We are proud of our team of highly skilled individuals from various scientific disciplines who collaborate without boundaries. We are focused on empowering Agriculture with our Bred-by-Design crops to improve people’s Wellbeing & Nutrition and protect the Planet. We aim to maximize our agility and look at broad solutions across the food and agriculture ecosystem.
Nishan Majarian was a Senior Vice President of TELUS Agriculture and leads its Agribusiness unit. Nish co-founded award-winning ag software and technology company Agrian, one of eleven foundational acquisitions that formed TELUS Agriculture in November 2020 to transform the food system and create better food outcomes.
Nish’s sharp business sense and skillful direction earned him the accolade of Entrepreneur of the Year from the PrecisionAg Institute in 2018. Prior to founding the Fresno, California-based Agrian, Nish was vice president of sales for the political action network Grassroots Enterprise, acquired by Edelman, and founder and CEO of NetFile, the nation’s leading electronic campaign finance reporting company. He began his career as a personal aid to the governor of California, focusing mostly on agricultural issues.
Nish holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from California State University, Fresno.
“We are laser-focused on making a significant impact at scale global agriculture via nutritious, value-add crops for all people, regardless of where they live, to prevent malnourishment and predisposition to diseases, and to protect our planet.”
Following 20+ years of leading global organizations and launching commercial seed varieties, Gabe was driven to create a company that could bridge the skills of public and private research companies to accelerate the ability to deliver innovation at scale. The result is The Plant Pathways Company.
During his career, he’s honed his skills for innovating specialty crops to produce high-value ingredients. Gabe has specialized in helping organizations improve crops and their value-chains, with activities stretching from discovery to commercial deployment.
He spent a decade at Syngenta helping globalize its vegetable breeding programs and six years at PepsiCo building its agro raw materials breeding unit. Gabe received his M.S. and Ph.D. in Plant Breeding and Genetics from North Carolina State University after graduating from the University of Milan with a B.S. in Agricultural Sciences.
“With three children, I am very conscious about food, nutrition and health. Giving parents tools to avoid and fight childhood obesity and resulting health issues worldwide should be a priority... bringing stevia into diets with PPC is me acting for my kids, every kid and the generations to come.”
Mercedes has dedicated more than two decades to genomics and plant breeding, always with a special focus on consumer traits. After many years at Syngenta where she led highly strategic, interdisciplinary teams and projects, she joined Nouvelle France Genetics to provide
genomics-based discovery and implementation consulting services to startup companies.
In 2019 she co-founded The Plant Pathways Company, dedicated to improving nutrition security and sustainable agriculture through high-quality products. Mercedes received her M.S. in Agronomy from Purdue University, after graduating from the University of Buenos Aires.
“I’m driven to sustainably feed the global population high-quality, healthy, affordable foods that address the triple burden of malnutrition: hunger, deficiencies, and obesity. The PPC is perfectly positioned to work with our value chain partners to deliver high quality nutrition at scale.”
Keagan has spent his career working in cross-functional roles in the food industry. He’s focused on connecting R&D to commercial outcomes with an emphasis on creating healthier, sustainable ingredients and foods. Prior to Plant Pathways, he spent time in the grain industry and as a consultant working with agri-food companies on R&D, strategy, and business development projects spanning the grain & seed, oil, fiber, and sweetener categories.
Keagan earned his PhD and BS degrees in nutrition science from the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at University of Minnesota. His graduate research focused on new crop development for improved ingredient quality, on-farm production, and enhanced environmental outcomes.
”I am excited to be a part of new advancements in agriculture that can address our world’s challenges of health and hunger.”
After 40 years of managing Dalrymple Farms in Broadway, NC, Tommy was happy to welcome The Plant Pathways Co. to the farm and accept the job as site manager.
In the local and state farming community, he has been recognized for his leadership, innovative farming practices and collaborative business methods. Tommy is an elected supervisor on the Lee County Soil and Water conservation board (continuously serving since 1984), Vice President of Central Electric Membership Cooperation, and a member of the Lee-Moore-Montgomery Farm Service Agency board.
Tommy received his B.S. in Biological and Agricultural Engineering Technology from North Carolina State University. As a firm believer in life-long learning and new opportunities in agriculture, he also participated in the Phillip Morris Ag. Leadership and Development Program.
“The current challenges in agriculture present a great opportunity to deliver innovative solutions to growers and give the consumers a variety of healthier options without compromising quality.”
Alejandra focused her career in the areas of crop genetics, genomics and pre-breeding, developing tools to access natural genetic diversity, understanding the genetic mechanisms that control economically relevant traits and deploying novel allelic variants in breeding pipelines. She has extensive experience working in the intersection of Plant Sciences and Plant Breeding, with an emphasis in the utilization of genomic tools to drive innovation and accelerate product development.
Alejandra has a Ms. Sc. in Biotechnology and a PhD in Biotechnology and Molecular Biology from the University of San Martin, Argentina. Before joining The Plant Pathways Company, she was a Research Scientist at the University of California, Davis, where she worked for over 12 years.
Dan is an experienced and successful executive in agri-business, with a passion for business development, new ventures and the power of team momentum. He started his career managing retail outlets, helping his local growers improve their operations with the latest technologies. This grower focus has helped him ensure customer value at every step along his journey leading different aspects of Syngenta seeds and crop protection business for almost two decades, including general management, business development, acquisitions, sales & marketing, agronomy and recently digital agriculture.
With excellent business performance, Dan has gained ever increasing roles in the vegetable seeds, produce, corn and soybean seeds, crop protection and digital agriculture markets.
Patrick is a serial entrepreneur with more than 25 years of experience starting and leading technology companies in emerging and growth markets. For the past decade his focus has been at the intersection of sustainability and technology, most recently founding Conservis, a leading global digital farm business platform.
In addition to his board duties at Conservis, he leads the commercial, marketing and partnership efforts. Prior to Conservis, he has founded or held senior positions in several enterprises, including Conservis, WAM!Net and Stonearch Software.
Matthew has more than 25 years of investment banking, capital formation and institutional investment management experience in the emerging growth and growth sectors of the global economy. For the past 15 years, he has focused on companies driving efficiencies in the Agriculture, Water, Energy and Industrial sectors. Matthew is currently a Managing Director at Hennepin Partners, where he leads the firm’s Agriculture & Food Technology practice. His investment banking experience includes M&A and private company capital raises.
Prior to his investment banking career, Matthew managed institutional capital in public market hedged and long only funds as well as investments in private companies through asset management firms he founded or held senior positions which include EcoAlpha Asset Management, AWJ Partners, Talaria Partners and Amerindo Investment Advisors. Matthew started his career at Minneapolis investment bank Wessels, Arnold and Henderson.
Matthew holds a B.A. from Georgetown University and a Juris Doctorate degree from Georgetown University Law Center. Matthew is married and has four children.
“It is great to be part of the leading stevia research team. Plant Pathways is breeding new varieties with superior taste to original stevia to replace sugar. We will develop methods to grow this new crop in the U.S. using current technology without the need for excessive labor.”
Todd is the recognized leader of the U.S. stevia breeding community. His plant breeding accomplishments include the launching of 94 varieties in crops such as watermelon, cucumber and stevia. He has been a Professor of Horticultural Science at North Carolina State University for more than 40 years and has trained dozens of graduate students, including several current industry-leaders.
Todd received his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, after graduating from the University of California Berkeley. He and his wife, DelMarie, live in North Carolina where they enjoy bicycling, gardening, and hiking in the Appalachian Mountains among many other things.