University president joins Terramera strategy board

Santa Ono, President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia (UBC), has joined Terramera’s strategic advisory board, the agriculture technology company recently announced.

Ono is an internationally renowned biologist and professor of medicine who has held positions at numerous prestigious universities including Harvard, Johns Hopkins and University College London, according to a news release from the company. As President of UBC, Ono leads 64,000 students, 16,500 faculty and staff and manages an operating budget of $3 billion.

As part of Terramera‘s Strategic Advisory Board, Ono will advise on short and long-term business strategies alongside Greg D’Avignon, Stewart Beck and Nancy Roman. Together, the boards’ perspectives to help scale Terramera’s technology globally.

“As a molecular biologist and someone who has advised both start-up and Fortune 500 companies, I am blown away by Terramera’s vision and the quality of the leadership within the organization,” Ono said in the news release.

UBC and Terramera have a strong history of project collaboration, according to the release. Past collaborations include:

• A 2018 Ignite Award for research to create a safer generation of plant-based pesticides with Terramera’s revolutionary Actigate technology.
• A project funded by the Organic Federation of Canada and Mitacs to test organic pesticide solutions against spotted wing drosophila, a major invasive pest in B.C.’s berry industry.

With its revolutionary Actigate technology platform, which was recognized by Fast Company as a 2020 World Changing Idea, Terramera is committed to reducing the global synthetic pesticide load 80% by 2030 to protect plant and human health and ensure an earth that thrives and provides for everyone, according to the news release. The privately-held, venture-backed company was founded in 2010 It is headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, with integrated operations in Canada, the US and India that include research labs, a greenhouse and farm, and more than 240 patents in its global IP portfolio.

For more information, please visit terramera.com

Photo: Santa Ono/Strategic Advisory Board