Entrepreneur, Chair & Co Founder. CEO of Goannacorp & Founder of Herron Pharmaceuticals & Imaginot, Co owner with Kaye of Nindooinbah a globally recognised Artificial Breeding facility.
Previous roles have included Chair and Adjunct Professor University of Queensland Australian Institute of Bioengineering and Nanotechnology, a Member of UQ Institute of Molecular Biosciences Commercialisation Board, Chair of the Qld Government Biotechnology Advisory Council, a member of the Qld Government Smart State Council, and a member of the Reserve Bank of Australia Small Business Advisory Board.
Professional development courses undertaken at Harvard and IMD. Passionately committed to building value driven companies and learning organisations.
Executive with extensive experience in agribusiness, biotech and agtech with a focus on deriving value from commercialising technology in companies.
Consulted to a range of organisations (e.g. Mastaplex, CRC for Food Agility, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation) to develop strategic, organisational and technology commercialisation plans.
Held senior roles with major Australian and global companies (Australian Agricultural Company, ThermoFisher Scientific, and Pfizer’s Animal Health Division – now Zoetis) to enable commercial success from development and implementation of technology in the livestock and agri-food industries.
Founded and grew Catapult Genetics Pty Ltd into a globally leading role in application of molecular diagnostics in animals and eventual acquisition by Pfizer Inc.
Holly is a full time Non-executive Director and former Chief Executive, with extensive experience in retail and consumer markets across a range of industries. She has long been an advocate for gender equality, business ethics/culture and sustainability. She is the former CEO of Australian retailer Best & Less and has more than 25 years’ experience in general management and marketing, including roles at Telstra, Pacific Brands and Ford Motor Company (in the US and Australia). Holly is the recipient of the Sir Charles McGrath Award for a distinguished career in Marketing.
Holly currently sits on a range of listed, unlisted and not for profit organisations. Her portfolio includes the board of the ANZ Group Holdings (ASX:ANZ) and Woolworths Group (ASX:WOW), where she chairs the board’s Sustainability Committee. She also sits on the boards of New Zealand dairy cooperative and Fonterra (ASX/NZX:FSF). Holly is a Pro Chancellor of Western Sydney University and sits on the board of indigenous scholarship NFP, the GO (Goodes-O’Loughlin) Foundation.
In addition to her Board roles, Holly is a Senior Advisor at Pollination Group, a Climate Investment and Advisory Firm and she sits on the Bain & Company Advisory Council. Holly’s previous governance roles included the Boards of Australia Post, where she was Deputy Chair, The Lendi Group, which she Chaired, along with Endeavour Group, Nine Entertainment, AMP, Abacus Property and 2XU.
Sandy is an experienced Director with 30+ years in the pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and property development industries through a range of executive roles in manufacturing, procurement, logistics, sales and marketing. Sandy has a strong finance background and a commitment to social enterprise.
A passion is his work with Traction for Young People Ltd which he founded in 2015 to unlock potential in vulnerable young people through hands on learning and mentoring programs. At Concept Living Properties Pty Ltd, Sandy was responsible for the development of residential apartment projects. At Rain Harvesting Pty Ltd, a manufacturer and distributor to the plumbing and hardware industry, Sandy was Marketing Director. Sandy worked for 8 years at Herron Pharmaceuticals Pty Ltd, an Australian owned manufacturer of over-the-counter pharmaceuticals, in a range of roles in marketing, manufacturing and on Herron’s Crisis Management Team. Sandy also worked as Marketing Manager for publicly listed Sigma Pharmaceuticals.
Sandy completed a Bachelor of Commerce (University of Queensland), worked for Price Waterhouse then completed an internship program with KaVo America, a dental equipment manufacturer, at its Chicago headquarters.
Founder and chairman of private equity manager, Scarcity Partners.
Former managing director and co-founder of leading Australian and global equity fund manager, Hyperion Asset Management.
Chairman of agriculture fund, Packhorse Pastoral Company (Australia) Ltd. Chairman of carbon transition risk management platform EMMI Solutions for institutional investors and asset consultants.
A regular public speaker on investment, regenerative agriculture and carbon finance matters.
Anna has extensive marketing experience, spanning Pharmaceutical, FMCG, retail and direct to consumer markets and channels.
Anna worked across multiple roles at Herron Pharmaceuticals including Sales Representative, Brand Manager for Natural Health Care and Marketing Manager for Hilton Healthstream, a direct to consumer company which was part of the Herron Pharmaceuticals portfolio.
Co-founder and current owner of Blue Mountain Co which owns and manages niche product brands, with global distribution in the sustainability space creating products for better built environments.
Other roles include Brand Manager in confectionary at Nestle. Whilst based in London, Business Unit Marketing Manager for Sainsbury’s Supermarkets, implementing strong customer focussed portfolio and category strategies to drive instore revenue and profit. Marketing Communications Executive at the Body Shop’s Head Office.
Matthew Pryor is co-founder of Tenacious Ventures, Australia’s first dedicated agrifood innovation venture capital firm.
He was a founding board member of the Australian AgriTech Association and co-founder of Observant, an Australian agtech pioneer acquired by Jain Irrigation in February 2017.
He was the founding chair of Rocket Seeder, a food & ag innovation accelerator, and founding chair of the Australian Government Agriculture 4.0 Task Force.
He is a member of the CSIRO Agriculture and Food Advisory Committee, and is passionate about promoting Australian agri-food innovation globally.
Primary inventor and co founder of Nbryo. Instrumental in the design and development of Nindooinbah into one of Australia’s leading, state of the art, artificial breeding centres for beef cattle.
Designed and managed large-scale artificial breeding programs, including delivering 4500 embryo transfer (ET) cattle to Australian Agricultural Company (AACo).
In 2009 initiated Australia’s first Ultrablack breeding program, an adapted beef breed designed for cross breeding programs in Northern Australia to enhance performance indicators of fertility and carcass quality.
30+ years in human and animal health (incl veterinary science) bringing a broad array of laboratory, veterinary, research, business and project management skills to Nbryo.
Established Health 2000 (NZ natural health company) & Alpha Scientific (NZ’s first full service private veterinary laboratory). Critical to creation of NZ national enzootic bovine leucosis eradication program.
Taught Massey University’s veterinary & agriculture programs & managed its’ commercial interests. Commercialised university IP in food, veterinary and animal health industries.
Involved with dairy, sheep, beef pork industries; animal biologic and pharmaceutical industries; early stage product development.
Jim is an experienced CFO, Company Secretary & Executive Director (Chartered Accountant, Chartered Secretary) with Extensive Genetics and Cattle Industry experience.
He has been Finance lead in three successful trade sales/capital raisings, worked extensively with private equity and other owners.
Jim is a demonstrated strategic thinker with strong hands-on execution with a proven ability to balance the pursuit of rapid entrepreneurial growth with robust governance.
Jim is naturally curious and aspires to be fully immersed in a business to understand its fundamentals, address its challenges and manage its risks. He is focused on looking forward for opportunities to grow and improve businesses.
Lewis has a comprehensive professional background spanning remote animal monitoring, livestock genomics, animal health and molecular diagnostics.
Lewis helps organisations adopt, extend and commercialise these technologies and services; be it start up, SME or multinational enterprise.
As an advocate of tech adoption in production animal industries, he is excited to be at the helm of the future of the agriculture sector both in Frost Agritech and board member of the Australian AgriTech Association.
Sophia is an experienced technical marketing executive, with a focus on customer centricity. She has demonstrated ability to manage a dynamic environment with a diverse portfolio of brands across a variety of animal industries and distribution channels.
Prior to joining Nbryo, Sophia was the Marketing and Technical Manager at Vetoquinol – responsible for companion and farm animal products in veterinary channels and FMCG brands in Pet retailers across Australia and NZ. She also led the Business Unit for Farm Animals which included a portfolio of leading livestock assisted reproduction brands.
As an academic, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at The University of Queensland, specialising in the management and adoption of large scale assisted reproduction programs in intensive and extensive beef herds. She consulted to major animal pharma organisations in their R&D projects and adoption of assisted reproduction strategies in dairy cattle herds in Australia and NZ.
Sophia grew up on a beef cattle and broiler chicken farm in the Hunter Valley and remains a beef cattle producer today. She holds a Bachelor of Agricultural Science (Hons) at The University of Sydney and an MBA and PhD from The University of Queensland.
Rebecca is an agribusiness professional with extensive experience throughout the beef industry value chain both in Australia and abroad.
With a B. Rural Science (UNE) and an M.Sc. Business Mgt in the Ag & Food Industries (UK), her career has spanned on-farm management, advisory (NSW Beef Cattle Officer & Extension Executive for Zimbabwe’s Cattle Producers’ Association), feedlotting (US), R&D (NSW Ag and the US), Brand Management (AACo, GrainCorp), 10 years of self-employment, a chapter with a start-up agribusiness and more recently Product Manager for a global animal health company specialising in Bovine Reproduction.
Rebecca is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (AICD) and the Australian Rural Leadership Program (ARLP). She was a 23/24 Mentor for the Graeme Acton Beef Connections Program and is currently Chair of one of Queensland Investment Corporation (QIC)’s Natural Capital Boards. Former Board roles have included Foundation of Australian Agricultural Women (FAAW) and Queensland Polo.
Victoria has a Bachelor’s degree in Biology and has several years work experience in an IVF laboratory. Additionally, she has worked in microbiology quality control for an Argentine company that produces vaccines and veterinary medicine, for a further five years.
Victoria has recently relocated to Australia, to further her passion for IVF.
Fatima is an experienced laboratory professional with 13 years of animal in vitro fertilisation (IVF) experience across cattle, sheep and pigs in several countries.
Fatima has foundations in clinical biochemistry and biotechnology and has a strong skill set in laboratory management and field activities.
Rafaela is an experienced laboratory technician with 5 years as an embryologist in Brazil covering fertilization, selection, freezing and preparation for direct transfer. She has a bachelor of science (biology) and a keen interest in bovine IVF.
AgriScience graduate of Massey University, with a stud breeding background in NZ. Advocate & mentor for agricultural youth programs & competitions. Moved to Queensland in 2019 and spent 4 years with AACo in operations analyst and business partner roles within the Intensive business (Breeding & Genetics, Backgrounding & Feedlotting).
Comprehensive experience in supply & operational planning within beef supply chains, financial budgeting & forecasting, project management and extensive data analysis & reporting. Proficient in identifying and improving efficiencies within intensive and extensive livestock production systems.
Independent and determined, active problem solver, relatable & personable communicator, spreadsheet wizard. Passionate about identifying opportunities to improve systems and processes that drive decision making & business performance.
Originally trained as a veterinarian in Brazil, Rodrigo has extensive bovine assisted reproductive technology (ART) experience.
He is proficient in a wide array of techniques from embryo collection (Multiple Ovulation Embryo Technology or MOET), follicular puncture, manipulation of embryos and oocytes, artificial insemination, reproductive ultrasound with experience in ultrasound early diagnosis and ultrasound foetal sexing, treatment for reproductive pathologies in females, nutrition focused on bovine reproduction.
In his role with Gertec he oversaw the global export of embryos and more recently managed an IVF lab with responsibility for both laboratory and field operations.
Rodrigo’s Nbryo role will focus on refining field processes with a focus on animal health and quality outcomes.
Bernd comes from a medicinal chemistry background and has 25+ years of experience as a professional in both industry and academia in Australia and overseas. This includes extensive experience in research and in project management ranging from projects in a research environment to the commercial cGMP manufacture of a live biotherapeutic product for a phase 2 clinical trial.
He has also worked as a proposal manager for a contract manufacturer in the biotechnology industry, where he has worked closely with business development to deliver close to 500 tailor made project proposals for process development and cGMP manufacture to a wide variety of clients in the areas of live biotherapeutics, recombinant proteins, and plasmid DNA.
Data Manager with 5 years of experience in data management and analysis. Worked extensively with QUT Public Health Department and QUT Centre for Data Science on predictive risk analysis programs and digital twin development.
Completing MBA at QUT in 2022. Cofounded small business Ink and Gumption and led commercialisation and operation processes.
Traveller and constant learner. Spent 7 years working in a kindergarten in Japan as a teacher and then manager. Still enjoy working with students.
Project and operations management background with a focus on environmental sustainability.
Previous experience with a business design consultancy, industry association and a major FMCG.
Led a successful government funded sustainability program for Queensland small business.
Completer-finisher, tree hugger, chicken lady, mother of (3) dragons, jack-of-all-trades, Excel guru, professional tinkerer, rower, lover of systems & processes, human.
A qualified accountant (member of CPA Australia) with experience in financial reporting, financial analysis, budget and forecasting for SME businesses across different industries in New Zealand and Australia.
Previously held Management Accountant position for a biotech startup company WearOptimo. With 10+ years of experience in the accounting field, Sarina loves problem solving and is keen on learning. My major achievements including streamlining financial processes for efficiency.
Dana is an undergraduate student at QUT currently completing the honours year of her Bachelor of Engineering/ Bachelor of Mathematics double degree. She majors in mechatronics and computational mathematics, with specific interests in biotechnology and robotics.
Dana has participated in numerous research projects with the university as a research assistant, including work with machine learning explainability and modelling treatment of tumours in patients.
Professor Blair retired from Massey University in April 2022; he has been retained part time. At retirement, he was appointed Professor Emeritus. Emeritus Professor Blair holds Directorships with New Zealand Animal Evaluation Ltd, Focus Genetics LP and C Alma Baker Trust Ltd, and Chairs the Scientific Advisory Committee for Nbryo. He has previously served on several not-for-profit, sport and primary sector Boards, and has significant experience in evaluating / ranking applications for research funding and reviewing science programs.
Emeritus Professor Blair grew up on a hill country sheep and beef cattle farm in New Zealand. He graduated from Massey University in 1976 and joined the Sheep Husbandry Department to lecture and undertake a PhD. In 1995, he became Department Head of Animal Science and in 1998 assumed the role of Deputy Head of the Institute of Veterinary, Animal and Biomedical Science. Emeritus Professor Blair lectured in animal production and animal breeding and genetics to undergraduate and postgraduate students. His main research interests were the application of animal breeding and genetic technologies to the genetic improvement of production and service animals in New Zealand; understanding developmental programming to improve production animal performance and the study of the genetic causes of diseases.
Emeritus Professor Blair supervised about 100 postgraduate students, 49 being PhD graduates. He has developed several international collaborative research relationships with institutions in China, Japan and Uruguay.
Professor Paul Wood AO has led R&D teams from CSIRO, CSL and Pfizer Animal Health (now Zoetis) and was Deputy-Director of the Vaccine Technology CRC. He brought several innovative products to the market, receiving recognition for his work to invent a new diagnostic test for Tuberculosis, including the CSIRO Medal, the Clunies Ross award and made an Officer in the Order of Australia.
Paul was Chair of the Global Alliance for Livestock Veterinary Medicines and on the Board
of Dairy Australia.
He is currently Chair of an Insect farming start-up, on the Australian Academy Technology, Science and Engineering Board and an Adjunct Professor at Monash University. In 2019 he received the International Distinguished Veterinary Immunologist Award from the IUIS Veterinary Immunology Committee (VIC).
He is a mentor for various AgTech accelerators such as Sprout X and Rocket Seeder as well as the CSIRO Protein Mission and in 2022 received the Eureka Prize for Outstanding Mentor of Young Researchers.
Professor Appolinaire Djikeng is the 4th Director General of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) and Senior Director of CGIAR Livestock-Based Systems.
Prior to joining ILRI and the CGIAR, Professor Djikeng Djikeng was Chair of Tropical Agriculture and Sustainable Development at the The University of Edinburgh and Director of the Centre for Tropical Livestock Genetics and Health (CTLGH) at the Roslin Institute, Edinburgh, UK.
Professor Djikeng previously held research faculty and science leadership positions at Bioscience easter and central Africa (BecA, ILRI, Kenya), at Yale University School of Medicine (Connecticut, USA) and at the J Craig Venter Institute (Maryland, USA) primarily focusing on genomics and functional genomics with application to global health and agricultural development.
Professor Djikeng currently serves on boards and science advisory committees including The Sainsbury Laboratory (UK), The Kirkhouse Trust (UK), Science for Africa Foundation (Kenya) and is affiliated with several universities (University of Queensland , Australia; The University of South Africa; and The University of Edinburgh, UK).
Alfred de Vries works at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as Senior Program Officer for Animal Production. He leads the Foundation’s efforts in R&D for Animal Production (genetics, reproduction, feed) aimed at increasing livestock productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa and South-Asia.
Alfred has extensive experience in animal breeding across many geographies from his time at international breeding companies (CRV, Topigs Norsvin and PIC) . He had management positions in R&D, technical service and operations.
He obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Animal Sciences from Wageningen University and holds a Global Certificate in Management from INSEAD.
Looking to make a mark in sustainable livestock innovation? Become a part of the Nbryo team and help us shape the future. Explore current opportunities and let’s create change together!
