ADVANCED BIONUTRITION - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Director of Human Resources
April has been with ABN since 2001, serving as Financial Controller before being promoted to her current position, where she is responsible for managing recruiting, compensation, benefits and facilities. She brings to ABN 30 years of experience in accounting and business management, most of which has been in the biotechnology industry. Prior to ABN, Ms. Pugh put her accounting and business management expertise to work for Martek Biosciences Corporation.
Ben Abadi - Chief Investment Officer
An experienced research and development Project Manager and Technical Leader accustomed to working with multidiscipline teams to develop and transfer technologies to both large and small companies. Areas of activity include planning, management, analysis and reporting of technical projects and business-to-business communications throughout a project's lifecycle from inception to commercialization.
A co-inventor on multiple microencapsulation patents relevant to many industries including food and supplements, probiotics, infant health, and animal health. Technical skills include formulations, encapsulation, lyophilization and spray drying."
Job Titles:
- Investment Director at Emerald Technology Ventures
Cedric Mutz is an Investment Director at Emerald Technology Ventures where he acts as Corporate Finance and M&A Specialist, focusing on the investment process from due diligence to valuation to transaction structuring to exit. Before joining Emerald, Cédric Mutz was Head of M&A at Omya, a leading global producer of industrial minerals based in Switzerland. Prior to Omya, Cédric was M&A project manager at BASF, the world's largest chemicals company, where he led international M&A transactions for different business units such as agrochemicals and advanced polymers. Cédric also worked for the oil & gas producer Wintershall (BASF Group), where he was Head of Treasury at the Argentina subsidiary and Corporate Finance Manager at the headquarters in Germany. In his various roles, Cédric has gathered over 13 years of experience in M&A and corporate finance. Cedric holds a Bachelor's degree in management from the London School of Economics and a Master's degree in management from the London School of Economics and Duke University and is CFA charterholder. Cedric is fluent in English, German, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Dr. Arntzen is internationally recognized for his work on the development of transgenic plants to yield oral vaccines that meet the needs of developing nations where infectious diseases are a major cause of infant mortality. Professor Arntzen holds the Florence Nelson Presidential Endowed Chair at Arizona State University in Tempe and was the Founding Director of the Arizona Bio-design Institute. He has served as Chairman of the NIH Biotechnology Policy Board, Chair of the Bio-based Industrial Products Committee for NAS, and as Distinguished Advisor on the Council for Biotechnology. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and served on President Bush's Council of Advisors on Science & Technology. In 1984, he joined DuPont in Wilmington, Delaware, and later became Director of Biotechnology in the Agricultural Products Department.
Dr. Moti Harel, has been actively involved in marine aquaculture R&D for more than 15 years. Prior to joining ABN, Dr. Harel worked at the Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) at the University of Maryland, where he led an international research group in developing the first AquaGrow products and new larval feeds. While at COMB, Dr. Harel developed the first re-circulating hatchery system that successfully closed the life cycle of blue crabs, and he led a project which produced more than one million striped bass juveniles outside the natural spawning season. Earlier in his career, he managed the general operation of the larval rearing department at the National Center for Mariculture, one of the largest R&D centers in the Mediterranean. While there, Dr. Harel introduced a complete diet for valuable marine fish broodstock. Dr. Harel has published his work in British Journal of Nutrition, Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology, Aquaculture, Fish Physiology and Biochemistry, and Lipids. He has presented his work in many international professional conferences, and has been invited to present his work as a key speaker at numerous international conferences and workshops. Dr. Harel received his Ph.D. in biochemistry and food technology from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1995.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Management Team
- Vice President of Research and Development
Dr. Tom Fort joins ABN with 38 years of experience in multiple global technology and business leadership roles from DuPont. Dr. Fort led a world-wide team of over 150 professionals who successfully developed and commercialized an industry leading pipeline of crop protection products, focusing on the seed treatment market. His experience includes business leadership in Europe and globally, project leadership for a successfully commercialized crop protection product and working extensively at the interface of business and research/development. Dr. Fort was awarded a B.S. degree from North Georgia College (now the University of North Georgia), an M.S. from the University of Georgia and a Ph.D. in Plant Pathology from Louisiana State University. He is a Vietnam-era veteran of the United States Army and spent a 13-month assignment in the Republic of Korea.
Job Titles:
- Director of Business Development
Dr. Tom Woods joined the ABN team in 2013 after a distinguished 33-year career at the DuPont Company's Crop Protection business. Dr. Woods is highly experienced in intellectual property licensing and patent portfolio management, as well as broadly-based scientific and regulatory affairs administration. He is a graduate of Auburn University and earned his doctorate in Organic Chemistry from the University of Illinois. He is also a Vietnam-era veteran of the United States Army where he served as a Research Scientist officer at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.
Job Titles:
- Executive Director, Arancia Industrial SA De CV
Aracia Industrial SA de CV is a privately-owned company based in Guadalajara, Mexico, with interests in a variety of fields, including industrial enzymes, outfitting and rental service of specialized textiles to the health sector, and transportation and logistics. He has worked in finance, strategic planning, and plant management for oils and surfactants. After graduating with a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Notre Dame, Mr. Aranguren worked for Hewlett-Packard. He earned his MBA from Stanford University.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Managing Partner of Sophos Capital Management, LP
Jim Carruthers, Jr. is the founder and Managing Partner of Sophos Capital Management, LP, a Menlo Park, CA based specialty multi-sector hedge fund. Prior to Sophos, Jim was a Partner and Portfolio Manager for New York-based investment manager Third Point LLC. Previously Mr. Carruthers was a Founding Partner of Eastbourne Capital, a hedge fund operating out of California and as a principal at Robertson-Stephens Investment Management (RSIM). In both positions, Mr. Carruthers focused on both long and short equity positions. Earlier in his career, Mr. Carruthers held management positions with Washington DC area Systems Integration companies American Management Systems and Martin Marietta Data Systems. He graduated from University of Maryland with a BS in Business Administration and holds an MBA from George Washington University, where he sits on the Business School Board of Advisors.
Lissy is in charge of accounting operations, including the production of financial reports, maintenance of accounting records, and design and oversight of controls that mitigate risk and enhance the accuracy of reported results. Prior to joining ABN in 2005, she served as Accounting Manager at COLA, a nonprofit organization. Ms. Menachery is a Certified Public Accountant.
Majid joined ABN in 2013 and has over 24 years of experience in manufacturing, R & D food and pharmaceutical industries. Mr. Keshtmand received his Bachelor of Science degree from the University of District of Columbia in Food Science and a Bachelor of Science degree from Shiraz University in Food Science & Human Nutrition. He has a vast knowledge of new product formulations and optimized formulations, as well as product scale up from his career at Ashland, ISP Pharma and Unilever.
Mike retired from E. I. DuPont de Nemours and Company as Global Director, Human Resources. In this position, he had responsibility for management development, staffing, strategic people planning, HR policy formation and administration for a number of global businesses including Ag and Pharmaceuticals. In addition, he was responsible for HR negotiations in a number of international and domestic M&A and Joint Venture deals. In retirement, he served as Board Chairman for the design and construction of a new $100M Utah Natural History Museum. He serves as a member and Board Chair for the National Advisory Board for the College of Engineering at the University of Utah. He is a long time member of the Medical Ethics Committee for Intermountain Health Care.
Job Titles:
- Director of Process Development
Peter is responsible for directing the process development and engineering of new ABN processes, including scale-up, process optimization, and technology transfer for commercial manufacture. Prior to joining ABN, Mr. Schmalz was employed by the DuPont Company for 38 years. He served in a variety of managerial roles in R&D, engineering consulting, and facility design and construction, within DuPont Engineering and in engineering technology and operations management within the DuPont Crop Protection business. Mr. Schmalz holds a BSME degree from Valparaiso University and a MSChE degree from the University of Minnesota, and is a registered Professional Engineer. Mr. Schmalz also serves on the National Advisory Board for Christ College-The Honors College of Valparaiso University.
Job Titles:
- Laboratory Manager
- Research Associate
Trisha joined the ABN Team in the spring of 2010. Trisha earned her Bachelor's Degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Ms. Rice has experience in various laboratory applications and assists ABN's Food Technologists and Research Scientists in product development and delivery technologies with probiotics.
Tristan joined the ABN Team in the summer of 2021 after earning his Bachelor's Degree in Microbiology from Colorado State University. He has aided in the development of novel microbiological techniques to enhance the development of agricultural biological, enzymatic, and probiotic products with ABN.
Job Titles:
- CEO
- Chairman of the Board
- Member of the Management Team
- Chairman and CEO of ABN
Mr. Kirk has 37 years of experience at DuPont, where as Group Vice President he led its $4.5 billion Agriculture Business and served as a member of the CEO's Strategy/Operating Committee. Mr. Kirk created a vision to expand agricultural participation from crop protection to include the acquisition of Pioneer Hi-Bred, biotechnology research and development, and food ingredients (Protein Technology Acquisition). In addition to being named Agrimarketer of the Year in 1998 by Agrimarketer Magazine, Mr. Kirk was recognized for his biotechnology leadership by University of Illinois, and he received an award for his service to agriculture by the Farm Managers Association.