and increasingly senior Commercial leadership positions, including 8 years leading global and regional business units. Whilst President of Syngenta Asia Pacific, she led the development and implementation of a growth strategy utilising digital technologies to amplify reach, increase customer intimacy and organisational productivity, and accelerate sales. In recognition of this work, in 2018 she was awarded the WBCSD Leading Women Award for the inclusive partnerships she had built across the Ag value chain to deliver on the region’s sustainability agenda and for empowering women and girls in agriculture. In 2021, she joined Ynsect as Chief Growth Officer with responsibility for R&D, Sales, and Operations, globally, across its animal and human food sectors. Ms. Lawton has considerable international experience having lived and worked in the UK, Canada, USA, Switzerland, Australia, Japan, Singapore, and France.

Ms. Lawton serves on the boards of AgroFresh (PSP), Unifrutti (ADQ) and Yara International ASA. She is also an Operating Director for Paine Schwartz Partners, a private equity firm specializing in sustainable food chain investing with US$ 6.5bn AUM, and supports The Cranfield Trust, the leading provider of pro bono consultancy and management support for charities in the UK. She holds a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts in Pure and Applied Biology from the University of Oxford. She is British and lives in Switzerland.

Co-founder and Board Member

Dr Michael Birkett, FRSC

Principal Chemical Ecologist at Rothamsted Research with over 27 years’ expertise in the characterisation, production and practical deployment of insect pheromones.

Co-founder

Dr John Caulfield, MRSC

Research Scientist at Rothamsted – Mass Spectrometrist, Chemical Ecologist. Over 12 years expertise in discovery / characterisation of insect / plant signalling molecules and deployment of IPM strategies.

Co-founder

Dr David Withall, MRSC

Research Scientist at Rothamsted Research –Synthetic Chemist/Chemical Biologist. More than 5 years’ expertise in the identification and total synthesis of insect pheromones.

Board Member

Bianca Forte, MBA

A bioscientist by background with over 15 years of business development experience, Bianca has a special interest in open innovation and sustainability.

Advisor

Dr Sonny Ramaswamy

President of the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, which accredits institutions in the Pacific Northwest. He served as President Barack Obama’s appointee as director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, following professorial and leadership roles at Oregon State, Purdue, Kansas State, and Mississippi State Universities. His academic research, funded by various United States federal agencies and the private and non-governmental sectors, was on physiological, behavioral, and chemical ecological insect-insect and insect-plant interactions.