DAVIS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioConsortia, Inc., an innovator in microbial science with consortia for improving plant traits and increasing crop yields, has expanded its executive team to include Christina Huben as Senior VP Operations & Administration and Dr. Susan Turner as Senior VP Research & Development.
Huben has over twenty years of business and legal experience, having worked at the New York law firm Breed Abbott & Morgan, followed by senior roles at EnviroSource, Chemtura Corporation, AgraQuest and Bayer CropScience. Most notably, Huben was a driving force on the leadership team at AgraQuest, instrumental in delivering many of the collaboration agreements and helping lead the transformation of the biopesticide industry, culminating in the company’s acquisition by Bayer CropScience in August 2012.
“I am proud and honored to have joined the ranks of this prestigious biotechnology team,” said Huben. “I am especially pleased to be forming a winning team again with Marcus Meadows-Smith, the former CEO of AgraQuest and a champion of sustainable agriculture.”
Dr. Turner will be joining the two former AgraQuest executives effective August 15th 2014. She will leave her position as Principal Scientist at the company’s New Zealand based subsidiary, BioDiscovery, and will take up her position as Senior Vice President, R&D at the new headquarters located in Davis, California.
Dr. Turner has more than twenty years of research experience in the field of applied microbiology, beginning her research career in academia at the University of Auckland, from where she holds a PhD in Biological Sciences. While there, Dr. Turner founded both the Microbial Ecogenomics Research Group and the University of Auckland Centre for Microbial Innovation. She was one of the founding scientists of biotech startup, ZyGEM Corporation and published widely in the field of applied microbiology and microbial ecology.
“BioConsortia’s process and products have been proven in New Zealand in lab and field trials,” said Dr. Turner. “I am really excited to lead the research team in bringing these revolutionary products to the US market and the world stage.”
“I am very pleased to announce the addition of these two very talented executives to our team,” said CEO Marcus Meadows-Smith. “Susan Turner’s expertise in microbial physiology, applied microbial ecology and genomics will be essential in driving innovation and the globalization of our products. I am excited to be working again with Chris Huben with her proven skills in business collaborations and transformation. We are building the best team to deliver innovative solutions for the most critical problems facing growers today from fertilizer use efficiency to overcoming abiotic stress.”
About BioConsortia
BioConsortia, Inc., is developing highly effective microbial consortia for increasing agricultural yields. Soil and plant associated microbial communities interact with and supplement the functions encoded by the crop genome. BioConsortia has developed a revolutionary R&D technology linking a powerful plant phenotypic selection process to high-throughput microbial screening and DNA-sequencing to rapidly identify microbial teams that confer beneficial traits onto the plants via seed treatment. BioConsortia has a pipeline of products for increased fertilizer utilization, growth improvement, and other valuable crop traits such as abiotic tolerance and enhanced metabolite expression. www.bioconsortia.com
