Mariola Kopcinski holds Ph.D. and M.S. in plant pathology and biochemistry and conducted post-doctoral studies at Cornell University in Seed Biocontrol. She also holds MBA in finance from University of Rochester. Over her 25 years career in Agricultural Industry, she held several leadership roles in Europe and US in AgroChemical Product Portfolio and Business Management, Strategic Marketing, R&D Strategy Development, and Chemical, Seed and AgBio M&A at DuPont, Syngenta, FMC, and Plant Health Care. She served as the member of Credentials Advisory Council, Sustainability Institute at AICHE, Chairman of Sustainability Body of Knowledge Team for AICHE certification and CSTP and member of IFS Managing Board. Currently she leads Ingevity Agrochemical business globally. She is an author of several patents and articles.
Dr. Scott H. Jackson is Vice President of Regulatory and Regulatory Science for Vestaron Corporation in Research Triangle Park North Carolina. Vestaron is an Industry leader in peptide technology focused on bringing producers state of the art crop protection solutions. Scott received his B.S. degree in natural resources from Humboldt State University, his M.S. degree in soil science from Fresno State University, and his Ph.D. degree in environmental science from Union Institute.
With over 25 years of research and management experience roles at companies such as BASF, Valent and Knoell, he adds to the leadership and technical experience brought to Vestaron’s Regulatory and Regulatory Science team.
Dr. Yebin Zhao currently works as Head of Science at Agoro. Yebin is responsible for carbon smart faring practices implementation and development. Yebin joined Yara as Director, Global Corn Solutions where he took charge of corn marketing solutions to drive premium product sales growth. Yebin had previously been the Chief Agronomist/Senior Account Manager with CF Industries since March 2013. With CF, Dr. Zhao had worked actively with NGOs and governmental agencies in improving global nutrient use efficiency; he also successfully managed nitrogen fertilizer sales in over 10 states in the US. Prior to joining CF Industries, he was an Agronomist at Enviro-Ag Engineering, where he took charge of large dairy farmers soil fertility and nutrient management planning. Dr. Zhao received his B.S. in Soil Sciences at Shandong Agricultural University in 2000; he earned his M.S. in Plant Science at South China Agricultural University in 2003 and Ph.D. in Soil Science from the University of Georgia in 2008.
Tracy has a long history in agriculture biotech and a passion for addressing the biggest problems facing food production. In her past, she has successfully built discovery platforms and teams at Paradigm Genetics and Athenix Corporation. She received her BS in Biology from Virginia Tech and her Ph.D. in Biology from UNC Chapel Hill where she studied the role of cytokinin signaling in Arabidopsis and rice. At AgBiome, she leads the business development efforts, critical in creating the broadest reach of the AgBiome platform into multiple markets. Tracy is passionate about innovation in agriculture and discovering solutions that will be foundational in alleviating the pressures on our environment.
Bio coming soon!
Regulatory consultant with over 13 years of experience in the pesticide industry with 11 of those years being directly involved in registering and maintaining pesticide products with the US EPA and the States. Expertise covers a wide range or pesticides including antimicrobial, conventional and biopesticide pesticides. Routinely assist clients with bringing their pesticide products to market, increasing their market impact through EPA amendments/notifications, registering establishments, maintaining regulatory compliance with various regulations, and other similar activities. Active in several industry trade associations.
TSG provides companies with high-quality regulatory and scientific consulting services. We help clients worldwide address the technical and regulatory issues in taking their products to market in multiple jurisdictions. Our scientific expertise, regulatory knowledge and understanding of local nuances enable our clients to navigate the complex and ever-changing regulatory landscape across the globe.
We serve a number of key markets and industry sectors including agricultural, industrial, consumer, food and beverage, animal health, and medical. Our teams comprise scientists and regulatory experts – many of whom have previously held positions at regulatory agencies, departments and in industry. This combination of science, regulatory expertise and knowledge of how institutions and industry operate provides our clients with superior and well-rounded guidance.
TSG Consulting is a Science Group company.
Joshua Haslun is an Analyst on the Agro Innovation team at Lux Research. In this role he monitors and evaluates emerging and innovative agricultural technologies from sectors including crop genetic improvement, precision agriculture, and soil microbiome management to drive future innovations, while navigating challenging regulatory frameworks.
Joshua has extensive experience across numerous scientific disciplines including quantitative genomics and transcriptomics, immunology, isotope systematics, and microbial ecology. Prior to joining Lux, Joshua was a Research Associate for the Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center at Michigan State University, where he developed methods to apportion nitrogen losses among diverse soil microbial processes, fostering soil microbiome management methods to improve biofuel feedstock production.
Joshua obtained a dual-degree Ph.D. in Integrative Biology and Ecology, Evolutionary Biology, and Behavior from Michigan State University and has contributed more than 13 publications to top peer-reviewed journals on diverse subjects. He also holds a B.S. in Biology from Siena College, and an M.S. in Biology specializing in Marine Science from Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi.
Biography Coming Soon
Dr. Paul Ulanch is the Executive Director of the Crop Commercialization Program at the North Carolina Biotechnology Center where he facilitates value-add opportunities to improve crops that result in increased profits for NC growers and strengthens the state’s agribusinesses. Many projects add value to the greater Southeast. Current project work is pursuing increasing feed grain production in the Mid-Atlantic region to sustain North Carolina’s production animal industry, optimize parameters for growing cellulosic biomass grasses to sustain a high-value chemicals industry, scale the use of winter oilseeds as a way to improve wheat production and attract specialty oil markets, and explore niche specialty crops that can be deployed at scale for food ingredients. He served as the Enterprise & Technology Development Director where he led efforts to support ag biotech entrepreneurs, enable partnership development, and assist companies locating to North Carolina.
He received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from Texas A&M University where he developed a process to accelerate construction of physical genome maps, and MBA from the Katz Executive Program at the University of Pittsburgh, with Beta Gamma Sigma honors. He served as Director of Technology Commercialization at the NC SBTDC and research faculty at the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Medicine, and consulted for and advised industry, commodity groups, and non-profits in areas of science, marketing, and intellectual property.
Melissa Johnson is the leader of Product Science & Technology at Corteva Agriscience. Her team is responsible for development, scale-up, launch and support of innovative formulated products and packaging to meet the needs of crop protection markets globally. She has over 20 years of research and leadership experience in formulations and formulation ingredients across industries, including Agriculture, Coatings, Personal Care, Consumer & Industrial Products and Microbial Control. Melissa leads several teams across Corteva R&D in the development and implementation of goals and metrics for sustainable innovation. She is a current member of the Board of Directors for the Council for Agricultural Science & Technology (CAST) and is on the organizing board for the AgChem conference. Melissa holds a Ph.D. in chemistry from Northwestern University.
With over 25 years of research management experience, Bob leads Vestaron’s molecular biology and chemistry development teams. Management positions in Fortune 500 companies (Pfizer), academic appointments (Columbia, Michigan) and start-ups add to the leadership and technical experience he brings to Vestaron’s Research and Development success.
