BILL & MELINDA GATES AGRICULTURAL INNOVATIONS - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Chief Operating Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
"Delivering agricultural solutions to smallholder farmers confronting the challenges of climate change is our obligation as global citizens. With our collective skills and experience, we have the unique opportunity to work with our partners to improve nutrition security, creating further educational and economic opportunities for smallholder farmers, their families, and communities."
As COO, Al oversees organizational strategy, enterprise operations, project management, and stewarding of financial and human resources. This enables Gates Ag One to effectively serve its mission by creating and adhering to the highest standards of operational excellence.
Al's understanding of the opportunities and complexities we face is shaped by his decades of experience developing and launching consumer driven food technology platforms that deliver high-quality nutrition in economically diverse markets world-wide. He has a passion for understanding the needs of communities, creating solutions, and delivering them in a culturally appropriate manner. Al places a priority on creating strong human connections that result in successful, collaborative, multicultural teams. Al holds a master's in Business Administration.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director, Product Development for Gates Ag One
"I want a future where state-of-the-art innovations in crop improvement are first introduced in the Global South, where farmers are most affected by climate change and too many people still have to rely on subsistence food production and food imports for many of their staples."
As Director, Product Development for Gates Ag One, Brigitte leads our efforts in translating cutting-edge research into sustainable and innovative products that can be widely adopted by smallholder farmers to improve livelihoods, local economies, and the environment. She thrives on building highly collaborative, multi-disciplinary teams, and working with our network of international partners to advance improved agricultural solutions and enable local innovations in the places where they're needed most.
Over the past 25 years, Brigitte has worked for numerous seed companies and other organizations in North America and Europe, with projects extending to South America, Europe, and Asia, where she advanced technical products across a broad range of food crops. Brigitte holds a Ph.D. in Plant Molecular Biology and an M.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Associate General Counsel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
"Our goal is ambitious, and essential: to develop the very best early-stage innovations into truly useful and sustainable products that expand the tools available to smallholder farmers."
Carine Doyle oversees the legal support for Gates Ag One, providing guidance across a range of areas including intellectual property, licensing, investment support, and regulatory law.
Carine has practiced law for more than 13 years, with over seven years of experience specifically in the agriculture sector. During that time, she managed patent portfolios, developed IP strategies, negotiated and drafted complex discovery collaborations and commercial agreements, and oversaw the protections for new inventions through discovery, development, and commercialization.
Carine remains a member of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation legal group, but her focus is providing legal support to Gates Ag One.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Gates Ag One Board of Managers / Chief Financial Officer, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Job Titles:
- Chief Executive Officer
- Member of the Leadership Team
- CEO of Gates Ag One
"Farming is an exercise in perseverance. It is continually challenged by the effects of climate change, evolving food demands, and the need to conserve natural resources. We all share the responsibility to drive the type of impact the world needs to create change for those most impacted by these problems."
As CEO of Gates Ag One, Joe sets a visionary and strategic course for our efforts to champion innovations and cultivate global networks that prioritize the needs of smallholder farmers.
Joe began his career on a small, diversified family farm and has dedicated his professional life to improving the world through agricultural advancements. Most recently, he led efforts to strengthen agriculture's adaptive capacity to climate change at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where he served as a director for its Global Growth and Opportunity Division. Joe brings to our team more than 30 years' experience developing and launching new product inventions and has led breakthrough life-science research at multiple organizations including the Advanced Research Projects Agency in the U.S. Department of Energy. Joe holds a Ph.D. and M.Sc. in Plant, Soil, and Environmental Science, as well as an MBA in Technology Entrepreneurship.
Job Titles:
- Secretary and General Counsel, Gates Ag One Board of Managers / General Counsel, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director, Global Strategy, Regulatory and Public Affairs
"My hope is that every smallholder farmer who wants to be an agricultural entrepreneur can realize her dreams. She expects, and has access to, the best information available, and the most innovative and sustainable products and practices. She has options for how to grow her business, support her family, and contribute to her community."
As Director, Global Strategy, Regulatory and Public Affairs for Gates Ag One, Morven develops and nurtures partnerships to ensure that our product portfolio is aligned with the needs of smallholder farmers and other value chain actors in our target geographies of Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. She also leads the development and implementation of our global regulatory strategies, and oversees our policy, advocacy, and communications efforts.
Morven has worked internationally with governments, non-governmental organizations, and the public and private sectors on developing and implementing applied agricultural research and capacity-building programs that address scientific, regulatory, and policy issues related to agricultural innovation and nutrition security. An advocate for gender equality and mentorship of women in science, Morven holds a Ph.D. in Plant Virology and an M.Sc. in Environmental Biology.
Job Titles:
- Member of the Gates Ag One Board of Managers / Chief Executive Officer, Watertrust Australia Ltd
Job Titles:
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Scientist
- Director, Intellectual Property for Gates Ag One
As Director, Intellectual Property for Gates Ag One, Qing supports development of our intellectual property portfolio from identifying an invention, to the patent application phase of a given technology, through to the issued patent. She collaborates closely with our public- and private-sector partners from early discovery through production development to further the commercial adoption of innovations benefitting smallholder farmers.
Qing is an accomplished scientist, a patent agent registered to practice before the USPTO, and an experienced leader of technology alliances for social impact. Her background includes strategic IP development, biotechnology strategy and operations, competitive landscape analysis, negotiation of IP licenses, and management of major cross-disciplinary collaborations in the human, animal, and plant sciences. Qing holds a Ph.D. in Molecular Cell Biology.
Job Titles:
- Chairman, Gates Ag One Board of Managers / President, Global Growth & Opportunity, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation
Job Titles:
- Director, Business Development
- Member of the Leadership Team
- Director, Business Development for Gates Ag One
"We're combining world-class technology with an ambition to drive change alongside smallholder farmers - farmers who will be able to choose and access the modern technology they need for a more productive and sustainable future."
As Director, Business Development for Gates Ag One, Trey drives the commercialization of innovative crop science in close collaboration with our public- and private-sector partners to ensure the most effective interventions are accessible to smallholder farmers.
Trey's 28-year career in the agricultural sector has focused on translational technology development for the benefit of farmers and societies across multiple geographies. He first honed his business skills leading academic technology transfer efforts, and then held diverse private-sector business development roles in leading agricultural companies, working in the Americas, Europe, and East and West Africa. Trey's leadership in strategy, marketing, and operations helped launch the first agricultural biotechnology products in Sub-Saharan Africa outside South Africa, supporting increased productivity, resilience, and economic development. Trey holds an MBA and a master's in Agricultural Economics.