Cheryl Morley, Chair of the Board
Ms. Morley has served on our Board of Directors since August 2011 and as Chair
of the Board since September 2014. She was Senior Vice President of Corporate
Strategy with Monsanto Company from 2003 to 2009, president of the Animal Agricultural
Group from 1997 to 2003 and held a number of other leadership positions at Monsanto
and its subsidiaries from 1983 to 1997. Ms. Morley has served as a board member
of Fleming Pharmaceuticals since March 2010 and the Missouri Botanical Gardens
since June 2006. Ms. Morley has served as a board member and finance committee
member for Mercy Health System since June 2012. From March 2009 to October 2010,
she served as a board member for Mercy Health Plans. Ms. Morley was chair of
the board and a member of the audit and compensation committees of the Nidus
Center for Scientific Enterprise from September 2003 to October 2010. She was
presiding director, chair of the nominating and governance committee and a member
of the audit committee for Indevus Pharmaceuticals from June 2002 to March 2009.
She holds a B.S. degree from the University of Arizona and is a Certified Public
Accountant. Ms. Morley brings extensive experience in finance, service on numerous
boards and an understanding of the seed business to our Board of Directors.
Pascal Brandys, Director
Mr. Brandys served on our Board of Directors from December 1997 until March
2014. He rejoined the Board in September 2014. Mr. Brandys is the President
and managing member of Biobank Technology Ventures, LLC, an early-stage life
sciences investment company which he co-founded in 2001. He was previously a
co-founder of the genomics company, Genset S.A., and also served as its Chairman
and Chief Executive Officer from 1989 to 2000. Mr. Brandys is currently a director
of several private companies and previously served as a director of Ilog S.A.
and Innogenetics N.V. He holds an M.S. in Economic Systems from Stanford University
and is a graduate of the Ecole Polytechnique of Paris. Mr. Brandys brings extensive
business experience in the genomics field and experience as an executive and
an investment professional to our Board of Directors.
Richard Flavell, Ph.D., FRS, CBE, Director
Dr. Flavell has served on our Board of Directors since June 2009. Dr. Flavell
joined Ceres in 1998 and served as Chief Scientific Officer from 1998 until
October 2012, when he became our Chief Scientific Advisor on a consultancy basis.
Since 2001, Dr. Flavell has been an Adjunct Professor in the Department of Molecular,
Cellular and Developmental Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
From 1987 to 1998, Dr. Flavell was the Director of the John Innes Centre in
Norwich, England, a premier plant and microbial research institute. He has published
over 200 scientific articles, lectured widely and contributed significantly
to the development of modern biotechnology in agriculture. Dr. Flavell is an
expert in cereal plant genomics, having produced the first molecular maps of
plant chromosomes to reveal the constituent sequences. In 1999, Dr. Flavell
was named a Commander of the British Empire for his contributions to plant and
microbial sciences. Dr. Flavell received his Ph.D. from the University of East
Anglia and has been a Fellow of European Molecular Biology Organization since
1990 and of The Royal Society of London since 1998. Dr. Flavell brings extensive
experience and knowledge of plant biotechnology to our Board of Directors.
Robert Goldberg, Ph.D., Director
Dr. Goldberg is a Distinguished Professor of Molecular, Cell and Developmental
Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles and a founder of Ceres.
He has been a Professor at the University of California, Los Angeles since 1976,
teaching genetic engineering and studying the genes that are required for seed
formation. Dr. Goldberg is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and
has consulted extensively in the agriculture and biotechnology industries. Dr.
Goldberg has served as a director of Ceres since 1996. Dr. Goldberg received
his Bachelor’s Degree in botany from Ohio University, his Ph.D. in plant
genetics from the University of Arizona, and was a Postdoctoral Fellow in developmental
biology at the California Institute of Technology. Dr. Goldberg brings extensive
experience in the agriculture and biotechnology industries to our Board of Directors.
Aflalo Guimaraes, Director
Mr. Guimaraes has served on our Board since December 2014. He is a Managing
Director of the Invus Group. He joined Invus in 1998. Prior to joining Invus,
Mr. Guimaraes was at Marakon Associates where as a manager he led strategic
consulting engagements for large multinational companies in a wide range of
industries including financial services, retail and consumer products. Previously
he worked at the Federal Reserve Bank. Mr. Guimaraes holds an MBA from the University
of Pennsylvanias The Wharton School and a BA in Economics and Political Science
from Yale University. He also serves on the boards and audit committees of a
number of private companies. Mr. Guimaraes brings extensive financial and business
expertise to our Board of Directors.
Richard Hamilton, Ph.D., President, Chief Executive Officer and Director
Dr. Hamilton joined Ceres in 1998. He served as our Chief Financial Officer
until September 2002, at which time he was appointed President and Chief Executive
Officer. He has served on our Board of Directors since 2002. In addition to
his leadership role at Ceres, Dr. Hamilton sits on the Keck Graduate Institute
Advisory Council and he was a founding member of the Council for Sustainable
Biomass Production. He has served on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Biomass
Research and Development Technical Advisory Committee and has been active in
the Biotechnology Industry Organization where he has served as Vice Chairman
of the organization, chaired its Food and Agriculture Governing Board and served
in other leadership roles. From 1992 to 1997, Dr. Hamilton was a principal at
Oxford Bioscience Partners, one of the leading investors in the genomics field
and a founder of Ceres. From 1990 to 1991, he was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Hamilton holds a Ph.D. in molecular
biology from Vanderbilt University. Dr. Hamilton brings extensive management
experience and biotechnology industry expertise to our Board of Directors.
Thomas Kiley, Director
Mr. Kiley has served as a director of Ceres since May 2003. He became the first
general counsel of Genentech in February 1980 and later served as its vice president
for corporate development until 1988. Previously, Mr. Kiley practiced intellectual
property litigation as a partner of Lyon & Lyon from June 1969 until January
1980. Mr. Kiley served as a director of Transcept Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a publicly
traded pharmaceutical company from February 2004 to October 2014 upon completion
of a merger with Paratek. He also serves as a director of several privately-held
development stage companies. From July 1996 to May 2013, Mr. Kiley served as
a director of Geron, Inc., a publicly traded biopharmaceutical company. He received
his B.S. in chemical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University and
his J.D. from The George Washington University School of Law. He is a member
of the State Bar of California. Mr. Kiley brings extensive experience as an
intellectual property attorney and director of other public companies to our
Board of Directors.
Paul Kuc, Chief Financial Officer
Mr. Kuc joined Ceres in 2008 as Chief Financial Officer, following a 12-year
career with Monsanto Company, where he held various regional and global finance
positions, including posts in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico and the United
States, with his last position, beginning April 2007, as Lead Worldwide Manufacturing
Finance at Seminis, Inc., which was purchased by Monsanto in 2005. At Monsanto,
among other responsibilities, he developed and implemented international costing
and financial systems for the seed and agricultural biotechnology company. Mr.
Kuc began his career, from June 1994 to June 1996, at the pharmaceutical company
Eli Lilly and Company. He holds a Master’s of Science degree in Economics
from the University of Lodz, Poland and an M.B.A. from the Ivey Business School,
University of Western Ontario, Canada.
Wilfriede van Assche, Senior Vice President & General Counsel and Secretary
Ms. van Assche joined Ceres in 2000. She has more than 25 years of legal experience
in the plant biotechnology and seed industry. From 1996 until 2000, Ms. van
Assche was the General Counsel of the plant biotechnology and seed divisions
of Hoechst Schering AgrEvo GmbH and following the merger of Hoechst and Rhone
Poulenc, of the same divisions of Aventis, a leading life sciences company that
is now part of Bayer AG. Previously, she was the General Counsel of Plant Genetic
Systems N.V. from 1988 until its acquisition by Hoechst Schering AgrEvo GmbH
in 1996. She began her career with the law firm De Bandt van Hecke (now Linklaters)
in Belgium from 1979 until 1982, and was counsel in the legal department of
GTE Atea (now Siemens), a telecommunications company, from 1982 until 1988.
Ms. van Assche holds a law degree from the University of Leuven and a postgraduate
degree from the College of Europe. She is a member of the State Bar of California.
Roger Pennell, Ph.D., Vice President of Trait Development
Dr. Pennell joined Ceres in 1998 and held various research management positions,
including Director, Trait Development from 2006 until 2009 when he assumed his
current role as Vice President of Trait Development. Dr. Pennell has been an
Adjunct Professor in the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental
Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles since 2001 and a frequent
reviewer for the scientific press. Dr. Pennell holds a Ph.D. from University
College London. He performed post-doctoral research at the John Innes Institute
and Wageningen Agricultural University, and in 1990 was the recipient of a prestigious
Royal Society University Research Fellowship, which he used at University College
London and, from 1995, at the Salk Institute. During this time, Dr. Pennell
studied cellular and molecular aspects of plant growth, development and disease
resistance, and has published more than 40 scientific papers on these subjects.
Cerevel Therapeutics Holdings Inc currently has 260 employees.
