Mark Trimmer, Ph.D. has more than 35 years of experience in research, product development, registration, technical service, and technology licensing in the crop protection industry. Mark led international product development at American Cyanamid and successfully delivered numerous new product registrations. At BASF, he led new technology acquisition for the agriculture division and successfully negotiated development agreements on several new products. Most recently, Mark led R&D efforts at a biological startup company, NutraPark, and successfully developed novel biological PGR’s for enhancing fresh market fruits and vegetables.

In 2006, Mark established Trimmer Consulting, providing new technology assessment, R&D strategy, regulatory, and product development services to companies in the global agricultural chemical and biological markets. Mark’s training is in agronomy, plant physiology, and plant pathology and he provides primary technical inputs on all DunhamTrimmer projects. Mark currently leads the Membership Committee and serves on the Board of Directors as Board Chairman for the Biological Products Industry Alliance (BPIA). Connect with Mark on LinkedIn.

Manel Cervera Comabella has more than 15 years of experience in marketing and sales of specialty fertilizers and biostimulants. He was responsible in Sustainable Agro Solutions for product and business strategy development in more than 40 countries, managing commercial teams and dealing with the constant improvement of product differentiation from a technical and commercial point of view. Manel was focused on new market research and development in a period of rapid growth of the market. Most recently, in Biovert, he was responsible for the rethinking of their commercial and marketing strategy to improve access to the market, and as Assistant Manager in the strategic definition and business management.

Manel launched his own business to help small and medium companies to succeed in adding value to their commercial and  marketing strategic planning. In 2017, he entered DunhamTrimmer as International Business Director based in Europe. Connect with Manel on LinkedIn.

Rick Melnick has 25 years of experience in the global commercial agriculture space with expertise in biopesticides, crop protection, branding and marketing strategy, and communications. Rick joined the ag industry in 1995 as an editor serving the fruit and vegetable industries with Meister Media Worldwide, ultimately rising to the position of Corporate Editorial Director during a 16-year career with the company. After being named to the Board of Directors of the Biological Products Industry Alliance (BPIA) in 2008, Rick was elected Chairman of the BPIA Board in 2013, a position he occupied through 2019. He was also a founding member of the international industry association BioProtection Global and served as its president in 2017.

In 2011, Rick joined Valent BioSciences (VBC) as Director of Branding and Communications where he led the company’s corporate branding initiatives as well as content and marketing campaign development serving its crop protection, PGR, public health, and forest health businesses. Rick provides a broad base of international experience in marketing strategy, product development and commercialization strategy, and industry contacts for all DunhamTrimmer projects.

Massimo Toni is the company’s Vice President of New Business Development. International executive with experience at senior management level across diverse industries and geographical areas including eight years as CEO of a high-tech company in Japan. Massimo brings more than 40 years of experience in product development, marketing, business development, and general business management.He is active since 2002 in the field of Biologicals for Agriculture.

Massimo was Director of the Geneva-based Intrachem Bio International, a corporation with subsidiaries in Italy, Spain and Germany, from 2002 to 2009. In 2009 he established his own consultancy firm MT Bio Consulting and started cooperating closely with the French Group De Sangosse, with the mission of helping build a portfolio of biocontrol products (nowadays largest in France) primarily via construction of cooperation agreements. Represented the De Sangosse Group in IBMA France’s Board from 2011 to 2019. Also involved in the field of biostimulants since 2011 on behalf of Agronutrition, a De Sangosse Group subsidiary. Chair of the Public Affairs Steering Group of EBIC, the European Biostimulants Industry Council for two years, then in November 2018 elected to the Board of the association. Nowadays is EBIC’s Treasurer, representing Agronutrition. Massimo is also a member of the BPIA planning committee.

Vatren Jurin, the company’s new Vice President of Product Development, has over 30 years of experience in identifying and scaling groundbreaking technology in plant nutrition, adjuvant technology, biostimulants, seed treatment and sustainable crop protectants, and customized quality improvement formulations for both conventional and organic crops, which has led to almost $1B in revenue growth across organizations. He has comprehensive commercial knowledge of product development, evaluation, mergers and acquisitions, international regulatory compliance, agronomy, horticulture, fertigation, aquatics, and ornamentals.

As an agricultural innovation expert, Vatren is a prominent speaker for leading forums worldwide. As a preeminent industry expert at customer events and training sessions, he has delivered 500+ presentations. Well-known industry publications frequently seek his expertise to understand the future of agronomy and sustainable agriculture. Connect with Vatren on LinkedIn

Richard Jones joins DunhamTrimmer as the company’s new Vice President of Content and Client Engagement. He brings 25 years of experience in strategic leadership, communications, marketing, project management, and conference programming with an eye toward the commercial grower. His efforts have focused on advances in commercial agriculture with an emphasis on the use of biologicals in fruit, vegetable, and greenhouse production.

Richard joined Meister Media Worldwide in 1998 as a writer and editor, and over the next two decades led content strategy and execution for the company’s print, digital, and event properties in the U.S. and worldwide. As Meister’s Corporate Content Director, he led the company’s biologicals content strategy, covering developments in biopesticides, macroorganisms, and biostimulants, and developed programming for Meister Media’s BioSolutions Conference & Expo. He is also active with the Biological Products Industry Alliance, serving on BPIA’s Communications Committee. Richard brings years of expertise in conceptualizing, creating, and delivering content that fulfills the needs of clients and readers across a multitude of platforms. Connect with Richard on LinkedIn.

Ashish Malik has more than 20 years of experience in senior executive roles with agricultural input companies with a focus on biological solutions.  His broad global experience includes developing go-to-market strategies, product development and commercialization, business development, licensing and partnering, capital raising, serving as a board director, company exits, and building and leading senior teams.  He has worked in both small and large, and public and private companies.

In addition to his role as Senior Industry Associate for DunhamTrimmer, Ashish also serves as President and CEO of AgTech startup Bee Vectoring Technologies (BVT).  Prior to BVT he was VP of Global Marketing for Biologics at Bayer CropScience, where he was responsible for managing the portfolio of biological assets for the company and advancing the strategy to develop integrated crop solutions.  Prior to its acquisition by Bayer, Ashish was Senior VP of Global Marketing at AgraQuest and a member of the company’s Executive Team, responsible for the company’s strategic and tactical marketing activities, regulatory affairs, and product development, and Head of Commercial Operations for the Home Care Division at Syngenta.

He currently serves on the Board of the Biological Products Industry Alliance (BPIA).