CropWorld 2012 - "How to successfully get innovation to market"
Innovative agricultural technology companies Exosect, Oxitec and Plant Impact to provide unique business insights at CropWorld 2012.
CropWorld Global 2012, to be held on 6th and 7th November at the QEII Conference Centre in London, is introducing a brand new aspect to the conference proceedings this year with the launch of The Partnering Forum, a two hour workshop featuring business insights from a panel of leading industry experts. This year’s forum showcases three SMEs who are developing unique and innovative technologies for the improvement and sustainability of crop protection and production.
The workship will be chaired by Edward Mott, CEO at Oxford Capital Partners*, Martin Brown, CEO at Exosect*, Hadyn Parry, CEO at Oxitec* and John Brubaker, CEO at Plant Impact*, who will impart their invaluable experience in developing and launching new technologies into the crop protection sector and will explain how this knowledge has shaped their current business strategies.
CropWorld Global Director, Terri D’Elia comments: “Although each of these companies are developing quite unique technology, they each have in common the fact that they are operating within an industry dominated by multinational corporations. However they are part of an emerging sector of young and dynamic innovation companies which are bringing new and sustainable technologies for food production to the fore. In the last few weeks alone the industry has witnessed key acquisitions by multinationals of emerging companies who have developed environmentally sustainable technology and it will be of great interest to learn how similar companies are evolving to establish themselves within this competitive market.”
The panel will offer practical, first hand advice on successfully launching new products and innovations to market including the challenges, opportunities and secrets to success. This is an opportunity for researchers from commercial and academic research organisations and senior executives from newly emergent companies, working across all agricultural development areas to learn more about the various strategic options of bringing new technology to the agricultural sector.
For further information please contact: Georgina Donovan at Exosect.
Tel: 02380 603939 or email: georgina.donovan@exosect.com
For Information on the Event opportunities contact: Terri D’Elia, Exhibition Director UBM. Tel: 0207 5604364 or email: terri.delia@ubm.com
Background information
About Edward Mott & Oxford Capital Partners
Edward co-founded Oxford Capital in 1999 with the intent of extending private equity growth capital to wealthy families as well as to institutional investors. He chairs the Investment Committee at Oxford Capital. With over 30 years of experience as a practical manager, investor and business leader, Ted has worked with both mature listed businesses and younger high growth companies across a multitude of sectors. Following an early career in the US with Corning Glass Inc where he was involved with the first commercialisation of fibre optics, he then pursued a career in investment banking with American, European and Asian banks in corporate finance, emerging markets and structured finance, before heading HSBC Group’s capital markets division based in Hong Kong. He later served the wealth manager GAM in London before founding Oxford Capital. Ted is a graduate of the University of Cambridge and an INSEAD MBA.
Oxford Capital Partners is a specialist investment manager, managing private equity funds on behalf of institutional and private investors. Its investment approach comprises two core strategies.
Growth Capital - nurturing innovative businesses which seek to scale up and roll out internationally which are at a point in their development when strategic and financial assistance will significantly enhance the opportunities for success.
Infrastructure investments – securing long term predictable cashflows from infrastructure and related assets in order to preserve capital and protect it from inflation. Its portfolio spans three super-growth themes: sustainability, healthcare and communications. It invests across all stages of development, with the aim of building sustainable global companies capable of achieving a strong position in the international marketplace. OCP has invested in over 35 companies, alongside over 50 other institutions, primarily as lead investor. Its first fund returned a multiple of 2.6x the original investment and generated an IRR of 172%.
About Martin Brown & Exosect
Martin has over 30 years experience in agrochemical sales, marketing and business operations roles with ICI, Astra Zeneca and Syngenta covering UK, Africa, Middle East, Turkey, Pakistan and Eastern Europe. Before joining Exosect, Martin worked in a senior management role within a major international agricultural distribution company expanding and developing their distribution and retail operations in Eastern Europe.
Exosect is focused on the development of Intelligent Pest Management solutions. Its innovative and cost-effective products help growers, food manufacturers and processors to actively reduce their use of pesticides. These products are used globally in a wide range of sectors including crop protection (agriculture, horticulture and stored products), apiculture and public health. Exosect is a SOFHT (Society of Food Hygiene and Technology) award winner, and a finalist in the Agrow Awards.
Exosect’s mission is to discover, develop & commercialise, safe, sustainable bio-conventional control solutions for the food industry, that protect food from insect damage and disease whilst reducing use of and dependence on traditional chemical pest control products. This and further news is available at: www.exosect.com
About Hadyn Parry & Oxitec
Hadyn has an extensive background in the Life Science sector. During his fifteen-year career at Zeneca/Syngenta he held various positions, including General Manager of Zeneca Plant Sciences and European Director and Global Head of R&D for Advanta, one of the world’s largest seed companies. More recently he was CEO of MNL Pharmaceuticals, a company that was focused on pioneering a novel approach in immunology. Hadyn is also Chairman of Help For Heroes, a charity founded in 2007 to support wounded British soldiers.
Oxitec is a British biotech company pioneering a better approach to tackling dengue fever and damaging agricultural pests. Dengue is a growing global problem. Spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito, it infects between 50 and 100 million people annually and reported cases have increased 30-fold in the last 50 years. Conventional methods of mosquito population control, such as pesticide spraying and fogging, have failed to stop the spread. In agriculture, pests such as olive fly, pink bollworm and medfly cause widespread damage to crops and significant financial loss.
Oxitec has used advanced genetics to develop a new solution to controlling populations of the dengue mosquito and other harmful insects in a way that is sustainable, environmentally friendly and cost-effective.
John Brubaker & Plant Impact
John has a broad industry background with multinational crop protection and emerging high-technology businesses. Before joining Plant Impact, he was previously Global Head of Business Development for Arysta LifeScience Corporation where he was also a member of the Company's Global Executive Staff and Operating Committee. While at Arysta LifeScience, John focused on developing the company’s footprint in emerging markets, leading investments in Mexico, South Africa, India and Russia. He was a former Director of Business Development at R4 Global Solutions, a logistics and supply chain technology venture.
Plant Impact is an agricultural bioscience company that develops and markets crop enhancement and speciality nutrition products to deliver yield and quality benefits for growers. The company currently sells its products via distribution partners in 15 countries. PI is listed on the UK AIM stock exchange (LON:PIM), and it recently relocated to the Green Enterprise Science Park at Rothamsted Research in Harpenden, United Kingdom.
Crop enhancement and anti-stress technologies will enable global agriculture to meet increasing food demand in the 21st Century by assisting growers to produce more and higher quality crops from existing land. Plant Impact’s products are currently focused on the mobility of calcium in horticultural crops, the efficient structuring of nitrogen fertiliser to reduce losses to the soil and air, and yield losses due to salinity in irrigated farmland. These technologies improve plants’ metabolic responses to abiotic (environmental) stress, efficiently resolve soil or nutritional deficiencies, and more effectively and precisely deliver key nutrients in both optimised and under-developed cropping environments.
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