PARIS & ITHACA, N.Y.– Meiogenix, Inc. an agriculture biotech company that develops disruptive new products based on its proprietary chromosome editing technology, has named Ricardo Garcia de Alba as the company’s new chief executive officer. As CEO, Garcia de Alba will lead Meiogenix toward its mission of helping farmers address challenges involved in the development of advanced varieties, bringing them solutions that unlock the natural genetic diversity of crops.
Garcia de Alba will succeed Luc Mathis, Ph.D., who has led the company for the previous 4 years. Garcia de Alba comes to Meiogenix after serving 15 years at Corteva Agriscience, where he held multiple leadership positions in the company’s Seed and Crop Protection businesses. Most recently, he led the company’s Global Row Crop Herbicide and Nitrogen Management Portfolio, overseeing weed management responsibilities for the Enlist™ System and the company’s corn, soybean, cotton, and sugarcane business. His background also includes serving in several executive business development, engineering, and sales and marketing roles for Dupont and other leading manufacturing companies across the U.S., Brazil, Mexico, the U.K. and Spain.
“Meiogenix is now a Global Company, established in the U.S., that serves a broad, global market and customer base. The deep Agribusiness perspective and experience Ricardo brings, having helped Corteva in positioning farmers for growth with advanced tools, technologies, and strategies, will propel Meiogenix to achieve its vision. We welcome Ricardo and look forward to working with him to take Meiogenix through the next stage of its growth,” said Johan Cardoen, former CEO of CropDesign, former Managing Director of Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie (VIB) and Meiogenix Chairman of the Board.
Global needs for more sustainable agriculture call for the rapid development of plant and crop varieties that require less inputs, less water and with higher nutritious qualities. Meiogenix has developed an innovative approach to common problems in agriculture, addressing key global food and industrial challenges. Meiogenix is applying gene and chromosome editing technologies to accelerate and rationalize plants’ natural process of generation of biodiversity through the random mixing of parental genomes during plant sexual reproduction. This helps expedite the lengthy process of plant varieties selection and also leads to increased biodiversity, lost during the systematic selection of crops for high yield and long shelf life. The ability to restore a plant’s immunity to pests and diseases and improve quality, taste and flavor in many crops also has the potential to revolutionize the AgriFood Tech sector.
“I am grateful to join an organization with innovation that has such extraordinary potential, having been so successfully developed by a top-performing team,” said Garcia de Alba. “Ever since I was introduced to Meiogenix for the first time, the company, the technology and the team involved captured my interest, excitement and enthusiasm. I look forward to leading the team through this exciting and critical part of the company’s journey.”
In December 2021, under Luc Mathis’s leadership, Meiogenix closed $13 million (€11 million) Series A financing round, led by Sofinnova Partners, with participation from Genoa Ventures, Bpifrance, Casdin Capital and Alexandria Venture Investments.
“The solid work of our development team has positioned us for exciting growth opportunities. The proof that the technology is effective in both monocots and dicots plants opens the path to the development of commercial applications, products and promising partnerships,” said Mathis. “I am confident that, under Ricardo’s leadership, the next phase of Meiogenix’s development will bring a new level of innovation and I look forward to seeing a whole spectrum of new possibilities unfold.”
