A strong, talented, diverse team
Invaio’s leadership is driving the business forward by connecting across scientific disciplines and bringing innovative technologies to market. It embraces risk-taking and operates with agility to take full advantage of our strengths, with the wisdom from building multiple companies to create real value for our customers, our investors and our people, and ensure long-lasting success for the business.
Chairman
Chairman
André Andonian is Chair of Asia Pacific and Strategic Advisor at Flagship Pioneering. He is also Senior Partner Emeritus at McKinsey & Company, where he worked for 34 years, including as Senior Partner, Chairman of Japan, and Managing Partner of Korea. André has over 30 years’ experience advising clients in the high-tech, industrial, automotive & assembly, aerospace, basic materials, biotech, and private equity sectors. Prior to joining McKinsey, Andonian worked at Masco Corporation in the US and at IBM in Austria, Spain, and the Middle East.
André serves as an Independent Director of the Board of ADI, Chair of the Board of Cognaize in the US, and NC Chair of AEM Holdings in Singapore. He is a member of the Advisory Board of the Sports & Health Sciences Department of the Technical University of Munich, chairs the Foundation for Armenian Science and Technology, and is a Special Advisor to the American Chamber of Commerce in Korea.
As a Fulbright Scholar, André received an MBA at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, an MA and BA in Social & Economic Sciences as well as a BSc in Engineering.
Director
Director
Hugh Grant was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the former Monsanto Company. He joined Monsanto in 1981 and spent the next 37 years working on three continents in a variety of senior positions. He held the roles of Chairman and CEO from 2003 until his departure in 2018 upon Monsanto’s sale to Bayer. Monsanto and Grant were recognized by numerous groups for innovation, corporate responsibility and business leadership during his tenure.
Grant has been named on Barron’s list of Most Respected CEOs, the Harvard Business Review’s Top 50 Best Performing CEOs, and recognized as “CEO of the Year” by Chief Executive magazine. In 2015, employee reviews also earned Grant an honor on the Top 10 Highest-Rated CEOs list by Glassdoor.com. Grant serves as lead director of PPG Industries, Inc., and recently joined the board of Freeport McMoRan. He is also a former member of Civic Progress in St. Louis, Missouri. In 2011, he was inducted as a member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Director
Director
Neil Cunningham was the President and Chief Executive Officer at the Public Sector Pension Investment Board (PSP Investments) from 2018 to 2023. Prior to this, he was Senior Vice President, Global Head of Real Estate and Natural Resources at PSP Investments. With over 35 years of experience, Neil has deep industry knowledge and expertise in the real estate and financial industries. Neil joined PSP Investments in 2004 and was instrumental in building the Real Estate group into one of the largest, most respected and successful institutional investment teams in the world. He also led the team responsible for Natural Resources’ success in investing globally in agriculture and timber.
Neil was a key contributor to the diversity awareness and inclusion initiatives and the development of a common corporate culture of collaboration and teamwork. Prior to joining PSP Investments, he worked in various roles in the finance industry with Merrill Lynch, Brazos (Hudson) Advisors Canada, National Bank of Canada and Coopers & Lybrand. He is a member of the board of directors of Everwest Real Estate Investors and served as Chair of the Board at Revera Inc.
Director
Director
Dr. Pietro Antonio Tataranni is Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, R&D Life Sciences at PepsiCo. Since joining PepsiCo in September 2018, Pietro Antonio has been responsible for driving the company’s nutrition and biosciences strategy and providing expert scientific advice and counsel to help enable disruptive product innovations for consumers in line with PepsiCo’s Winning with Purpose agenda.
Prior to joining PepsiCo, Pietro Antonio was Senior Vice President, Global Medical Affairs at Sanofi, charged with leading the medical strategy worldwide and operations in major markets for key therapeutic areas. He is a clinician, scientist and industry physician with a well-established track record of delivering high-impact results for diverse organizations.
Director
Director
Dr. Iya Khalil is Vice President and Head of Data, A.I. & Genome Sciences at Merck. Prior to this, she was Global Head of the AI Innovation Lab at Novartis, a collaboration with Microsoft. Iya is well known as a technology entrepreneur and physicist, with a vision of transforming medicine into a discipline that is quantitative, predictive, and patient-centric via artificial intelligence and machine learning approaches.
She co-founded two big data companies, Gene Network Sciences and GNS Healthcare, and is the co-inventor of the proprietary computational engine that underpins both entities. Iya was named to the PharmaVOICE 100 list of the most inspiring people in the life sciences industry.
Director and Founding CEO
Director and Founding CEO
Our founding President and Chief Executive Officer, Ignacio joined Flagship Pioneering in early 2013 to lead the sustainability activities of the firm. In addition to being a Director of Invaio, Ignacio is co-founder and founding CEO of CiBO Technologies, Inari Agriculture and Senda Biosciences, and founding director at Indigo Agriculture. Prior to joining Flagship, Ignacio was a founding member and managing director of Syngenta Ventures.
During his tenure at Syngenta, Ignacio was directly involved in corporate strategy and led multiple venture capital investments in agribusiness, biotechnology, and sustainability companies in Europe, North America and Latin America.
Director and CEO
Director and CEO
Amy O’Shea joined Invaio as CEO in 2024. She has more than two decades of leadership experience across agriculture, health and nutrition, and pharmaceuticals. She brings an exceptional record of accelerating growth, enhancing profitability, and reinvigorating diverse businesses. She previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Certis Biologicals, a division of Mitsui & Co.
Prior to Certis, Amy held multiple leadership positions at FMC Corporation including Vice President and Business Director of the Agricultural Solutions Division for North America, Global Director of Marketing, Strategy & Innovation for FMC’s Health & Nutrition Division, and FMC’s Global Director of Sales. Amy serves on the Board of Directors of Gensource Potash and INTAG, Integrated Agriculture Systems. Amy graduated summa cum laude with an MBA from Drexel University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Civilizations from Boston University.
Director and President of R&D
Director and President of R&D
Gerardo has been Invaio’s Chief Science Officer since 2019. He comes from Flagship Pioneering, which he joined in 2018 after a long career in the life science industries in various senior R&D roles with Ciba Geigy, Novartis and Syngenta. Over the past 10 years he has served as the global Head of Crop Protection R&D at Syngenta where he was instrumental in building an unrivaled crop-protection chemistry pipeline, a state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and a world-class team.
Gerardo is the author of more than 70 scientific papers and patents. In 2017, he received the Agrow’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was appointed to the Board of the Foundation of the Swiss Chemical Society.
Director
Director
Robert joined Flagship Pioneering in 2014 as an advisory partner and in 2019 became an executive partner. Robert focuses on innovations that address sustainability in the agriculture and nutrition sectors. He currently also serves as the chairman of Indigo Ag, CiBO Technologies and Inari.
Robert’s career has spanned leadership roles in consulting, business development, R&D and operations. His industry experience draws from previous roles at Proctor & Gamble and Syngenta, and consulting experience at McKinsey and a-connect, a global consulting firm, headquartered in Switzerland, that he co-owns.
Head of Intellectual Property
Head of Intellectual Property
Amanda joined Invaio as Head of Intellectual Property in September of 2022 and brings significant experience in developing and implementing IP protection strategies for agricultural innovations to the role. Prior to joining Invaio, Amanda provided strategic legal guidance in navigating complex patent landscapes and managed global patent portfolios protecting both discovery and commercial track technologies as Assistant General Counsel, Intellectual Property at Monsanto Company and Bayer Crop Science.
She also specialized in drafting and prosecuting patents directed to biological inventions as an associate at Knobbe Martens, a law firm specializing in intellectual property. Amanda received her law degree from the University of Washington School of Law, where she was a member of the Washington Law Review and graduated with honors. Amanda has a Ph.D. in cell biology from New York University where she studied cell differentiation and movement during zebrafish development and was a post-doctoral fellow at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center.
Global Head of Citrus
Global Head of Citrus
Emily is the Head of Citrus at Invaio. She is responsible for Invaio’s global citrus business, where Invaio is pioneering innovative grove management solutions through its Trecise technology, starting with citrus greening. Emily led the launch of Invaio’s first commercial citrus greening solution in Florida and continues to oversee the growth of Invaio’s citrus portfolio.
Before Invaio, Emily was the Founding Director of the Sudan Agricultural Transformation Agency Initiative, a Principal at the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, and a strategy consultant at the Boston Consulting Group. She also brings experience in product launch, product management, and business operations. Emily holds a BA/BCom in economics and mathematics from the University of Auckland and an MSc in Economics for Development from Oxford.
Head of Commercial, North America
Head of Commercial, North America
Dave has had the privilege of selling and introducing new technologies to farmers in more than 30 countries over the course of his nearly 40 years in the ag inputs business. Working on delivering a solution to Citrus Greening is by far the single most challenging and important project he has been involved in so far.
Like Invaio, Dave is committed to bringing relief to the long-suffering citrus farmers of Florida and being a small part of restoring this great industry to its historic growth and sustainability.
Contact: dgerrard(a)invaio.com
Chief People Officer
Chief People Officer
Kevin Flynn joined Invaio Sciences as Chief People Officer in June 2021, focusing on creating a contemporary working environment allowing people to do their best work. Prior to joining, Kevin was Global Head of Human Resources at Sanofi Genzyme where he led all people activities for the oncology and dermatology global business units.
Kevin brings extensive leadership experience in learning and organizational development having held various roles of increasing responsibility at AstraZeneca, Sunovion Pharmaceuticals and Boston Heart Diagnostics. Kevin holds degrees from the University of Maine in Agricultural Economics and Resource Management.
Chief Communications Officer
Chief Communications Officer
Kirsty joined Invaio as Chief Communications Officer in 2022. Prior to joining, Kirsty held various leadership roles at Syngenta, most recently as Head of Corporate Communications and member of the business sustainability leadership team. Kirsty has extensive experience in corporate brand development, campaign management, sustainability communications and issues management.
Earlier in her career she held marketing and communications management roles in Automotive Retail at Coles Myer and Building Materials at CSR in Australia. Kirsty holds an executive MSc in Communication Management from Università della Svizzera italiana, Switzerland.
Global Head of Development
Global Head of Development
Ricardo joined Invaio in February 2022 as Global Head of Development. He has extensive experience in the agribusiness sector and has held leadership roles for major agricultural companies including Bayer Crop Science, Syngenta and Monsanto.
Ricardo has a great deal of cultural diversity experience having worked in Brazil, Germany and the USA. He has also participated in the launch of various disruptive technologies in biotechnology and pheromones. Ricardo has a degree in agronomy from Universidade Estadual Paulista Júlio de Mesquita Filho, Brazil, and an MBA from Fundação Dom Cabral, Brazil.
Chief Science Officer
Chief Science Officer
Yajie is Chief Science Officer at Invaio. Prior to this, she was Head of Technology Development and led Invaio’s platform technology development and external technology sourcing and partnering. As CSO, Yajie is responsible for Invaio’s research and development activities, building Invaio’s innovative platform technologies to unlock the potential of nature-inspired bioactives and delivery technologies. Prior to joining Invaio, Yajie was Principal at Flagship Pioneering where she contributed to creating and building agricultural and sustainable portfolio companies. She worked at Inari Agriculture, where she was one of founding members and developed proprietary CRISPR tools for gene modulation.
CEO and Director
CEO and Director
Amy O’Shea joined Invaio as CEO in 2024. She has more than two decades of leadership experience across agriculture, health and nutrition, and pharmaceuticals. She brings an exceptional record of accelerating growth, enhancing profitability, and reinvigorating diverse businesses. She previously served as President & Chief Executive Officer of Certis Biologicals, a division of Mitsui & Co.
Prior to Certis, Amy held multiple leadership positions at FMC Corporation including Vice President and Business Director of the Agricultural Solutions Division for North America, Global Director of Marketing, Strategy & Innovation for FMC’s Health & Nutrition Division, and FMC’s Global Director of Sales. Amy serves on the Board of Directors of Gensource Potash and INTAG, Integrated Agriculture Systems. Amy graduated summa cum laude with an MBA from Drexel University and holds a Bachelor of Arts in Classical Civilizations from Boston University.
President of R&D and Director
President of R&D and Director
Gerardo has been Invaio’s Chief Science Officer since 2019. He comes from Flagship Pioneering, which he joined in 2018 after a long career in the life science industries in various senior R&D roles with Ciba Geigy, Novartis and Syngenta. Over the past 10 years, he has served as the global Head of Crop Protection R&D at Syngenta where he was instrumental in building an unrivaled crop-protection chemistry pipeline, a state-of-the-art R&D infrastructure and a world-class team.
Gerardo is the author of more than 70 scientific papers and patents. In 2017, he received the Agrow’s Lifetime Achievement Award and was appointed to the Board of the Foundation of the Swiss Chemical Society.
Head of Commercial, South America
Head of Commercial, South America
Avram joined as Head of Commercial, South America in 2019 and brings 15 years of experience developing renewable products in Brazil, Europe, and the United States. He has significant experience creating partnerships across the biotechnology and agribusiness industries and brings a unique mix of deep technical knowledge with extensive market experience. Prior to Invaio, Avram worked as an External Alliance Manager at Indigo Agriculture where he scouted global technologies to bring value to Indigo’s biological seed treatment portfolio.
From 2008 to 2015 Avram led high-performance R&D teams at both Amyris Biotechnologies and Braskem developing chemicals from renewable carbon sources such as sugar cane. In 2015, he shifted his focus from industrial biotechnology to agriculture and co-founded InstaAgro, Brazil’s premier online sales platform for Agricultural inputs. Avram has a BSc in Biochemistry from Temple University, a PhD in Biophysics from University of Pennsylvania, and a Post-doctoral fellowship from Columbia University.
Contact: aslovic(a)invaio.com
Chief Technology Officer
Chief Technology Officer
Walter Smith joined Invaio as CTO in January 2023. Walter is a digital generalist whose career has ranged from early handheld computers to national-scale healthcare infrastructure. Prior to joining Invaio, he was VP of Technology and Chief Architect for Walmart's pharmacy, health clinic, and telehealth businesses.
He was previously co-founder and CTO of CareZone, a company that helped millions of people manage their families' health care (acquired by Walmart), and was a software architect and engineering director at Apple and Microsoft. Walter has a degree in Applied Mathematics from Carnegie Mellon University.
Head of Strategy and Planning
Head of Strategy and Planning
Rob is Head of Business Development at Invaio. He leads the creation of strategic partnerships leveraging Invaio’s technology platforms throughout the food and agriculture value chain. Since joining Invaio in April 2019, he has also worked as a Commercial Lead and Business Operations director.
Prior to Invaio, Rob worked as a strategy consultant at Bain & Company, a project lead with the Ethiopian Agricultural Transformation Agency, a small enterprise advisor with the Peace Corps in Ghana, and a manufacturing and quality control engineer with Toyota. He holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from Purdue and an MBA from Wharton.
Head of Commercial Operations
Head of Commercial Operations
Philip is Head of Commercial Operations at Invaio. He is responsible for the deployment of Invaio’s operations across its global network and has a solid background in operations and general management in the food sector in FMCG businesses. Philip has led 3 greenfield factory build projects – in the UK, UAE and Azerbaijan – all from start-ups to scale ups in a senior role.
As General Manager, he was responsible for the launch of what became Azerbaijan’s leading dairy brand and a major exporter within 24 months. With a background in food technology, Philip has also held senior operational roles with several UK-based dairy companies including Nestle. He lives on an olive farm in the Alentejo region of Portugal.