MEET OUR TEAM
Dr Alan Burbidge
Founder
Diego Giuffrè
Head of Agronomy (Based in SE Asia)
Diego Giuffrè has over a decade of experience across Southeast Asia and Europe in agricultural project manager and commercial roles. He specializes in sustainable agriculture, biological inputs, and microbial technologies, with a strong focus on field validation and market positioning. His work integrates scientific rigor with commercial strategy to advance scalable, climate-smart agricultural solutions.
Dr Evie Farnham
Senior Scientist
Evie is a microbiologist and field trial manager. Evie has a PhD exploring the evolution and epidemiology of plant pathogens (University of York and FERA) and has experience conducting field trials as an agronomist (BASF). Outside of work, Evie enjoys playing netball and hiking in the UK countryside.
Dr Gary Devine
Founder/CSO
As Chief Scientific Officer, Gary directs NetZeroNitrogen’s R&D operations and research programme. He has held senior scientific leadership roles at Elis UK, Vectura Group, and Azotic Technologies, spanning microbiology, medical devices, and agritech. Gary holds a PhD in plant biology from the University of Nottingham.
Hamsha Saz
Country Representative - Philippines
Hamsha has a Masters of Soil Science and Major in Soil Chemistry, with more than 10 years in the Agrochemical industry in the Philippines with focus on Crop Nutrition sales and marketing. Hamsha has experience in B2B and B2C, along with product registration, and product and market development.
Dr Isadora Ferreira Da Silva
Senior Scientist
Isadora is a microbiologist with over 10 years’ experience in microbial fermentation, process optimisation, and sustainable biotechnology solutions. She holds a PhD in Biochemistry and specialises in designing and improving bioprocesses using data-driven approaches.
Jason Michael Blake
Chief Executive Officer
Jason is a global agribusiness and agri-biotech executive with over 25 years of experience scaling innovation-led businesses across Asia, the Americas, Africa, and Europe. He has held senior leadership roles at Neste and Novozymes, building commercial platforms that translate emerging biological science into scalable value chains across more than 15 countries.
Dr Joanna Landymore
Research Scientist
Joanna Landymore is a plant scientist with over 10 years’ research experience. Her expertise includes molecular biology, controlled growth environments, and field trials. Joanna holds a PhD in Plant Biology, where her research focused on crop responses to abiotic stress and nitrogen utilisation to support sustainable agricultural practices.
Justin Hughes
Founder/Chair
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 performance organisations to Microsoft, the UN and Mercedes F1. He holds master’s degrees from London Business School (MBA) and Cambridge (International Relations).
Mai Tran
Finance and Business Operations Lead
Mai holds a BSc in Finance & Banking from Foreign Trade University (Vietnam) and an MSc in Finance and Investment from the University of Nottingham with the Best Overall Performance award. She previously interned at KPMG Vietnam and currently works as an Operations Executive focusing on finance and business operations.
Dr Mistianne Feeney
Principal Scientist
Mistianne is a plant cell biologist specialising in plant tissue culture, genetic transformation and advanced microscopy. She holds a PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology. She is focused on developing improved crop varieties and enhancing the propagation and cultivation of crops both in vitro and in controlled growth environments within the plant biotechnology field.
Dr Oluwaseyi Ademola
Research Scientist
Oluwaseyi is a crop physiologist with over five years of research experience. His expertise spans plant biochemistry, molecular biology, and crop physiological responses in controlled environment agriculture. He holds a PhD in Agriculture, Health and Environment, where his research focused on crop biology under skewed light spectrum for agrivoltaics.
Paul Wells
Laboratory Operations Manager
Paul has brought a microbiology focus to over 30 years of experience in several fields including food, veterinary, medical devices and clinical, and has held many roles including Laboratory Manager, Quality Manager and Operations Manager. Paul ensures that the laboratory operation runs smoothly and efficiently for the exciting work that is being performed.
Sinan Beşkök
Chief Operating Officer
Sinan 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 has also worked with agricultural development organisations (Technoserve) and consulted climate-tech startups. He holds a BSc in Industrial Engineering (Sabanci University – Istanbul).
Dr Thomas MacCalman
Senior Scientist
Thomas is a biochemist with an eight-year background in scientific research. Thomas has a PhD in Biosciences (University of Nottingham) where he applied 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).
Our ADVISORS
Dr David Lawrence
Dr David Lawrence is a former Head of R&D, and subsequently Non-Executive 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 J. Kevin Vessey
Dr. J. Kevin Vessey is Professor Emeritus at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada. Dr. Vessey’s research area is plant physiology, particularly the functional interactions between crop plants and beneficial micro-organisms, and the optimization of the growth of crops as biofuel feedstocks.
In recognition of his research and service accomplishments, Dr. Vessey has received many awards, including the C.D. Nelson Award for outstanding contributions by a scientist to plant physiology in Canada, the Rh Institute Award in the Natural Sciences, the Certificate of Achievement from the Manitoba Network for Science and Technology, and the Dedicated Service Award from the Northeastern Association of Graduate Schools. He is ranked among the top 2% of the world’s most highly-cited scientists by Stanford University.
Dr Klaus Wizner
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.
Dr William D. Dar
Dr. William D. Dar is a respected Filipino agricultural scientist, educator, and public servant known for his contributions to agriculture, food security, and rural development.
He earned his degrees from Benguet State University and completed his Doctor of Philosophy in Horticulture at the University of the Philippines Los Baños. He began his career as a professor and researcher before serving as Acting Secretary of the Philippine Department of Agriculture from 1998 to 1999 and later as Secretary of the Department of Agriculture from 2019 to 2022. He also became the first Filipino Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT).