MEET OUR TEAM
Our Founders
Justin Hughes, CEO
Justin is a former military fighter pilot, has founded several entrepreneurial ventures, worked as a senior manager in a global corporate, and consulted on building high-perf organisations to Microsoft, UN and Mercedes F1. He holds master’s degrees from London Business School (MBA) and Cambridge (International Relations).
Gary Devine, CSO
Alan Burbidge, Head of Corporate Affairs
Alan is Operations Director of the Synthetic Biology Research Centre-Nottingham and currently a part-time COO for NZN; he has wide experience in patents and the licensing and commercialization of scientific innovation, with specific experience of NZN’s biological domain. Alan has a PhD in plant molecular biology.
Our ADVISORS
Dr David Lawrence
Dr David Lawrence is a former Head of R&D, and subsequently non-exec Director, at Syngenta, where he was also instrumental in the creation of Syngenta Ventures.
He has held a wide range of public sector roles including Chair of the KTN and the BBSRC Industrial Biotechnology Strategy Advisory Panel, and Director of Rothamsted Research. Dr Lawrence is currently a Trustee of the John Innes Centre and holds a number of advisory and board roles in the private sector. He holds a D.Phil from the University of Oxford.
Dr Klaus Winzer
Dr Klaus Winzer is a microbiologist with more than 25 years’ experience in bacterial physiology and metabolism. He is experienced in bacterial strain isolation, characterisation and engineering, and has worked extensively in the field of bacterial cell-cell communication. Over his career, Dr Klaus has studied a wide range of physiologically diverse bacteria including numerous pathogens and industrial strains, with an increasing focus on C1-utilising bacteria.
Current efforts focus on understanding and engineering the metabolism of anaerobic clostridia and aerobic gas-fermenting Cupriavidus species, with the ultimate aim of generating platform organisms for the production of biofuels and chemical commodities.
Our TEAM
Sinan Beşkök, COO
Sinan is Chief of Operations and has over 12 years of experience across the food value chain including leadership roles at Getir (quick-commerce startup), Coca-Cola (Consumer Goods) and management consulting at BCG. He holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering (Sabanci University – Istanbul).
Dr Alice Flint
Dr Alice Flint is a metabolomics specialist with a nine-year background in plant-microbe interaction research.
Alice has an MSci in Biochemistry (Cambridge University), a PhD in Plant Science (Royal Holloway and Syngenta) and two post-doctoral fellowships (Queen’s Belfast and Warwick University) developing analytical methods for the detection of crop diseases.
Dr Evie Farnham
Dr Evie Farnham is a microbiologist with a seven-year background in scientific research, specialising in microbial community interactions.
Evie has a PhD exploring the evolutionary dynamics and epidemiology of plant pathogens (University of York & FERA) and has experience conducting field trials as an assistant development agronomist (BASF).
Dr Thomas MacCalman
Dr Thomas MacCalman is a biochemist with an eight-year background in scientific research.
Thomas has a PhD in Biosciences (University of Nottingham) where he used hydrodynamic biophysical techniques to study polysaccharide stability in vaccines. He has experience using molecular biology to study plant-bacterial interactions, in both academia (University of Nottingham) and industry (Azotic Technologies).