The Biopesticide Summit 2020 agenda will feature international speakers from the research community, the biocontrol industry, government organizations, investors, policy makers, funding agencies and integrated pest management (IPM) practitioners.

Stephen Ford will be speaking on: ”Humbled by Mother Nature – the complexity of building a bioprotectant”.

Stephen is the founder and technical director of Ecolibrium Biologicals, one of New Zealand’s leading Agri-biotech companies.

Stephen is a plant pathologist specialising in Mycology and Metabolomics. 

Sarah Carr will be speaking on: ”Scaling AgriTech Innovation: barriers faced and how to overcome these.”.

Sarah works with members of Farm 491, the leading AgriTech incubator based at the Royal Agriculture University, the UK.

She supports AgriTech companies as they commercialise, pitch to investors and achieve scalability. 

Marcus is CEO of BioConsortia, a leading AgriTech company developing microbial consortia.

Marcus has previously been Head of Biologics at Bayer CropScience, following Bayer’s acquisition of AgraQuest, where he was also CEO.

Jennifer will be speaking on:
"Progress towards proportionate regulation of biologicals in the EU."

Dr Owen Jones is a partner in the consultancy company Lisk & Jones Consultants Ltd that specialises in life-science technologies. He advises clients on technology issues related to semiochemicals, microbial products, biostimulants and plant-derived products.

Prior to his semi-retirement in 2012 he was responsible for Global Strategy at Suterra LLC and was based at AgriSense BCS Ltd, a company which he helped establish in 1984 to develop and commercialise insect monitoring and control systems based on pheromones.

He was also the President of the International Biocontrol Manufacturers’ Association (IBMA) for two years until December 2012 and on the board of IBMA for 5 years prior to that.

Dr Jones’ academic qualifications include a Bachelor of Science Degree from Bangor University and a Doctor of Philosophy Degree from the University of Cambridge (Churchill College). Dr Jones has been a Fellow of the Royal Entomological Society of London since 1978, an Honorary Professor in the School of Biosciences, Cardiff University and an Honorary Fellow of Bangor University.

Dr. Marrone is currently CEO/Founder of Marrone Bio Innovations (MBI), a company she started in 2006 to discover and develop bio-based products for pest management and plant health.

On August 2, 2013, MBI listed its stock as MBII on NASDAQ. Dr. Marrone founded AgraQuest in 1995 and served as its CEO, Chairman and President until March 2006. Before AgraQuest, she was founding president and business unit head for Entotech, Inc. in Davis (CA) and at Monsanto, she led the Insect Biology group.

She is a trustee of Cornell University, Treasurer of AWIS, board member of FFAR, and is on the UC Davis Ag and Environmental Sciences Dean’s Advisory Council. S

he has a B.S. in entomology with Honors and Distinction from Cornell and a Ph.D. in entomology from NCSU.