Asia BioBusiness understands the value of its most valuable asset, its personnel. As a consulting agency where client interaction and knowledge transfer are essential, our expertise and experience across our practice areas is our key asset.
Professor Paul Teng — Chairman and Co-founder, Singapore
Paul Teng is concurrently an academic at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore, and Non-Executive Chair, Asia BioBusiness Pte. Ltd. He started his career as a plant pathologist in the U.S.A. and is widely recognized as an expert on food security, biotechnology commercialization and sustainable development. Prof Teng has a B.Agric. Sc. (Hons.) and Ph.D. from Lincoln College, University of Canterbury, New Zealand. He has over thirty years of experience in academe, the private sector, international organizations and non-profit organizations, and has published over 250 technical papers and co-edited eight books. His best-known books are BioScience Entrepreneurship in Asia – Creating Value with Biology (2008) and Food Matters – Food Security and the Future of Food (2018). He has held leadership positions in GTT Ecofarm Pte. Ltd. Singapore (a marine aquaculture company), the World Fish Center (a CGIAR center based in Malaysia), MONSANTO Company and the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines. He is also the Honorary Chair of the Board of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-biotechnology applications (www.isaaa.org) and a member of the Genetic Modification Advisory Committee (www.gmac.gov.sg) Singapore.
Professor Teng’s work has been recognized through awards such as the Eriksson Prize in Plant Pathology given by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, election as a Fellow of TWAS, the World Academy of Sciences, Fellow of the American Phytopathological Society, Fellow, International Society of Plant Pathology, and Honorary Doctor of Science by Murdoch University, Australia.
Professor Teng has made visits to more than 40 countries in support of development projects through consultancies with the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the German Corporation for International Cooperation (GiZ), the Asian Productivity Organisation, and the Food & Agriculture Organization, U.N.
Dr Andrew D. Powell — CEO and Co-founder, Singapore
Andrew Powell graduated from the University of Edinburgh with honours in Biology and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary, Canada. He has held research and academic positions at the University of Guelph, Canada, the National Institute for Health Sciences in Tokyo, Tsukuba, Japan and the National University of Singapore.
From 1994 to 2005 he has worked as a consultant assisting a wide range of clients (e.g. Quintiles, Syngenta, Agrium, CIDA, Enterprise Ireland, GTZ, CropLife Asia, Canadian Government) in their activities in biotechnology across East Asia. He founded Asia BioBusiness with Professor Paul Teng in 2005 and continued his consulting activities.
He has considerable experience in stakeholder dialogues, facilitations and public fora across the region and in Australia, and is invited regularly to chair conference sessions at global technology conferences.
Over the last 15 years he has been active in area of Risk Communication, conducting training and offering advice to both public and private sector clients. He is the co-author with Dr Andrew Roberts of “The Lowdown: Risk Communication, Dodging the Bullet in Controversy and Crisis” published by Creative Content Digital, London and available via iTunes, Audible, and as an eBook (launch September 2010).
Andrew was a member of the Alberta Government’s Research and Innovation Advisory Committee (ARIAC) from 2017 to 2019. He is also on the Advisory Committee of The Scientific American / BioIndustry Organization Worldview Publication. From 2012 to 2017 he sat on the advisory board for Syngenta’s Rice Bowl Index. Andrew is also a proud member of the Global Scot community (www.globalscot.com) – a worldwide network of entrepreneurial and inspirational business leaders, dedicated to supporting Scotland’s most ambitious companies and supported by Scottish Enterprise.
Associates
Darren Ho, Singapore
Darren is a Natural Resource Management & Economics graduate from the University of Western Australia. He has a deep interest in all things related to farming, food and community and is drawn to the vision of making global food production more sustainable with the principles of circular economy applied across the entire value chain (from production, logistics, manufacturing and processing, up to the plate on the table).
Over the past 8 years, Darren has worked in and managed farms in Australia and South East Asia (Singapore, Indonesia and Laos) and aims to continue such work around the world to further his understanding of different practices, climates and cultures. This experience helps him shape his farming philosophy and allows him to cross-pollinate ideas with different farmers. He is particularly passionate about improving the livelihoods of small holder farmers in Asia by assisting in their adoption of best practices to increase the quality and quantity of the food grown in the region.
Darren is equally determined to drive the industry forward from the ground up through his role as the Project Project Lead for the Singapore Young Farmers, he organises symposiums to attract younger generations into the agriculture industry. He hopes that one day Singapore becomes a more food resilient country and is recognised as the regional knowledge hub for agriculture.
Ms Cheryl Tiong, Singapore
Cheryl is an experienced director of partnership and development with a demonstrated history of working in the higher education industry, international environmental and agricultural sector with wide network from across industries. Currently on the Board of private family businesses in the food and agriculture sector. Skilled in Non-profit Organizations, Sustainable Development, Corporate Social Responsibility, Analytical Skills, and Marketing Communications.
Cheryl has vast experience working with MNCs and SMEs, universities and governments. She is a strong community and social services professional and graduated from Monash University and Cornell University in an external agriculture research program.
Professor Lori P. Knowles – Boston
Lori Knowles specializes in regulation, policy and communication as it relates to emerging biotechnologies and health innovations. She is an expert in international comparative law and bioethics working as a consultant in Boston, USA.
Professor Knowles has dual law degrees from McGill University, Canada, and graduate law degrees from Kings College, University of London and the University of Wisconsin, USA. Professor Knowles has practiced and taught law in Canada and the United States, and has held research and academic positions at the University of Wisconsin, USA, the University of Alberta, Canada, and The Hastings Center, a bioethics think tank in New York City.
Professor Knowles is skilled in facilitating productive dialogue among diverse stakeholder groups. She has coached a broad range of industry executives in effective communication in areas of controversy and value conflict, such as biotechnology and the life sciences.
She has been a consultant to Unilever LLC, Bayer Canada; The Public Affairs Council, Washington DC; President George W. Bush’s Council on Bioethics; President William J. Clinton’s National Bioethics Advisory Commission; Genome Canada; the Canadian Biotechnology Advisory Committee; Health Canada; the Stem Cell Network of Canada; and the US National Academy of Sciences, among others.
Professor Knowles sits on the Government of Alberta’s Research Innovation Advisory Committee; is Past Chair of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Forest Biosciences; and is a special governmental employee for the US Food and Drug Administration. She is the author of numerous publications, and lectures internationally on a wide range of topics, ranging from GMOs and synthetic biology, to stem cells regulation and transgenesis.
Dr. Julian Adams – Ann Arbor
Julian is an Emeritus Professor in the Departments of Molecular Cellular and Developmental Biology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. He received his Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of California, Davis and, after spending a year as a postdoctoral fellow at the same institution, joined the University of Michigan in 1970. He has held visiting appointments at Universities in Brazil, France, and Germany. He served as Chairman of the Department of Biology at the University of Michigan from 1996-2001. He received a number of awards throughout his career, including Alexander von Humboldt, Fulbright, Jefferson and NATO Fellowships. From 2004 to 2010 he worked as a consultant and advisor in the Agricultural Biotechnology team in the Bureau of Economic Growth, Agriculture and Trade at USAID in Washington D.C. and more recently as the Asia Coordinator for the Program for Biosafety Systems located at the International Food Policy Research Institute.
Derek Robinson – Orange, NSW, Australia
Derek Robinson is an experienced leader and business focussed project manager. He has a particular passion for innovation and getting technology to the marketplace, a keen interest in start-ups to exploit novel technology and in finding opportunities to ‘value add’ in the agribusiness sector (food, feed & fibre). His point of difference is his willingness to get involved at an operations level.
In recent years, Derek has driven the whole of business transformation & scaling up of a regional food manufacturer to take on national contracts for a major international supermarket, overseen commercialisation of a novel technology from lab to market, incorporating supply chain development and technology deployment. He has a strong background in managing teams and projects across science, ICT and energy efficiency projects. DHRA clients benefit from his experience in opportunity assessment for technology commercialisation, international market analysis and development, new enterprise conception and design.
Since 2012, Derek has been actively involved in trade missions in the region including India, Hong Kong and China and has also worked in Malaysia and Singapore, the US and Canada. In previous roles, he was responsible for the Project Management and consulting functions for several related companies and also responsible for industry engagement across sectors, including negotiation of partner agreements with university, commercial and government agencies.
A recognised industry leader in Australia and New Zealand, Derek is a former chair of the AusFoodtech committee for AusBiotech and a member of the ‘Return on Science’ Agritechnology Investment Advisory committee (administered by Auckland UniServices on behalf of the NZ Ministry for Business Innovation & Employment). He has served as a committee member on the NSW Product Development and Innovation Group for the AIFST and Derek has been a featured panellist and speaker at conferences in Australia and New Zealand. Derek holds a Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Entrepreneurship from the University of Adelaide.
Matt Tom, San Francisco, USA
Matt Tom is an independent technical consultant focusing on engineering design and implementation (Integration, Testing, & Validation; Scale-up & Manufacturing) in the Food and Beverage industry. With over 15 years of experience from post-harvest to marketplace and life cycle testing, he specializes in New Product Development and Commercialization, especially in the food technology space where he integrates the sciences with digital technologies.
Matt brings tasty and innovative plant-based foods to the market that are healthier and more sustainable than their non-plant-based counterparts, first through government research at USDA’s Agricultural Research Service collaborating with companies like PepsiCo, General Mills, Clorox, and P&G, and more recently at Silicon Valley food tech startups such as Impossible Foods, Kite Hill, JUST, Ripple Foods, and more. Well versed in Usability, Six Sigma (both Process Improvement and Design), Lean, GMP, GLP, HACCP, and PCHF, he serves as a Subject Matter Expert in food technology and food processing in technical due diligence efforts, a Product Development Advisor to many early-stage startups, and a Mentor in startup incubators/accelerators. He is also a continuing guest lecturer at the Culinary Institute of America (Hyde Park, NY campus) on the topic of Food Product Design for Manufacturing on the Culinary Science R&D track.
Matt received his B.S. in Biological Systems Engineering from UC Davis and his M.S. in Industrial & Systems Engineering from San Jose State University. He is an active member in the local chapters of the American Society for Quality, Board Certified Professional Ergonomists, Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society, American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers, and Institute of Food Technologists.
Dr Regina Moench-Pfanner, Geneva
Regina Moench-Pfanner is dedicated to helping clients in the public and private sectors to create solutions that sustainably improve nutrition. She has been at the forefront of nutrition for more than 30 years, bringing with her a wide range of experience that include public health, food and nutrition policy; healthcare and research; business and program management; strategic planning and capacity building. She has brokered many noteworthy partnerships across the globe to harness cross-sector partnerships for nutrition outcomes, and has published widely on the economic and double burden of malnutrition, food quality and the role of micronutrients towards optimal nutrition. She is a widely recognized thought leader in the complex field of nutrition and the linkages between agriculture and nutrition. Regina also delivers key presentations and moderates at international conferences.
Professor Ian Maddox, Auckland
Professor Ian Maddox has over 40 years of experience in food and industrial biotechnology. Originally from the UK, Ian has spent his entire academic career at the Massey University in New Zealand, initially at the Palmerston North Campus and then at the Albany Campus on the North Shore of Auckland. He has held visiting professorships at the Inter University Center for Biotechnology, Bandung, Indonesia; Institut fur Verfahrenstechnik, Brennstofftechnik und Umwetttechnik, Technische Universitat Wien, Vienna, Austria; International Center for Biotechnology, Osaka, Japan. He is an Assistant Editor of the World Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology and a Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Fermentation and Bioengineering.
Ian is also on the Scientific Advisory Boards for, LanzaTech, Parnell, Auckland, Cobalt Biofuels, Mountain View, California., and on the board of Drapac Ltd, Auckland.
Special Advisor on Risk Communication
We are pleased to have Professor Lynn Frewer as our advisor on Risk Communication and have had the pleasure of working with her on her a number of initiatives.
Professor 
Lynn Frewer, Newcastle University, UK
Lynn Frewer is a Professor of Food and Society in the School of Natural and Environmental Sciences, Newcastle University. Previously she was Professor of Food Safety and Consumer Behaviour at Wageningen University, (Netherlands), and Head of Consumer Science at the Institute of Food Research at Norwich, (UK). Lynn’s research interests are focused on developing transdisciplinary research collaborations between the social and natural sciences focused on agrifood systems and translating the translating the results of research into actionable policy recommendations. Lynn has research interests focused on understanding and measuring societal and individual responses to risks and benefits associated with food, health, sustainability and safety, and linking this to governance practices associated with Risk Analysis, including developing and testing risk (benefit) communication strategies and other public health interventions related to food consumption , policy translation of scientific results, and developing accelerated agritechnology adoption strategies in the Global North and South.
Lynn’s research has been funded by the European Commission framework programme, EFSA, the DUTCH NWO and VWA, UK DEFRA and industry bodies such as the Mobile phone industry board, SUSCHEM. In the UK Lynn have been awarded research grants from the RCUK (BBSRC, ESRC, NERC, STFC Newton), UK FSA, DEFRA, and DoH). Lynn has published over 300 refereed journal articles and edited 5 books. Her current H index is 82, based on over 24110 citations (Google Scholar, 28 05 2019 ). https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?user=6xaZ3MIAAAAJ&hl=en). Lynn has been involved in extensive international engagement activities, including the Nuffield council of Bioethics working group on animal genomics, Swiss Science foundation scientific advisory board (sustainable food and nutrition), UK RI REF assessment UoA6 panel membership (Food, nutrition and agriculture), and the JPI Healthy food for a healthy life scientific advisory board.
North American Communications Partner
We are pleased to have Mr James Toccacelli of Toccacelli and Associates in Toronto as our partner in our communication activities in North America.
Mr James Toccacelli, APR, Toronto
James has more than twenty-five years of Global Corporate Communications and Corporate Public Affairs experience in Canada, the U.S. and Asia.
Toccacelli brings a breadth of cross industry and cross discipline business experience to communications, with hands-on experience in media, the airline industry, government, apparel and consumer packaged goods, information technology services and commodities.
A former journalist, Toccacelli’s published work in leading academic journals on the role and process of establishing a Corporate Reputation are often quoted and sourced.
An accredited public relations professional, he is a recipient of the Canadian Public Relations Society’s highest award, the Philip A. Novikoff Award, in recognition of his superior and outstanding service through professional practice and betterment of the community. He is also a recipient of the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal and numerous international, national and local awards.
He holds a Journalism degree from Carleton University and his volunteer work has included Board responsibility with the Canadian Paralympic Committee, the Hinks-Dellcrest Centre for Mental Health in Toronto, Toronto Pre-School and Language Services and various minor hockey associations.