English - AgroSavfe

AgroSavfe strengthens its management team
Ghent, Belgium, February 18, 2014 – AgroSavfe announces today that it strengthens its
management team with Mrs. Maria Abad-Molina and Dr. Miguel De Bolle.
AgroSavfe, a company that explores its AgrobodyTM-technology platform for the development of
innovative formulations for an effective and sustainable use of crop protection products, announces
today that Maria Abad-Molina and Miguel De Bolle are joining the management team. Mrs. AbadMolina brings many years of experience in the area of product development and registration while Dr.
De Bolle has significant expertise in crop protection product research.
Maria Abad-Molina is trained as an agronomical engineer and holds an Executive MBA from ESSEC, Paris
and Mannheim Business School. She has over 20 years of professional experience in the crop protection
and plant biotechnology industries. Before joining the AgroSavfe management team, she was part of the
management team of CropDesign, a BASF Plant Science company, representing the Global Strategic
Asset Management function. Previously, within the BASF Crop Protection Division, she led global
activities for placing plant protection products in the market, including the top sales herbicide. She also
supported the business on life cycle management, post-patent strategies and partnering under risk &
value sharing models, and represented the company at the European Crop Protection Association and
CropLife International industry associations. Maria started her career at Monsanto and was involved in
the development of new active substances. She then held different R&D positions at Plant Genetic
Systems (now part of Bayer CropScience) and at ISK Bioscience. Maria is now Head of Product &
Business Development at AgroSavfe, mainly focusing on the implementation of the business strategy
either by internal product development or through partnering with other agrochemical companies.
Miguel De Bolle was one of the very first members of the “Plant-Fungi-Interactions” group founded in
the late eighties by Dr. Willem Broekaert and Dr. Bruno Cammue at the Centre of Microbial and Plant
Genetics (formerly F. A. Janssens Institute for Genetics) at the K.U.Leuven. Between 1989 and 2008,
Miguel was active in the group first as a predoctoral and later as a postdoctoral researcher. The early
research concentrated on antifungal peptides from seeds of different plants, but later evolved into the
model plant Arabidopsis thaliana focusing, among others, on the role of plant defensins in host plant
defense and on plant defense mechanisms in general. In 2008, Miguel left the academic world and joined
Janssen PMP (Preservation and Material Protection, a division of Janssen Pharmaceutica, Johnson &
Johnson) where he was as bioresearch manager, responsible for the biological research in numerous
projects for different business units, such as Post-Harvest, Allergen Control up to Microbial Control.
Miguel joined AgroSavfe as Head of Research and will be leading and coordinating the research activities
for the different projects and for the AgrobodyTM-technology platform.
“We are extremely pleased” says Marnix Peferoen, CEO “that Maria and Miguel have joined our team.
Last year, when AgroSavfe started, the focus was on establishing the labs and the research team. We are
now fully operational and have made significant progress in all our projects. We recently decided to also
add two researchers to the current team to further support these project activities. Miguel will be the
driving force for the research and development of these projects and the AgrobodyTM-technology
platform. In addition, we are preparing product development and potential collaborations based on the
current project portfolio and continue to explore needs and opportunities in crop protection where the
AgrobodyTM-technology platform could provide significant value. With her experience in the crop
protection industry, Maria is well positioned to lead the product and business development of the
AgrobodyTM-technology platform.”
About AgroSavfe
AgroSavfe is a VIB spin-off established in 2013 which has raised EUR 5 million from a strong consortium
of investors (Gimv, Gimv-Agri+, Madeli Participaties, Biovest, PMV, SOFI, QBIC and VIB). AgroSavfe also
received a € 1.9M subsidy from IWT (agency for Innovation by Science and Technology) for an O&O
project with ILVO (Spray Tech Group) en KU Leuven (Centre for Microbial and Plant Genetics – Plant
Fungus Interaction) as research partners.
AgroSavfe employs its proprietary AgrobodyTM technology platform to develop superior crop protection
products, based on active ingredients with proven efficacy, in combination with AgrobodiesTM as
formulation agents. AgrobodiesTM directed against crop produce, leaves, seeds, pests or particular
structures thereof enable targeted delivery and retention of the active ingredient at or near its site of
action. Targeted delivery and improved retention of AgrobodyTM-based crop protection products allow
for reduced application dosage and for extended performance with reduced application frequencies.
AgrobodyTM-based crop protection products are designed to have superior characteristics over
conventional crop protection products with respect to increased performance, improved sustainability
and enhanced convenience for the grower and safety for the consumer.
AgrobodiesTM are protected as composition of matter by an extensive portfolio of granted patents and a
growing number of pending patent families are covering diverse applications of AgrobodiesTM in crop
protection. AgroSavfe will develop AgrobodyTM-based crop protection products either in-house or
through partnerships with agrochemical companies.
Contact
Marnix Peferoen, CEO
[email protected]
+32 + 9 261 0691