Board of Directors
The Excellence Through Stewardship Board of Directors is responsible for the overall direction of the organization’s programs and its business operations, and is governed by the Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws in its work.
The Excellence Through Stewardship Board of Directors, approved by the ETS membership, is composed of representatives from diverse member organizations. The Board of Directors includes members from large, mid-size and emerging organizations, as well as from the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), the founding association member. There is currently a vacancy on the Board for a representative of an academic or research organization.
Judith Rylott (Bayer CropScience, LP) (Excellence Through Stewardship Chair) has over 20 years of experience working with seeds and traits in plant breeding and crop production. She joined Bayer's predecessor, AgrEvo, in 1997 and her roles have included on-farm technical support, sales and marketing, product development, project management, quality assurance and stewardship. She became Global Head of Stewardship for the BioScience division of Bayer CropScience in 2005, responsible for the further development of the BioScience Stewardship Porgram, including Excellence Through Stewardship, and a global team of stewardship experts to support the responsible and ethical managmeent of seeds and traits produced by the company. Ms. Rylott has travelled extensively advising on agricultural best practices for the production of many different crops in many differernt countries. She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agriculture in England and is based there, in Suffolk, where she enjoys the rural tranquility of East Anglia.
Margaret Morris (Monsanto Co.) (Excellence Through Stewardship Vice Chair) has 26 years of experience with Monsanto holding a variety of positions within the agricultural, pharmaceutical, regulatory and corporate research divisions with the company. Margaret has been responsible for the quality assurance organization and USDA field compliance within the Monsanto regulatory organization for the last 10 years. In January 2009, she assumed responsibility for Monsanto’s Global Product Stewardship organization, which ensures the responsible management of Monsanto’s seed, trait and chemistry products.
Maria Zagala Desagun (Ceres, Inc.) (Excellence Through Stewardship Treasurer) joined Ceres, Inc. in 2001 with 14 years of prior experience in the plant biotechnology field. As Manager of Safety Compliance and Laboratory Operations, she is responsible for overseeing the corporate Health and Safety Program, Seed Quality Testing, Media Preparation Lab, Biomaterial Resource Lab, and Growth Facility Operations. In 2009, she was appointed to take the role of leading the stewardship and regulatory compliance programs for Ceres. Maria is a member of the American Seed Trade Association Biotechnology Committee and Association of Education and Research Greenhouse Curators.
Dennis Thompson, Ph.D. (Illinois Crop Improvement Association) (Excellence Through Stewardship Secretary) became the company’s Chief Executive Officer in June 1996. Beginning in 1971, Thompson was employed by the University of Illinois. He oversees the company’s multi-crop third party seed research and development activities in Puerto Rico and the US. Thompson serves on the senior management team that attained accreditation for the company’s three multi-disciplined laboratories under ISO/IEC 17025:2005 and National Seed Health System accreditation to perform field phytosanitary inspections. He is active in the American Seed Trade Association. Thompson’s B.S. and M.S. degrees are from Southern Illinois University while his Ph.D. in Vocational and Technical Education was earned from the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
Denise Dewar (CropLife International) joined CLI in 2007 as Executive Director of Plant Biotechnology in the Washington, D.C., office. In that role, she is responsible for directing the global plant biotechnology team in developing strategy and direction for its advocacy, regulatory affairs, communications and stewardship efforts. In addition, she worked as Vice President and Executive Director of Plant Biotechnology for CropLife Canada. Prior to joining CropLIfe, she was Regulatory Affairs Specialist with AgrEvo (Bayer), serving as the technical resource on the regulatory science aspects of plant biotechnology and pesticide products. She holds a Masters Degree in Crop Science and an Honors Degree in Environmental Biology from the University of Guelph. She earned her undergraduate degree, in biology, from the University of Western Ontario.
Tom DiLenge, Esq. (BIO) became BIO's General Counsel and Vice President for Legal and Intellectual Property in May 2006. Previously, DiLenge served as Acting General Counsel, from February 2006, and as Deputy General Counsel, from November 2005. Prior to joining BIO, he served as the Chief Counsel and Policy Director for the House Homeland Security Committee and previously served as a senior counsel for the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Prior to working on Capitol Hill, DiLenge worked at the Washington, D.C., office of the international law firm Mayer Brown, where he participated in a sophisticated general and appellate commercial litigation practice. Mr. DiLenge graduated summa cum laude from Fordham University in 1988 and graduated with honors from the University of Virginia School of Law in 1993.
Cathleen Enright, Ph.D. (BIO) is the Executive Vice President of the Food and Agriculture section of BIO, where she is responsible for industry leadership and advocacy on regulatory and market access issues. Prior to joining BIO, she led the federal government affairs office of the Western Growers Association after spending 12 years negotiating agricultural trade agreements for the U.S. government. While at the Department of State, she negotiated the Cartegena Protocol on Biosafety and the international access agreement on plant genetic resources for food and agriculture. At USDA, she served as assistant deputy administrator in the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, where she was the chief negotiator for the resolution of phytosanitary trade barriers impacting grains, produce and forestry products. As the deputy assistant U.S. trade representative, she negotiated the SPS chapter of the Korea Free Trade Agreement and U.S. beef export agreements. She earned a doctorate in biochemistry from the State University of New York and completed her post-doctoral training at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.
Neal Gutterson, Ph.D. (Mendel Biotechnology, Inc) has 24 years of experience in the agriculture biotechnology industry. Dr. Gutterson became Mendel President in 2005, and was appointed CEO and joined the Mendel Board earlier this year. He has been involved in technology discovery and development, intellectual property, regulatory and business issues in the industry for the past 15 years. Dr. Gutterson is a named inventor on more than two dozen patents and pending patent applications. He is a member of the Board of the Biotechnology Industry Organization, as well as its Food and Ag Section Governing Body. He is on the board executive committees of a new program supporting the commercial development of biotech specialty crop products, SCRI (Specialty Crops Regulatory Initiative), and the Council for Sustainable Biomass Production.
Matthias Meder, Ph.D. (BASF Plant Science), is the Vice President, Stewardship and Regulatory, with BASF Plant Science and is responsible for the global extension of the stewardship and regulatory organization within the organization. Dr. Meder joined BASF in 2006 as the head of the group REACH (European chemicals legislation) implementation within BASF's Department of Product Safety before assuming his current role. His experience includes work as a clinical toxicologist and preparing legislative and political issues for the Chemical Industry Association in Germany. He studied Chemistry and Medicine at Leipzig University and received a Ph.D. in Toxicology from Hannover Medical School, both in Germany.
Fernando Ospina (Syngenta Seeds, Inc.) is Global Head of Quality with the Syngenta Seeds Research and Development quality group and leads the Global Operational support team. In that role, he is responsible for the development of the quality strategy and the implementation of the quality management system within the company. He has been a part of Syngenta and its predecessor companies, Novartis and Ciba Geigy, for 32 years, holding a variety of positions in production, engineering and corporate HSEQ within the pharmaceutical, crop protection, and seeds divisions. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering in Mexico.
Les Pearson, Ph.D. (ArborGen Inc.) earned his Ph.D. from the John Innes Institute in Norwich, England, where he worked on plant transformation methods, and has almost 30 years of experience in plant biotechnology. In 1989, he joined Westvaco Forest Research and initiated their forest tree molecular research and was later given responsibility for overall management of Westvaco’s forest biotechnology program. He joined ArborGen in 2003 when the existing research programs of ArborGen’s founding partners were rolled into the company. Dr. Pearson is the Director of Regulatory Affairs at ArborGen and leads a team that manages and oversees regulatory requirements for all of the company’s field trials in the United States and Brazil.
Brian Sabus, MBA, (Pioneer Hi-Bred International, a DuPont Business) is ETS/RMS Compliance Manager and is responsible for all aspects of Pioneer’s Excellence Through Stewardship program as well as managing and integrating the Quality Management Systems within research functions. He joined Pioneer in 1991 and is a member of the Entomological Society of America, the American Society for Quality and the Project Management Institute. He holds certifications as a Lead Auditor, Quality Manager and Project Management Professional. He received B.S. and M.S. degrees from Iowa State University and an MBA from Upper Iowa University.
Jane Stautz, Esq. (Dow AgroSciences LLC) is the Global Environmental Health & Safety (EH&S) Product Leader for Biotechnology and New Ventures at Dow AgroSciences and served as the first industry Chair for Excellence Through Stewardship. She provides global leadership for Dow AgroSciences in product stewardship, including developing Global Product Stewardship Policies and Management Plans for the various biotechnology businesses and serving on Dow AgroSciences EH&S and Public Policy Committee. Ms. Stautz chaired BIO’s Stewardship Task Force which was the catalyst for the Excellence Through Stewardship initiative and development of the plant biotechnology stewardship program and quality management guides. She also serves on CropLife International’s Biotech Stewardship Committee. Ms. Stautz has a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Business and Public Service & Administration in Agriculture from Iowa State University and a Juris Doctorate from The University of Michigan Law School; and also serves as Vice-Chair of the Indiana Natural Resources Commission.