A mission to turn data into meaningful biological insight

As Executive Chairman of Synomics, one might be forgiven for thinking Jon has devoted his whole life to genomics. While he does indeed have more than 25 years’ experience as a science and engineering practitioner, he doesn’t mind admitting that he took something of a meandering route to get there, and serendipity played a key part in his journey.

A self-confessed nerd at school with a passion for maths and computer science, he first considered jumping on the commercial bandwagon while studying Math and Computer Science at a State University in Pennsylvania, having watched one of his professors quit education to join Microsoft and work on a new operating system, called ‘Windows’. Instead, he joined the army and was stationed in Germany at the height of the Cold War: “I spent two years being woken up in the middle of the night and expecting to die,” he jokes.

After an honourable discharge Jon used the GI Bill to complete a BS degree at York College of Pennsylvania. Although he started as a pre-vet student en route to becoming a farmer (his aunt had been a powerful influence during his youth as one of only a handful of single women farmers in the 1960s and 70s), he became ‘bewitched’ by plant science and chemistry and decided to pursue a Ph.D. in Plant Sciences. His decision to choose Washington State University in Eastern Washington was finalized on a recruiting visit: “The seminal presentation was from a laboratory study on the chemistry in pine trees, harvesting samples with a chain saw and then examining them using a mass spectrometer. Where else could you imagine two greater extremes of technology!”

With an academic role somewhat difficult to come by, and by now married with children, Jon took a post-Doctoral position at DuPont, working on technology to make healthier seed oils. A temporary appointment became a permanent role, and Jon became something of an expert in seeds and early genomic technology within the DuPont Pioneer business, as what we now call GMO technologies were revolutionizing the seed business.

After 25 years working in plant genetic R&D Jon joined Genus in 2013. As Chief R&D and Scientific Officer he pivoted to using genetics to improve animal health and productivity. He was tempted out of retirement in 2019 to join Synomics as Executive Chairman: “We’ve moved from an era in the 1990s of discovering a single genome to now being able to identify hundreds, but where we’ve fallen short is in understanding how we can turn all of that additional data into meaningful biological insight. Accumulating data is not enough; we need to ask questions of it”.

Jonathan says that Synomics has a genuinely unique technology that will allow it to unlock the next wave of improvements in genetics and genomes and make positive disruptions in food production:

“We can be a catalyst and enabler of positive change,” he concludes.

Building on a family tradition of veterinary knowledge

Dr Peter Kristensen never had any doubts about becoming a vet. It was in the blood. As a little boy, he would follow his uncle on his country rounds, and was brought up on a diet of James Herriot and getting his hands dirty: “I grew up with my wellies on,” he laughs.

With maternal and paternal relatives who ran farms near to where he was born on the east coast of Denmark, 20km from Aarhus, it was also inevitable that the young Peter would carry on what was effectively a family tradition. After school and an obligatory 12 months in the military, Peter went to Copenhagen and studied for six years to become a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine.

An internship with Pillen Family farms, a Nebraska-based family-owned farming operation and a leader in the pork production industry proved something of a game-changer. Peter joined the Farms’ veterinary team, ultimately on a permanent basis, and developed under the expert guidance of Jim Pillen: “He was instrumental in shaping how I behave and lead in business,” Peter explains, “and that results are made through people.”

An enjoyable time working in the US (which accounts for Peter’s US English accent) was followed by an equally successful period with the privately-held German pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim, where he held several international management positions within Animal Health. Working out of Vienna he was given responsibility for launching a new Animal Health programme in Eastern Europe. “In four years I’d done business in close to 40 different countries,” Peter says. “It helps makes you rounded and I’ve been able to bring that experience of working with and across so many different cultures into my current role.”

Peter joined Wheatsheaf Group in August 2015 from Genus PLC, where he had managed its porcine business in EMEA. In the meantime he’d studied for an Executive MBA at the IMD Business School in Lausanne, whose alumni also include Wheatsheaf Group chairman.

Within the Group his role was to help develop the individual portfolio companies and increase the value through realising the potential synergies that exist between these innovative businesses.

It was not long, however, that he hankered for another operational responsibility: “I wanted to live some of the advice I’d been happily dishing out and create something new,” he laughs. The opportunity created, was Synomics.

Peter likens Synomics to being a Food Operating System (OS), where the ultimate success of the business will be judged on the quality and biology of the food produced through the insights it can deliver: “Unlocking the power of biology and feeding the world’s billions in a sustainable way is a gigantic ambition,” he admits, “but I believe we have the tools to do it.”

In the meantime, Peter’s life of study continues, and he’s managed to combine it with another passion – wine. “I’m progressing up the levels of the Wine and Spirits Education Trust (WSET) qualification,” he says. “I had to have something else to focus on during lockdown.”

Ethical goals and a passion that are deeply rooted.

As Chief Operating Officer of Synomics, Gareth thrives on helping others succeed, a skill he jokingly describes as “Leading from the back.”

His passion for the business, and its mission to create a future where the world can feed people high-quality food in a sustainable way that doesn’t compromise animal welfare, is deep rooted.

As a child growing up in Stockport, Greater Manchester, he had always been fascinated by animals and the ocean, a fascination that ultimately led him to qualify for a Masters’ degree in Marine Sciences, albeit that he took a somewhat indirect route getting there, first completing a Masters’ degree in Mechanical Engineering: “I’d originally studied Mechanical Engineering but some early placements in engineering consultancies soon made me realise a career in engineering wasn’t for me.”

He applied, instead, for a post-graduate scholarship to the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia and was in the second wave of students to arrive: “It was a relatively new university, and they were actively looking to build their profile,” he explains. “There were around 40 different nationalities on campus which made it a fantastic life experience.”

On his return to the UK, he was successful in joining PwC, qualifying as a Chartered Accountant and working with the consultancy’s Deals team. Steadily building his knowledge and expertise, he left in 2015 to join The Wheatsheaf Group as an investment manager, before being seconded to run one of its portfolio businesses, GrowSafe.

It was at Wheatsheaf that Gareth met Peter Kristensen, developing a strategy for the Bovine sector that led to a requirement for a proprietary combinatorial analytics tool, one which they found at PrecisionLife: “We recognised how their tool which was being used so effectively to determine precise treatments in humans could also be used in the agricultural space, to create healthier animals and plants that are more resistant to disease, and so Synomics was born.”

Gareth is proud to be part of a business whose ethical goals and commitment to making a real difference to the world are aligned with his own: “We are giving scientists, farmers and food producers the ability to learn more about the animals they breed and the crops that they grow with insights they have not been previously able to unlock from the data they already hold,” he concludes.

Empowering a highly-skilled team to succeed

As Chief Technology Officer of Synomics, Haja Kadarmideen leads the research, innovation & technical functions of the company including its commercial and Research and Development projects. Like others in the executive team, he was born into an agricultural family and originally trained in the veterinary profession. He became head of a veterinary clinic and practised as a veterinary surgeon before being inspired by genetics: “I always wanted to be more of a thinker,” he laughs. 

As a boy growing up in India he had been inspired by biology and zoology, fascinated by biological ‘systems’ and life sciences. Medicine also intrigued him: “While being a veterinarian, an animal could be sick, but with an injection it was made better. It was like magic and it made me want to discover more.”

From a practising vet he transitioned to quantitative genetics, genomics, bioinformatics, and computational-systems biology, primarily in animals but also in humans: “I’ve had a varied career in academia and the public and private sectors,” he explains.

“I’ve been a professor at two reputed universities in Europe, a vice-chair of animal science department at ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal University), a Principal scientist & research leader at CSIRO – the Australian Government research agency – running its genomics & breeding R&D in Northern Australia, a Director / CEO of an Institute of Bioinformatics and Health Informatics at DTU Denmark, and now I’m CTO of Synomics.”

Using nearly 30 years of experience, Haja manages cutting-edge technology platforms and teams in genomic/multi-omic data science, quantitative genetics, AI, bioinformatics, and agri- and aqua-breeding: “Our goal is to develop innovative new insights and capabilities that give breeders, growers, and producers a competitive edge,” he says.

His list of achievements is impressive: he’s been the principal investigator and main grant holder for more than 40 long-term R&D projects with significant academic and innovation outcomes, funded by the livestock industries, EU and national agencies covering animal breeding, genetics, and multi-omics aspects of health, performance, reproduction, welfare and efficiency. He is also a panel member for European Commission research agency as well as for international research and innovation councils.

“It’s my passion to apply my broad expertise and experiences to build commercial solutions addressing challenges in sustainable food production, resource efficiency, welfare, and food safety,” he adds. “Within Synomics we have a team of highly-skilled scientists and I look to use my experience as a scientific mentor and advisor to empower every member of that team to succeed and achieve their maximum potential. It is their success that ultimately makes the company a success.”

Although born in India, Haja is an Australian citizen who has spent most of his working life in Europe and Canada. For the last 10 years he’s lived in Copenhagen with his Dutch wife and three daughters who keep his feet on the ground. As such, he can claim to be truly ‘international’ at every level: “I’ve lived and worked in seven countries,” he says, “and the many rich international work and life experiences have given me the gift of extensive networks in academia and industry around the world and deep appreciation and respect for our multi-cultural and multi-polar world.”

KA-racing, Chilli-jam enthusiast following in his father’s footsteps.

In joining Synomics as Chief Information Officer, Martin Carpenter could be said to be following in his father’s footsteps: “My late father was a plant scientist at the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food during the second world war, finding ways of improving crop yields for food production,” he explains. “Here I am 80 years later carrying on the family tradition!”

Martin is a business and technology leader with more than 20 years’ experience and a proven track record in delivering enduring customer and product-led Technology and Digital Transformations. His experience spans a good many private, public and not-for-profit organisations.

“I’ve worked with start-ups right the way through to major multinationals,” he says. “At one company I was employee number four; at another, I was one of 300,000!”

After graduating with a degree in Economics from Kingston, Martin embarked briefly on a career in accountancy before being captivated by technology, since then he has worked in a number of senior roles with a UK and International remit.

His international experience includes leading teams across Europe, the US, India, the Middle East and Australia. Prior to joining Synomics, Martin was CIO for OPTUM UK supporting, among others, Genomics England.

A Certified Healthcare CIO (International) Exam panel member and Fellow of the British Computing Society, Martin is a passionate champion of diversity and inclusivity and especially neurodiversity – an area which he thinks continues to be under-represented in industry and which he is determined to change.

He is also part of a group of senior CIOs who are working towards addressing digital poverty in schools: “The pandemic has brought the issue to wider attention,” he says, “but what’s needed is a more sustainable solution.”

At Synomics, Martin will be focused on building, developing and operating technology products and a service ‘wrapper’, around which the company’s combinatorial analysis platform is based, and building out a world-class team to execute on that mission.

Away from work, Martin is an amateur motor racing enthusiast, and part of a team that endurance races Ford KAs. He is also a keen rum enthusiast, reflecting his Caribbean heritage, and makes and sells his own chilli jam: “I recently completed my first commercial shipment of 24 jars to an artisan butcher in Reading,” he concludes.

Head of Finance

Paul Crotty likes being an accountant. Not so much the technical aspects of accounting, but rather being involved in business, in building new facilities and laboratories, and learning and understanding different sectors.

It’s why he’s a Chartered Certified Accountant and has spent the last 30 years working across a range of different industries, building knowledge and expertise.

He has become especially expert in recent years in the biotechnology and early-stage enterprise space, having been Financial Controller and latterly Global Finance Director for Oxitec, a business developing biological solutions to controlling pests that spread disease and destroy crops. Various other interim positions led him to Synomics:

“I was drawn to Synomics because they operate in an industry I understand,” he explains, “and because of the ethos of what the team is trying to do. How they use algorithms and interrogate data is also relevant to my past experience, and the company is full of very clever people who it’s easy to be inspired by.”

Paul likes to help businesses grow, another key attraction, and to that end has considerable experience of both UK and international operations: “I’ve worked for companies owned by the Dutch, Japanese, French, Germans, and Americans, and that has exposed me to many different cultures and people which I hope will be of value as we grow, especially as we are already working actively with partners in Brazil and the US.”

While Paul skipped university initially to study for his AAT and go on to become a fully-qualified ACCA (he is now a Fellow), he recently got part-way through a Bachelor’s degree in Viticulture and Oenology, exploring the science of grapegrowing and winemaking, a passion he shares with Synomics’ CEO Peter Kristensen.

At home and to his family, he is very much a ‘Mr Fixit’, having spent four months helping to renovate his daughter’s home and as the chief mechanic seeing to the needs of his son’s motorbike: “It’s nice to be back in front of a screen for a change,” he jokes.

The spinner of plates

As the Operations Manager for Synomics, leading the business operations and HR for the UK, US and Denmark offices, Jennie Wilson describes herself simply as ‘the do-er of stuff and the spinner of plates.’

It’s an apt description for a senior professional who has a broad range of experience in operational and HR-related roles across a variety of industries of all sizes, from international law firms and diamonds to fine wines and Industry 4.0 software solutions. “I have experience working in start-up culture but have also experienced mid-size and large corporates too,” she explains. “This broad exposure has meant I’ve built many transferable skills which will help to set us up for success as we scale. A particular skill I have is the ability to see the bigger picture, implement necessary process while also being mindful of the speed and flexibility required during the early stages.”

Moving to Synomics was a no-brainer for Jennie, who went on to say “being part of a pioneering business like this at the very early stages really gives you the opportunity to help shape something amazing and make work a great place to be. Working with a leadership team who are ethically aligned and totally committed to building a fantastic company from the ground up, not just for our customers but for our colleagues too, is an inspiration and an exciting place to be.”   

Previously, as Operations and HR Manager for a technology start-up, Jennie acted as what she describes as ‘the internal conscience’ of the business, ensuring compliance and being the go-to person for internal issues. She created and implemented operational frameworks from scratch supporting six countries, managed the employee journey and single-handedly led the international head-hunting campaign to recruit leading-edge software engineers at pace to enable scalable growth.

“I led the delivery of ISO27001 accreditation and looked after transactional HR and Employee Relations across the business,” she continues. “During that time, I also took the plunge and gained my HR qualification; I’m now an Associate member of the CIPD.”

When not spinning plates at work, Jennie juggles a husband, a rambunctious toddler and a crazy Irish Setter who all like to keep her on her toes. She is always looking for the next learning opportunity, and during 2020 she completed a foundation qualification in Counselling Skills and a qualification in Mental Health First Aid.

Fascinated by the power of data in driving better decision-making

Steve Gardner says he’s been fascinated throughout his career by the power of combining data from multiple sources to help people make better decisions: “I started doing this in molecular modelling, building systems to help design new protein and drug molecules, before moving into text, genomics and medical data,” he explains.

“I applied this as Director of Research Informatics for Astra where I was responsible for integrating all of the company’s global R&D information. I was also involved in the early days of the Human Genome Project where our systems were used to integrate all of the new data suddenly becoming available and to turn these into new insights and drug targets across a wide range of diseases.”

After graduating with a BSc in Pathobiology from the University of Reading, Steve went on to Birkbeck and UCL to complete a PhD in Protein Databases and Modelling. He started his career as a Senior Product Manager at Oxford Molecular, since when he has gone on to hold a number of senior roles within various biotech, pharmaceutical and healthcare businesses in the UK, US and Europe.

He started PrecisionLife as an analytics-driven precision medicine company in 2014 and is a co-founder of the Synomics business: “We founded Synomics to bring the ground-breaking analytical power that we’ve developed in the PrecisionLife platform to the challenge of improving the efficiency and sustainability of the global agri-tech industry,” he explains.

“Where I use these tools in PrecisionLife to gain a deeper understanding of what drives complex diseases in people, we can also use them in Synomics to get a better understanding of what drives health, welfare, production, and fertility traits in key food and pet species. My fascination is designing and building better, more accurate tools that can be used in the real-world – to improve tangibly the efficiency of selective breeding, to increase animal welfare, and to put better tools in the hands of farmers to make them more productive.”

Steve says he’s been lucky to have worked with the wider Wheatsheaf team across three of the businesses he’s founded: “All of these companies are currently addressing major global challenges: innovating new anti-microbial hygiene solutions for the food industry, delivering precision medicine for better human healthcare, and now developing next generation tools for the agricultural and animal health markets.

Being a part of creating new products, teams and businesses in such important areas is demanding and rewarding. I learn new things everyday, I get to work with great teams of highly skilled and dedicated people, and together we get to create real value for our customers. For me this makes it a real privilege.”

Outside of Synomics, Steve works with a number of related charities; he’s an Advisory Council member for Breast Cancer Now and on the Steering Committee of the UKCRC Tissue Coordination Centre:

“I’m also often to be found on a classic hill climb,” he adds, “watching cricket or designing and making furniture for our lovely Cotswolds home!”

Successful careers in both academia and industry

Nessa Carey has had successful careers in both academia and industry and now works as an independent consultant, providing support to some of the UK’s leading universities and institutes.

“I specialise in the earlier stages of innovation, creating value from the conversion of cutting-edge research into viable commercial opportunities, a role I fulfil for both the private sector, and organizations such as the University of Oxford where I’m a Royal Society Entrepreneur-in-Residence,” she explains.

With a PhD in Virology from the University of Edinburgh, Nessa has enjoyed a distinguished career with a particular specialism in Epigenetics and Drug Discovery. She is a keen advocate of Science Communication for the General Public and in the professional development of young researchers. She is both a Registered Technology Transfer Professional and Visiting Professor at Imperial College London.

“I’m a strong believer that technology will make the world a better place, through improved food security achieved with lower environmental impact,” she continues.

“I’m striving to share this belief with non-specialists through my popular science books and am putting it into practice on a tiny scrap of land filled with vegetables, chickens and a wide range of habitats!”